I decided to take a trip North into Missouri in my RV with my wife, this time I left my puppies home. We chose Table Rock Lake State Park, which I highly recommend if you’re looking for a quiet place near Branson. Like most adventures with my camera, I didn’t have a plan on what to shoot, sometimes this leads to the best photos anyway.

My first morning there I found myself standing on the waters of Lake Taneycomo, this is where the water flows out of Table Rock Lake and turns back into the river, and if you’re looking for trout you have hit the motherload. Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery is here and has several springs dumping water back into the river, and upon observation lots of trout like to gather.

After a few moments of drooling, I began to notice several colored leaves in the water beneath them, and decided this was my challenge for the next few hours. It was very peaceful with the water flowing and lots of trout to take photos of. My next day found me on the road to Finley Farms which is a property owned by Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro. This is a beautiful place with an old mill beside an iron bridge and waterfall, throw in some fall color and I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough. Maybe one thing to keep in mind is that they charge to take photos here.

I could have spent a few days here, but on to the next adventure. The following day I decided to take a break and spend the day at Silver Dollar City chasing the old steam engine and taking in some amazing Christmas lights, My final day in Missouri led me down a small winding road through the country headed to Dogwood Canyon, another Johnny Morris property. This unique place has several acres of waterfalls, old bridges, elk, buffalo, and the reason I was there, the Dogwood Mill. I convinced my wife that a bike adventure would make this place a bit more special, and so we spent the day honing our biking skills, or for me not crashing. There is so much to see here and the staff is very friendly, not to mention this is a photographer’s dream with so many things to take photos of.

I hope you enjoyed my recap and will tag along for my next great adventure, I’m thinking waterfalls in Texas.

Chaser of light and shadow,