Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Douglas County, Missouri
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On the morning of Tuesday, April 7th, the weather forecast was showing the possibility of sunshine and temperatures in the low 70’s here in Douglas County, Missouri. My husband had promised me that we could take the short 25 mile ride to Ava, Missouri, take care of business in town and then head south on MO-5 to do our springtime drive through Glade Top Trail. My camera battery was fully charged and ready to take upwards of 300 photos. I didn’t check his battery, but he doesn’t use his camera often, so he’ll be OK.
Then I looked outside and saw dark clouds, and the temperature reading was only in the high 50’s. We grabbed our jackets, our cameras and some snacks in case the convenience stores in town weren’t allowing customers. I took my purse along, which holds everything I might need on a trip to town — wallet, keys, cell phone, checkbook, and a galaxy of mystery items that over time have ended up in the deep recesses of my purse. This is actually a good thing, because HE didn’t even remember to bring his wallet, which we discovered when we stopped in Ava for gas.
After our errands were done we headed south on MO-5, turned right on Hwy-A then turned left at the sign for Glade Top Trail. Once you get there the roads are well marked, but if you aren’t paying attention you could miss a turn and end up wishing you had a map and retracing your route back to the last sign.
The USDA Forest Service website has a lot of information about Glade Top Trail and a downloadable map of their interpretive tour available at this link: Glade Top Trail National Scenic Byway
This is some of what it says there:
“Welcome to Glade Top Trail, a National Forest Scenic Byway in Missouri! This 23 mile Scenic Byway is named for the beautiful glades that surround the ridge tops where the Scenic Byway traverses. Along the trail are seven overlook “pull-outs” that provide panoramic views that reach to the Springfield Plateau twenty miles to the northwest and forty miles south to the Boston Mountains in Arkansas.
The Glade Top Trail is little changed from the original road constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930’s. For twenty-three miles, the two-lane, all weather gravel road follows narrow ridge tops rising approximately 500 feet above the surrounding rolling countryside, and overlooks and passes through many limestone/dolomite glades interspersed with open and closed woodlands.”
There is hardly any traffic along the road as we drive toward the next scenic overlook. This stop is known as the Arkansas View. The clouds are starting to lift, and the temperature is finally in the low 60’s.
The distant views are nice, but so are the close-ups of wildflowers:
We are really enjoying this isolated experience — not another human being for miles. The temperature is still rising — we may reach 70 degrees soon. We get back in the car and drive to the next stop:
The sky is still cloudy, but lots of blue is now visible. Next stop, the Caney Picnic Area.
We have stopped here many times over the last few years. We try to get here in the early spring when everything is starting to bloom. Then in the fall this area is the site of the Flaming Fall Review Festival. We have been here in the dark on the 4th of July to view faraway fireworks, visible but not audible, from towns nearby and as far away as Arkansas. We even came up here for the Eclipse event a few years ago. For that event, this was not the best location!
This area, also known as the Ava glades, is very special (from the USDA Forest Service website):
Why are Ava glades very special? The glades along Glade Top Trail are some of the largest glades in the United States under conservation management. Mark Twain National Forest has over 44,000 acres of glades on its public lands, and the Ava District of the Mark Twain National Forest has 26,708 of those acres.”
We hear a car coming up the road. We decide it is time to move on so we can allow them the freedom to move freely around the picnic area. But they didn’t stop. By now we are in our vehicle and ready to drive to the next area. But they are moving slow, so we make a few stops along the road to take photos and not feel like we are pushing them along.
They are still just ahead of us, so we stop at “Willie Lee’s” place, just before Wolf Junction. It is definitely in the low 70’s now — warm and sunny:
Finally we decide it is time to move on. We make another stop along the way when I see thick growths of Rose Verbena growing on the roadside.
Back on April 23, 2017 we saw something unusual for this part of the country — Fringe trees. There were a lot of them and they were growing on land adjoining Glade Top Trail, close to the town of Longrun, MO. We had taken photos of them and hoped to see them again on this visit. However, they were not yet blooming this year:
We drove slowly, but finally we reached the end of the trail and exited onto MO-95 close to the small town of Longrun. We then headed south to MO-160, East to MO-181 and then North back to Gentryville.
In a different time, we would have stopped at Cookie’s restaurant in Theodosia at the Marina on Bull Shoals Lake. It is a lovely spot. But no restaurants today. We snack on granola bars and graham crackers as we drive the rest of the distance home.
Later I review the photos we have brought home with us. I took over 400 shots (more than half are duplicates) — he took about 75. Not a bad reward for such an enjoyable excursion.
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