Tuesday, we left Arrow Rock headed farther
northwest. We took I-70 west to Kansas
City, took the I-435 bypass around, and then I-29 north through St. Joseph. It was a very nice 200-mile ride to Big Lake
State Park located about 11 miles west of I-29 and near Mound City. We’re still in Missouri, but up in the far
northwest corner. We didn’t have
reservations, but the park was almost empty.
Truly amazing – this is a really nice campground with over 100 sites and
there was only one other camper here.
Interesting story – the last time we were here was in
2014. The campground is right next to
the lake and in 2011 it had flooded big time.
It was closed for 3 years! In
2014, we were camped about 100 miles south of here and heard they were opening
back up the next day. We made a bee-line
up here and were some of the first campers to use it after the flood. At that time, they had done a lot of work,
but none of the sites had any grass and were pretty muddy. Now after 4 more years, they have it back in
tip-top shape.
After we got set up, we sat outside awhile, but it
started getting windy so we came in. The wind got stronger & stronger –
somewhere around 20-25 miles per hour with even stronger gusts. We were watching the Braves and all of a sudden,
we lost it – looked out and the wind had blown over the satellite dish and
broke it! Thank goodness the wind died
down during the night, but by morning it was raining.
Wednesday was a rainy day until middle of the afternoon –
good time to bring in the satellite dish and get it fixed. Later we drove about 10 miles back east
toward I-29 to the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. Previously, it was
the Squaw Creek NWR, but someone complained about the word ‘Squaw’, so the
government in their infinite wisdom changed the name in January 2017. Uuuggghhh!
The refuge has an 11-mile auto loop that goes around the
whole thing with a side road about 3 miles out the back entrance. There are lots of marsh lands and ponds with
all kinds of birds – tons of migrating water fowl.
Never can tell what you might see – this giant mud turtle
was in the middle of the road!!
Of course, the birds are the main draw and we saw lots of
them.
Yesterday (Thursday) we were up early, took our 2nd
cup of coffee with us and went back to the NWR.
A little chillier than Wednesday, but it was a beautiful sunny day! We made the loop around – it takes 2-3 hours
depending on how slow you go and how many stops you make – and then drove out
to the truck stop at I-29 for breakfast.
After breakfast, we were back to the NWR for the 2nd loop of
the day. On the back side of the refuge
is an exit which takes you to Mound City.
We took that little detour for a couple of grocery needs. Back into the refuge, we finished the 2nd
loop and headed back to camp. All in
all, a great day – saw lots more critters and birds.
After 3 days here, it’s time once again to move on up the
road. Today (Friday) we are headed about 100 miles up I-29 to Wilson Island State
Recreation Area near Missouri Valley, IA.
Yes, we’ll finally be out of Missouri and into Iowa. There’s another National Wildlife Refuge
there that we are looking forward to visiting. Until Next time ------
Loved the ring necked pheasant. Nice camp ground now that the grass has grown back! Diane
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures!
ReplyDelete