Plan your vacation to coincide with the
37th Natural Areas Conference!
October is a great time of year to visit Missouri. It has outstanding fall colors and typically many pleasant sunny days with crisp nights. There are many outstanding natural features to explore before or after the conference. During this time of year, Missouri has many fall festivals. Contact the Missouri Division of Tourism, (573) 751-4133, to plan your trip to the Show-Me State.
Tan-Tar-A Resort is the conference hotel. It is located on Lake of the Ozarks—a scenic tourist destination in the Midwest. For tourist information on this area please see the Lake of the Ozarks Chamber of Commerce Website.
Attractions
Prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum)
Near Tan-Tar-A Resort
The conference hotel is a short drive (approximately 30 minutes) from both Missouri’s largest State Park, Lake of the Ozarks State Park, and one of the state’s most biologically varied state parks Ha Ha Tonka State Park. Both parks offer miles of hiking trails and feature extensive woodlands, glades, caves, springs, and karst topography. Ha Ha Tonka State Park contains a microcosm of Ozark Highlands ecological communities and includes Ha Ha Tonka Oak Woodland Natural Area (953 acres) and Ha Ha Tonka Karst Natural Area (73 acres). Lake of the Ozarks State Park features Coakley Hollow Fen Natural Area.
Missouri State Parks (website)
Missouri’s State Parks system is one of the finest in the nation in terms of its interpretation and management of natural and cultural resources. The KATY Trail State Park is one of the longest rail-to-trail hiking and biking trails in the nation. This 225-mile-long trail traverses the scenic Missouri River valley and rolling prairie plains. The trail is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The stretch of trail from historic St. Charles to historic Rocheport, Missouri is especially scenic in the fall as you can ride along the base of forested river bluffs along the Missouri River valley.
The Ozarks
The Mark Twain National Forest and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways provide access to hundreds of thousands of acres of Ozark woodlands and forests and miles of crystal clear streams. The Ozark National Scenic Riverways hosts some of the largest springs in the nation and world and some of the finest float streams in the country. Visitors can also hike the Ozark Trail, the Midwest’s longest through hiking trail system.
Missouri Department of Conservation (website)
The Missouri Department of Conservation offers hundreds of thousands of acres of conservation areas for hiking, hunting or fishing, as well as world-class nature centers in urban areas with outstanding natural resource interpretive displays.
Metropolitan Areas
Both St. Louis and Kansas City feature outstanding art museums, a multitude of dining opportunities, interesting shops, and fantastic zoos. St. Louis is home to the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the nation’s premiere botanical gardens that houses one of the nation’s largest herbaria. The Garden also features large and extensive formal and native gardens and many educational and interpretive resources.