By Cheri Sicard
If you are traveling to Branson, MO, or anywhere in the Ozarks region, take a look at this great side trip to Dogwood Canyon, a 10,000-acre nature park. In the video, brought to you by the team at Switch It Up, winner of our Reader’s Choice Award for 2024’s best RV YouTube channel, you’ll get to travel vicariously along on a visit to this amazing natural wonder. Of course, the video can also help you plan your own trip.
Even though unmasking the Sycamore tree mystery is part of the video’s title, it’s much more in that it takes you on the whole Dogwood Canyon experience. It begins in the visitor’s center and museum that features Native American artifacts from the area.
Next, we join a tram tour of the property, a great option for those who are less mobile. The tour rolls past bucolic scenery, a covered bridge, an amazing tree house, and much, much more.
Throughout the grounds, displays and plaques tell the history of the park, including the Amish-built covered bridge and the log cabin wedding chapel.
Streams with waterfalls, both small and large, seem to serpentine through the forested scenery. As this visit was filmed in the fall, the colorful backdrops provide great photo focal points.
If you have them, bring your bikes, as this is one of the most popular activities here. In fact, you can bike to Arkansas!
Other activities include hiking, horseback riding, and trout fishing. The trout in the “Glory Hole” are especially enormous, but that’s probably because you are not allowed to fish in this protected area.
Another fishing hole plays home to the huge Golden Rainbow Trout, a species I had never seen before.
So, what about the mystery surrounding the 260-year-old Sycamore touted in the video’s title? The mystery is how to find it. You can’t so, don’t waste time looking for it. The tree blew down in a storm several years ago. All that remains is a stump, and not all that impressive of a stump at that. But the tree apparently remains on the map of Dogwood Canyon attractions.
Our hosts say people tend to underestimate Missouri and its beauty. You won’t after seeing the scenery in this video.
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Thank you, Cheri! Gee, … I wish I had seen this 10, or so, years ago. We had trouble finding things to do in, near Branson during our visit 10, or so, years ago. This looks like it would have surpassed most of what we did there. Thank you for sharing! Safe travels! 🙂