Early RV Weekend At Echo Bluff State Park

We like to get out early in the RV season. The mornings can be chilly but the days are good and of course the lack of crowds. Once March ends and April begins it is nearly impossible to get an RV site at any of the Missouri State Parks. The demand has greatly outstripped the resource and the Parks are booked up to 6 months in advance. 

We have not been to Echo Bluff as it is a 3 hour drive from our house, down what is probably the most winding roads in Missouri, Hwy 68 to Hwy 19. Echo Bluff in located between Salem and Eminence, Missouri. It is a new Park (2015) with a dubious heritage of being seized and then stolen from a private citizen in a "drug sting" that may or may not have been legal, but its location next to the Current River and the National Scenic Riverway, I am sure made it a tempting target. The State did spend 21-54 million to create the park and they did a really nice job in doing so. 

The RV was unwinterized and it's annual inspection done, we headed down for the weekend.

As we suspected there were only 3 or 4 RV's in the entire park.

Arriving Friday evening. A lovely night and no one around

Saturday Morning and the RV. This park is also known for its herd of wild horses that live here. There are about two dozen the frequent the area. There presence was easily seen from the massive amount of  poop in the RV park. We didn't see them this weekend though. 

I took a long hike in this area last March before the original "lockdown" and it is posted here

There is a trail that runs through Echo Bluff, it goes from the Current River (Current River Trail) over to Round Springs and then on to the connector that goes to Brushy Creek loop and eventually joins the Blair Creek section of the Ozark Trail.  

The trail is about 5 miles in the park and we walked it after breakfast on a perfect 60 degree day 

View back to the lodge from just as the trail crosses Hwy 19 

Creek along the trail 

Echo Bluff lodge is a huge structure with many rooms, restaurant and gift shop. There are also many single and multi-story cabins that can be rented and these were busy this weekend with lots of people in the lodge and in the cabins  

Echo Bluff behind the lodge

The water that runs through the park is Sinking Spring Creek

The original use for this land well before the seizure was a boys and girls summer camp called Camp Zoe. This is what is left of the original lodge of Camp Zoe. This would have been a great place in its original "wild" state during those years 1929-1986 

The lodge from up on Echo Bluff trail (Painters Trail)

The two short side trails have many nice features for trailbikes, with various ramps extra jumps 

Saturday Evening enjoying the view. Still no one using the campground this weekend.

Always great to have steak, baked potato and salad in the RV. This is "glamping" for sure 

Sunday morning sunrise over the ridge

We took a quick drive across the road to the Current River State Park. We couldn't get down to the old lodge as the road was gated at the bottom, but it was a quiet pretty location for those looking to fish or walk. 

Echo Bluff has a hill top pavilion for any events you have and it has a great view from above the main part of the park 

Sinking Creek from the Pavilion

The view from the boardwalk next to the Pavilion, looking down on the old Camp Zoe lodge and the park 

The numbers are between 21 and 54 million for the park construction. They sure do have a nice entrance sign. All in all this is a great park and a wonderful RV campsite.