What would you call the most mountainous/scenic part of the MO Ozarks?

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by SunGrins

The St. Francois mountains are very old, maybe the oldest in the US, with exposed areas well over 1 billion years old. They are the basement igneous rock under much of the sedimentary Ozarks. These are the prettiest part of the "Ozarks" to my mind and most interesting in a broad sense. The Ozark rivers are gorgeous in their own way. I have great memories of the Big Piney and North Fork river floats.

Right on. Eastern Ozarks have always been my favorite. Thickist woods in Missouri.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by Arrby

To expand just a bit, I think the area bounded by I-44 to the north, US 63 to the west, US 160 to the south, and US 67 to the east contains the most scenic parts. Much of this is the St. Francis mountains, but I believe the southern western parts of this region is more strictly the Ozarks. Pick up a rock. If it is granite it is part of the St. Francis mountains, if it is limestone it is the Ozarks.

To me (opinion alert) the most scenic areas of the Ozarks are Branson south to across the Buffalo River 20 miles or so, east of Ark. 23 to roughly US 65. This area just barely reaches into Missouri, however.

I have to agree about far southern Missouri being the most scenic areas. Branson/Table Rock and over to Bull Shoals as well. If I were to live in Missouri again and it was in the Ozarks it would be those areas. Some of the mildest weather in Missouri as well due to being south.

[SunGrins]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

Right on. Eastern Ozarks have always been my favorite. Thickist woods in Missouri.

Most of the Ozarks were a more open savanna ecosystem before white settlers moved in. The Indians burned off the undergrowth thickets which improved habitat for big game animals. The southern pine forests (we see only remnants) were also extensive. The rivers had solid rock streambeds, not the current gravel that was washed into the streams by clear cutting and plowing the thin soil. I would have liked to have seen it back then.

[TodGre]

Thank you for all of these comments. I've definitely seen the area around Branson, north and south along US 69, have also been from Harrison, AR over to Eureka Springs, AR. I've driven US 60 from KY to Springfield, MO but it was quite a bit at night in the dark so couldn't see much. I made it to West Plains and as the name implies it was very flat and not so scenic IMO.

Is general consensus south of I-44, what about areas north or east of Lebanon say around Camdenton / Lake of the Ozarks, etc.?

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by TodGre

Is general consensus south of I-44, what about areas north or east of Lebanon say around Camdenton / Lake of the Ozarks, etc.?

Nice also. That's where you'll find the most terrain relief and heavy woods north of I44.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by TodGre

Thank you for all of these comments. I've definitely seen the area around Branson, north and south along US 69, have also been from Harrison, AR over to Eureka Springs, AR. I've driven US 60 from KY to Springfield, MO but it was quite a bit at night in the dark so couldn't see much. I made it to West Plains and as the name implies it was very flat and not so scenic IMO.

Is general consensus south of I-44, what about areas north or east of Lebanon say around Camdenton / Lake of the Ozarks, etc.?

I personally like the Ozarks around US 60. More southern look and overall bluffs and such around the Branson area.

I don't know much about West Plains.

The Ozarks vary greatly though. Near the Missouri river, the northern range of them is totally different than the southern extent.

What I mean is around highway 44 on south they have a southern look to it, basically because you're in the Upland south. Up around the northern extent in St. Louis county and along the MO river they have a more temperate midwest look to them.

Same way culturally too. Upper south, Ozark upper south culture around highway 44 on south. The northern range of the ozarks are mostly midwestern culturally with some southern influences mixed in when you're near US50 and places like St. gen and St. Louis County.

I just prefer the upper south culture area of the Ozarks around places like Lebanon, Branson, Bull Shoals, etc versus the northern extent around Jefferson City for example.

[TodGre]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

Nice also. That's where you'll find the most terrain relief and heavy woods north of I44.

Any areas you would specifically recommend checking out?

[SunGrins]

The Ozarks are a simply a dissected and eroded uplifted plateau. The land was once extremely flat and the rivers we see today meandered across the plain. The Gasconade is possibly the most extreme example but most Ozark rivers tell the same tale. If you look at the Ozark horizon over a significant distance the hill tops exhibit the peneplain flatness from long ago. The plateau was slowly uplifted and the rivers eroded in their meandering stream courses into the narrow valleys and hollows that we see today. As the gradient increased they cut into the terrain making the majestic cliffs and bluffs you see along the rivers. You actually go down into the Ozarks from the old surface of the plain. The exception is when the erosion reveals the very old basement igneous rock in a few places and the area around the ancient St. Francois Mountains on the east edge. I-44 follows the route of least resistance, mostly staying on the top of the old plateau divide. For the most part, the rivers flow north or south from that highway route. The glaciers never reached that part of the state but there are scattered remnants of rare ice age/cold climate plants in some parts of the Ozarks.

To the north the Ozarks hit the Missouri River Valley with only a small hint of an outlier north of the river. To the south, in Arkansas, the Ozarks begin to bump up against different, more active geologic forces and forms and more folded and faulted surfaces. Across the Arkansas River, the separate Ouachita Mountains' Magazine Mountain in west-central Arkansas is almost 1000 feet taller than than Taum Sauk Mountain in the eroded St. Francois Mountains. If you drill down beneath the Ozark Plateau you will find the St. Francois Mountains, once an island mountain range going back 1.5 billion years. The Ouachitas came later, about 500 million years ago when the South American continental plate collided and went under the North American plate. The uplifting that we see today resulted from the collision of the two continental plates. This is an interesting and ancient geologic area, older than the Appalachians and the Rockies...but I digress.

[021103ed]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

The area around Taum Sauk, Elephant Rocks, and Johnson's Shut-Ins in the St. Francois Mountains.

Fredericktown has its own shut-ins, right below the City Lake.