The Gans Creek Wild Area with its bottomland forest, wooded hills, and limestone bluffs offers serene vistas. Gans Creek has been designated an Outstanding State Resource Water. • Randal Clark
Missouri travel
Ella Ewing, the “Missouri Giantess,” was born. She grew to be the world’s tallest woman of her time, reaching 8-feet, 4-inches.
The Bonne Terre Space Museum and Grissom Center opened 20 years ago as a tiny museum with great potential. Two decades later, museum president Earl Mullins and a group of enthusiastic volunteers have worked hard to grow the museum’s collections and inspire the next generation.
In Missouri, the devil seems to own everything, including the kitchen and the sink. His name is associated with natural features that include names like tollgate, well, den, tea table, pan, washboard, promenade, elbow, and many others. But why are so many geologic formations property of the devil?
The Lemp Mansion Restaurant & Inn, 21c Museum Hotel Kansas City, and The Elms Hotel & Spa have all found a successful formula by combining fine accommodations with a touch of spooky lore. Learn how you can do a haunted stay at these hotels, plus several more from around the state.
The 132-acre Dillard Mill State Historic Site offers a fully operational turbine-powered roller mill which can be toured and a mill store built around 1899. There is also a day-use picnic area with a shelter and a mile-and-a-half hiking trail through a glade and wooded uplands east of the mill.
Thomas Hart Benton is best known for the murals in our state capitol in Jefferson City. The home and studio that Benton and his wife Rita shared in Kansas City have been left perfectly preserved. The paints, furniture, sketches, and even his pipe sit right where he left them on the day he died.
Lake of the Ozarks State Park has an interesting history. Learn how the lake itself came to be. More than just a lake for boating and fishing, the park is filled with trails, caves, miles of shoreline, great fishing, camps, an airport, and so much more.
Make your way to the “cave park.” Take in the immense beauty as you float the river, stop by the visitor center and museum, check out the aquariums, and marvel at the geological wonders. Take a guided tour of one of the caves in the summer.
By foot is the best way to see Pickle Creek, sandstone landscapes, shut-ins, and distinctive flora. Rose azaleas accent fern-covered ledges and Whispering Pine Wild Area beckons you to discover the wonders this State Park has to offer.
We searched every corner of Missouri for hidden gems and thanks to our Missouri Life Ambassadors, we found one in each county: 114 of them! Here we explore places in Southwest Missouri that are ideal for your next day trip.
The silence that surrounds you at this site belies what happened here during the Civil War. This is where one of the earliest engagements of the Civil War took place. Stand in the spot where the Union fired the final battle shots.
At first glance, it might seem that County Road 5285, eight miles south of Rolla, is an unlikely place to spend a day at the beach. And yet, several trusted travel websites rate the location among the Midwest’s top 10 beaches. How can this be?
We searched every corner of Missouri for hidden gems and thanks to our Missouri Life Ambassadors, we found one in each county: 114 of them! Here we explore places in Northeast Missouri that are ideal for your next day trip.
Granite “elephants” came to be due to uplift and erosion. Make plans to visit today. You can follow a Braille trail and have a snack on the picnic tables hidden among the rocks. There is so much to see and learn among these “elephants.”
We searched every corner of Missouri for hidden gems and thanks to our Missouri Life Ambassadors, we found one in each county: 114 of them! Here we explore places in central Missouri that you’ll want to add to your destination wish list.
Named for the governor of Missouri (1924), this state park has stunning vistas, clear mountain streams, mountains, and so much more. Plan your trip for several days (you can stay in a rustic cabin or camp), so you can take in everything this park has to offer.
Dedicated in 1938, this gem of a state park now sits amid an expanding suburban landscape and is worthy of a visit any time of year. There are twenty-two CCC-era structures to visit, rocky hills to hike, and massive trees to stop and rest under.
You have to make this trip! Immerse yourself in native woodlands and forest, streams and springs, and uplands and pastures. Cool off in a crystal clear river. And how can you miss the house that the Beatles visited while in Missouri.
St. Louis Union Station is your Midwest destination this summer! With six attractions, including the St. Louis Aquarium and St. Louis Wheel, there is something for everyone.
A week before the first Sonic Summer Nights event in Versailles, organizer Travis Kurtz guessed there might be “forty to fifty, or as many as seventy-five” vehicles in the kickoff event, which also doubled as the Darrell Bias Memorial Cruise. You could say Travis was a tad bit off –on his estimate.
Gatsby Days is a highlight of arts and culture in Kansas City. Bank robbery reenactments, live jazz, poetry readings, window displays, a fashion walk, escape room games, and more allow you to explore the culture and history of the Golden Age at this annual event in downtown Excelsior Springs.
Historic Downtown Parkville may be one of the Kansas City area’s best kept secrets. Located fifteen minutes northwest of downtown Kansas City and fifteen minutes south of the Kansas City airport, downtown Parkville offers local dining, shopping, and scenic parks with miles of walking trails set alongside the Missouri River.
The National Park Service (NPS) has introduced a new way to experience Missouri’s beloved treasures – our national parks – with the National Park Service Wellness Challenge.
Traditional values—from embracing small businesses and “Made in America products” to building communities—are at the heart of Dutch Country General Store’s practice of nurturing relationships with customers and vendors.
Whether the latest addition is a brand expansion or a rebranding, one thing’s for certain: there’s now even more to experience with with three lodging and event rental options that make Les Bourgeois—that is, The Blufftop at Rocheport—an even more enticing destination. The Blufftop team has worked for a few years now to put the winery, distillery, bistro, restaurant, and lodging experience all under one umbrella: The Blufftop at Rocheport.
A murder mystery cocktail lounge, heart-themed art, New York-style pizza, and more in Kansas City. This is the City Scout report for April 2022, produced exclusively for missourilife.com.
There is an enchanted garden tucked away on a county road in southeast Missouri. Pinecrest Azalea Gardens makes a breathtaking and blissful first impression. My family and I visited the gardens for the first time just before Mother’s Day in May 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Roaring River State Park is beloved for its trout fishing but named for its preternaturally turquoise spring, which flows from the base of a towering, U-shaped bluff. At the viewing platform, its shadowy mouth is hauntingly beautiful, dappled with light and the shadows from hanging ferns. On average, the spring produces an unfathomable 20.4 million gallons of water per day.
