We checked out of the Ouachita cabin this morning and decided to front-load some advenuring on our way up to the other cabin in the Mark Twain National Forest in south-central Missouri. We picked up Winona Scenic Drive, an unpaved but family-crossover capable ridge-drive through the rain and dense fog above Lake Winona by White Oak Mountain.
But about half-way through it, we bailed to a more primitive track that had many steep rocky hills, deep mud puddles, and several epic vista points — each of which were shrouded in the mist. Along our hastily planned route, we saw markers for several old lookout towers, too. None of them were still standing, but we investigated each, just to be sure.
It’s difficult to pick through such a long day looking for greatest hits on video, but I did appreciate this little moment:
After emerging back onto Highway 9, barely sixteen miles as-the-crow-flies from where we started three hours prior, we headed on to Eminence, Missouri via six hours of two-lane rural highways swerving through the Ozarks.
