Magnus Goes North With Summer, Day 3

Thursday May 29

It rained a lot in the night and was still intermittently spitting rain when we left. It wasn’t cold, but a light jacket felt good. That seemed strange to us, coming from Texas where jackets had been put away for the summer.

We filled up at 450 miles with the tank being a little over 3/8 full.

 

 

From Independence, Kansas, we passed into Missouri to go north. I was surprised at all the prairie land—plowed and planted, of course—but still rather flat and rolling.  There were trees, but they seemed to come in singles or small groups in the low lands. I guess it was prairie once, too. Of course, we were in the far western side of the state—I know the east is full of big hills and forests, caves and waterfalls.

 

It finally quit raining when we arrived at Lewis and Clark State Park in Rushville Missouri, just north of Kansas City. It was a weird campground. It was tiny and cramped and had all the negative things you didn’t expect in a state park (see my review below), but it was filled with birds and fields. And nice walking trails to the Lewis and Clark Interpretative trail.  Which was not really a trail, but basically just a big, spiral sidewalk with large informative signage.  It marked one of their campsites, at an oxbow lake of the Missouri River.  The lake can be seen off in the distance but its mostly dried up now.

 

 Don't know why I thought this water tower was so interesting,

All around the “trail” were tall grasses and even taller flowers.  And there were birds all over! Bobwhites calling constantly and I even saw a couple when we flushed them into the trees. There were more Bobwhites than I’ve every heard in one place. Also Indigo Buntings, Orchard Orioles, Chipping Sparrows, blackbirds, robins, Yellow Warblers, Baltimore Orioles and Redheaded Woodpeckers.  Noisy with birds!

 Bobwhite turning his back at me!

 

 

The map at the interpretive trail overlook: 

REVIEW

Lewis and Clark SP Rushville MO site 63 $47

More like a city park than a campground

But, oh, the birds! If you’re into birding, there's a lot to come here for. Otherwise, no, unless you want to stand on the spot where Lewis and Clark launched their boats.  There is a short interpretative trail but it’s really just a spiral-ish sidewalk lined with huge signs that tell parts of the history of the exploration party and especially their time in Missouri. Interesting, sure, and it’s always nice to read about history when you’re standing on the ground where it happened. But otherwise nothing you can’t get out of a good book.

The campground is blah, very blah. They are adding a bunch of concrete pads for new campsites in the middle, and when they get that done I expect they will be very nice…but still have the general the look and feel of an RV park.  Right now, there is just a semicircle of electric-only campsites around a construction site. At which they started work before 8am this morning. But then they quit work around mid-day, so I’m not sure how noisy it would get in “full swing.”

There are trees and it’s a very pretty location, but it is right at the edge of a populated area.  From my campsite, I can hear lawnmowers, dogs, kids at play, and cars. They’re right beside the campground with only a partially built low board fence separating us.  Anyone could walk or drive right in, if you’re worried about that kind of thing.  I don’t get the feeling that this is a dangerous area—it’s just a small town in a rural area—so I feel perfectly okay with it.  It’s just strange.

The campground host was very nice and I got the feeling he stayed on top of things.

Our 50-amp electric worked fine and our back-in site was spacious but crammed in right next to its neighbors. Luckily there were only a few people there on a Friday at the end of May.

There are two water fill stations, well marked, one on the way in and one by the dump station. The water pressure at the fill was very good.  Check-in online was easily accomplished and all I did on arrival was stop by and talk to the host to verify that there were no vehicle tags needed.

Despite all the negatives, it’s perfectly okay for an overnight stay.  But wouldn’t go out of your way for this, unless you’re a birder.  Over by the oxbow lakes (rapidly disappearing) there are a handful of trails cutting through the grassland and woods.  More bobwhite quail than I’ve heard in years.  Merlin heard a lot of birds, and I even saw a few of them!  I saw Dickcissel, Bobwhite Quail, Orchard Oriole, Yellow Warbler, Common Nighthawk, Warbling Vireo, and Eastern Kingbird.  Merlin reported Field Sparrow and Bell’s Vireo.  I’m sure there would be many more if you got out early in the morning.