Mark Twain State Historic Site
Driving from Iowa to Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri | Camping in Missouri Conservation Areas | Visiting Mark Twain State Historic Site | Florida, MO | November 2024
Between the end of October and middle of December, we had several appointments and reasons to stay close to our hometown in Iowa. However, in between those commitments we had a few short trips to other Midwest states: first to Indiana for the Eras Tour, then to Illinois for work. After Illinois, we were with family for a week while we attended appointments and did some van improvements. But once our obligations were complete, there was a week when we had nothing planned when we decided it would be best to get out of my parent’s basement and go on a little trip. My parents are always wonderful and nothing but hospitable to us, but we don’t want to take advantage of that too much! And so we planned a very low-key trip to Missouri, with the main purpose of getting new counties and maybe seeing some interesting places along the way.
On the day we left, we stopped to visit my sister and niece and nephew, and ended up staying well into the afternoon. It was so worth it, but that meant that all we did the first day was drive 3 hours to Sever Lake Conservation Area in Northeastern Missouri. We have previously stayed at a couple of these conservation areas across Missouri, and are very appreciative of how they provide a quiet, out of the way place to park for free for a night (or up to 14 days!). This one was especially nice, with designated campsites, each with their own picnic table and fire pit, a clean outhouse, and dumpsters. We arrived right before sunset, and I made dinner right away while Curtis walked Charlotte around. We watched the sun set over the lake, and retired into the van to stay warm. I should mention that the main reason we decided to go to Missouri was because there was a cold front passing through the Midwest, with some areas receiving snow, so going South felt like the best option. It would be cold, but not as cold as other places within a 6-8 hour drive from ‘home.’
The next morning, we got up, made breakfast and tea, and continued our drive South. We took MO-15 South, snagging some more new counties. A couple hours in, we arrived at our first stop for the day: Mark Twain State Park right on Mark Twain Lake in Florida, MO. We navigated to the Mark Twain Birthplace where we stopped to go for a short hike. We knew before arriving that the museum/visitor center was closed, but we reasoned that it was fine, we couldn’t go inside with Charlotte anyway, we’ll just see his birthplace from the outside. Well, we were wrong there — the house is actually inside the museum, with no windows to even see inside to see what it looks like! However, upon more research we learned that the house has been relocated twice, and the actual site of his birthplace is now underwater…so we didn’t feel bad about not seeing the house. (This reminded me of when we visited another one of his homes in Connecticut, as well as seeing some of the sites related to him in Hannibal). So instead of seeing any sort of house, we ended up walking a loop trail around the point here, and walked out to another overlook of the lake before getting back on the road.
Our next stop came in the town of Hermann, where we stopped for lunch at a park right on the Missouri River. Coincidentally, I had just leafed through a copy of Midwest Living magazine at my parent’s house, and this small town was featured in it. We didn’t spend a lot of time here, but we did notice there were a significant amount of breweries or cideries for a town this size, if that’s your thing. Following our stop here, we drove East a little ways just to tag another county, then powered through the last stretch of our drive to Mark Twain National Forest where we would be staying for the majority of this trip.
Our chosen campground for our time here was Berryman Campground, located 2 miles North of MO-8. It’s a free, first come-first served site in the forest with about 10 spots, and it worked out perfectly for us for our long weekend here. It happened to be right on a trail junction for the Ozark Trail, a long distance trail that passes through the area. While we didn’t cover a lot of distance on it, it provided a convenient way for us to get some exercise every day if we didn’t want to leave the campground. More on our time here, coming up next!
