Getting around Traveler Country
Thunderbird Petroglyph, Washington State Park
It’s been an interesting week in Traveler Country.
I camped two nights in Washington State Park on the Big River between De Soto and Potosi and pulled a major camping boner at Babler State Park near Wildwood.
You wouldn’t realize driving down Missouri 21 what a vast, rugged jewel Washington State Park is. It has more than 2,100 acres of high ridges and deep valleys, bordering on the Big River. Native American petroglyphs estimated at 1,000 years old are just five minutes off the highway, along with fishing and swimming access on the river and great hiking trails.
There were only three sets of campers in the campground while I was there, plus the host: what appeared to be a homeless family, a roofer and his dog and a motor coach. There were no racoon problems as in Babler State Park. That may be due to the blare of televisions late into the night.
I moved the popup to Babler on Wednesday so as to attend the quarterly meeting of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance at Powder Valley Nature Center. It was there I made an error no camper should.
I rolled into the campground about 4:30 p.m., checked in with the host. She said she’d find me and collect the camp fee. I set up the trailer, gulped down a sandwich and headed off to Powder Valley without actually registering my site.
When I got back to the park entrance about 10 p.m., the gates were closed and I had no code to punch into the electronic keypad. I could have contacted the St. Louis County police and asked them to call someone at the campground, but no one in the campground even knew my name since I wasn’t registered.
I rented a cheap motel room in Manchester and went out and registered the next morning. Glad I chose a $9 basic site instead of a $16 electric one since I didn’t even stay overnight.
The moral of the story. Be sure you register before you leave the campground.
Dave Hamilton, a furbearer biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, was featured speaker at the Smallmouth Alliance meeting. He acknowledged that the otter population has exploded since the critters were reintroduced to Missouri 23 years ago and that on some streams and farm ponds, otters have been really hard on the fish population.
We’ll have more about that in a future print issue of Traveler, July or later.
