MISSOURI STATE PARKS

Annie and Abel Van Meter State Park features remnants of the Missouria Indian village that sat at the Great Bend of the Missouri River, marked on a map by Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673. A hand-dug earthwork -- Old Fort -- and several burial mounds lie within the park’s boundaries. The state’s Indian history is interpreted in displays and exhibits at the park’s Missouri’s American Indian Cultural Center. For outdoor enthusiasts, the park features hiking trails and an 18-acre fishing lake. Trails lead visitors through the Oumessourit Natural Area with views of the freshwater marsh and through bottomland and upland forests. The park’s lofty trees shade picnic sites, picnic shelters and a campground.

The valley that cradles Bennett Spring has created a place of peace and recreation that has welcomed generations of enthusiastic anglers. Bennett Spring State Park is one of Missouri’s earliest state parks and continues today to attract fishermen and nature lovers seeking to make new memories.

More than 100 million gallons of clear, cool water gush from Bennett Spring each day and form a spring branch stocked daily with rainbow trout waiting for lucky fishermen. Fishing may be the main draw but the park also offers many other amenities such as a dining lodge, campgrounds, cabins and hiking trails. Whether you are a traditional fishing enthusiast or someone seeking a place to relax and refresh, Bennett Spring State Park has what you need to make every trip one to remember.

Crowder State Park provides 1,912 acres in the rolling green hills of northern Missouri. Visitors can enjoy more than 17 miles of hiking, bicycling, backpacking and equestrian trails in a forested, rugged terrain. The park also offers fishing and boating opportunities on 18-acre Crowder Lake. The family-oriented campground includes modern restrooms and shady picnic sites are scattered throughout the park.  

A walk in Graham Cave State Park is a walk through ancient history. Artifacts uncovered in Graham Cave reveal that people occupied the cave 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. To walk through the park’s 386 scenic acres, which includes the diverse Graham Cave Glades Natural Area, is to walk in the footsteps of the hunter-gatherers who lived in the area’s caves during the ancient Dalton and Archaic period. Visitors can go into the mouth of Graham Cave, and interpretive exhibits along Graham Cave Trail detail the life researchers believe early inhabitants lived. Additional interpretive exhibits throughout the park explain the cultural and natural significance of the site. Graham Cave State Park is a prime hiking location, and the campground is perfect for get-togethers in a quiet place. A boat ramp to the Loutre River provides access for boating and fishing.

Tallgrass prairies once covered more than a third of Missouri; today, less than one percent remains, much of it preserved at Prairie State Park. Visitors to the park see panoramic vistas of swaying grass and ever-changing wildflowers. They also may spot the park’s resident bison herd. The park’s Regal Tallgrass Prairie Nature Center offers exhibits and interpretive programs designed to inform visitors about the special place.

The cool waters of Forest Lake provide the centerpiece for Thousand Hills State Park, whose shores and broad savannas recall a time when northern Missouri was far less developed. The lake offers fishing, swimming and boating. the park offers hiking, mountain biking and abundant opportunities to see wildlife. An interpretive shelter helps visitors understand the petroglyphs left behind by the area's inhabitants more than 1,500 years ago. The park also offers campsites and cabins for overnight stays. 

NEW IN 2024: the park now offers a beach wheelchair that visitors with mobility issues can use during normal beach hours. 

Gain a better understanding of one of the saddest chapters in American history at Trail of Tears State Park, where nine of the 13 Cherokee Indian groups being relocated to Oklahoma crossed the Mississippi River during harsh winter conditions in 1838 and 1839. The park’s visitor center tells the tale of the thousands who died on the forced march, as well as the park’s many natural features. The park also has a cheerier side: shaded picnic sites, hiking and horse trails, opportunities to fish in both the Mississippi River and Lake Boutin, and majestic views of the Mississippi River and beyond. Its location right on the river makes the park one of the best places in Missouri for viewing migratory waterfowl.