Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Winter Migration Road Trip, Days 1 & 2 | Iowa to Missouri | Hiking in Ha Ha Tonka State Park | November 2023

Given a couple months of time to be wherever we wanted, and seeing snow appear in the forecast in Iowa, we decided it was time to make like a sandhill crane and migrate South. After celebrating Thanksgiving with family early, we packed up and started our journey the day before Thanksgiving. Obviously a busy day for travel, but our plans had us mostly on highways and avoiding bigger towns and cities, so we weren’t too concerned. We also planned on taking this road trip at the slower pace that we’ve started to grow fond of, only planning 3-5 hours of driving each day and making time to stop and enjoy ourselves.

With that in mind, our first stop came not even an hour in to the drive to go for a long walk at a park in Belle Plaine. For our route out of Iowa, we took IA-21 South, county roads to Ottumwa, and US-63 into Missouri. On this trip, we learned that camping in Missouri can actually be free and pretty easy to find, as long as you’re flexible with the route. On our first night, we stayed in Rudolf Bennitt State Wildlife Area in a dispersed campsite, and had it all to ourselves. We made it there as the sun was starting to set, and Curtis walked Charlotte around while I made dinner.

This is when we learned what the true hardest part about van life in the winter is. It’s not the cold; the cold is expected and easier to prepare for with appropriate layers of clothing, blankets, and making sure there’s enough gas in the tank to run the heater. No, the worst part is that it gets dark so early, so unless we want to hang out in the dark, we’re stuck just sitting in the van for several hours before it’s time to go to bed. Thankfully Charlotte likes having an early bedtime, so it really just comes down to Curtis and I having to entertain ourselves for a few hours. If we have cell reception we can at least work, write, and plan out the next day’s travels, but when cell signal is spotty or absent….Let’s just say, so far we’ve gotten lots of reading done, and gotten more sleep than we normally would!

The next morning, we hurriedly went about our morning routine as we tried to keep warm, then got back on the road heading South. We made our way around Columbia and Jefferson City, then took US-54 West. We drove through Lake of the Ozarks for our first time, and made our way to our main stop for today: Ha Ha Tonka State Park. As far as we can tell, most of the shorefront of Lake of the Ozarks is taken up by private residences, so this seemed to be the place that we’d enjoy the most.

We started our time here at the Castle Trailhead, taking the trail up to the Castle Ruins – a turn of the century mansion turn hotel that burned down in the 1940’s. The trail up to and around the ruins was paved and easy, and most of the other people out today were families all dressed up and going for a Thanksgiving walk. The castle ruins were so cool to see, picturesquely placed on a cliff overlooking the bright blue lake. After that, we continued onto the Dell Rim Trail, making our way to the natural bridge. There was a point while walking in the woods when we were a little confused about where we were supposed to be going, then we realized we were walking right over the natural bridge — at least Charlotte didn’t freak out like last time. We continued on the trail we were on until we made it to the road, then backtracked to the trail that went under the bridge. The trail going underneath the natural bridge became too rocky for Charlotte, so we chose a safe place to sit and take it all in while Curtis went underneath. It was cool to see, but only by Midwest standards.

After that, we made our way back to our van and had turkey sandwiches in the parking lot. We only had about an hour to get to our campsite for the night, another free dispersed site in Lead Mine Conservation Area. While we love spending holidays with family, it felt really special to be spending Thanksgiving in the van together, feeling thankful for the life and opportunities that God has given us this year.