Ideas for places to visit in the Midwest
This gate takes you to the burned out ruins on the estate at Ha Ha Tonka. The massive edifice overlooks the bluffs above Lake of the Ozarks in Camdenton, Missouri. You can visit this park, explore the grounds and enjoy the many scenic and sometimes haunting overlooks. This one of the unusual must visit gems in Missouri.
Be sure to Click Here to see my new Rural Missouri section of my website.
Another view of the water tower in Ha Ha Tonka State Park. This park is a public recreation area encompassing over 3,700 acres on the Niangua arm of the Lake of the Ozarks, about five miles south of Camdenton, Missouri, in the United States.
Click on the photo for more options to view it. This is part of my Rural Missouri set of photos which covers interesting places to visit in the state.
The ruins of Ha Ha Tonka are an amazing place to explore. This is an old burned out estate overlooking the Lake of the Ozarks that has been turned into a state park. The ruins include a large stone house, carriage house and water tower all on dramatic bluffs overlooking the lake. You can explore the ruins or roam the extensive grounds. Bring your camera and be careful not to step off of a cliff!
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Lots of snow and ice in St. Louis over the past few days and more coming. While it makes lift difficult here, it makes for a beautiful landscape and slows life down a little bit.
More snow on the way today (they say). Even with their low stature, they loved to plow through it! And when they run they can get snow to fly everywhere!
Hounds from Tree Creek Bassets kennel return form the hunt. With the hunters, we have 3 Couples (six Basset Hounds), Annie the Coonhound and bringing up the rear is Brian-Scott a one year old Basset Hound not quite ready to be a tracker. The other six hounds have spent about two hours scouring fields, wood and dense brush for the scent of a rabbit. They were were rewarded with several lines that led them on a frenzied chase now it is time to go home.
A the moment, a quiet setting at one of St. Charles’ numerous duck hunting clubs. Earlier a storm came through cooling things off and soon after the sunsets the ducks will will be ready to roost and flock into this lake. Currently the lake is occupied by decoys tempting others to join them.
This is one of the many duck clubs along the Mississippi river. Missouri offers one of the best sites in the nation for duck hunting and St. Charles County is no exception. During the fall huge flocks of ducks fill the skies and fill the wetlands during feeding time. Walking the levies during these times is a strange experience with the massive amount of birds squawking, quacking and cackling making a very surreal sound.
A New Years Eve stay at Chaumette Winery brought snow, ice and fog on the first day of 2021.
A foggy morning at Chaumette Winery. Happy New Year! My wife and I stayed at one of Chaumette’s Villas for New Year’s Eve and an ice storm that night brought heavy fog in the morning. This is their little chapel they use for weddings on the property.
That New Years Day morning was great for photography. I did not have a place to put my many wonderful photos of this place on my website so I created a new section called: Rural Missouri, find it here to see some nice photos from that morning: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Rural-Missouri/.
Great Rivers Imaging 