BIG CEDAR LODGE - All-season overnight or day resort; activities
continue year-round in fair weather; horseback riding, wagon
ridges, carriage rides, two-mile nature trail; restaurants
include Devil's Pool, Top of the Rock, and Woman House. Take U.S.
65 south, west 1/2 mile on Missouri 86 to entrance. Call
(417)335-2777 for activity fees and availability.
BONNIEBROOK - Ozarks retreat of Kewpie doll creator, artist,
novelist and poet Rose O'Neill. Home, walking path, grave site,
museum, gift shop, restaurant. Museum/house tours 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
year-round. Call (417)561-2250 or 1-800-539-7437. Nine miles
north of Branson off U.S. 65 between Missouri 176 and U.S. 160;
watch for signs-driveway obscured by construction.
DEWEY SHORT VISITORS CENTER - Free Ozards wildlife exhibits and
films about Table Rock Lake and Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers: bookstore, gift shop; outdoor nature trail. Winter
hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; closed Jan-Feb, reopens
weekends in March. Take U.S. 65 south to Missouri 165 and turn
right, go seven miles to first building south of the dam.
Weekends: (417)334-4101 Ext. 6.
DOGWOOD CANYON - Nature and 10,000 acre private wilderness
refuge. Winter hours 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. daily; closed Christmas and
New Year's Day; fishing, six-mile round-trip nature walk or
bicycle ridge. Admission: $7.95 adults; $2.95 for children. Call
(417)779-5983. Take U.S. 65 south, east on Missouri 86 just west
of Missouri 13 intersection.
PERSIMMON HILL FARM - Seasonal you-pick fruit farm; gift shop
open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays through December with packaged,
farm-processed fruit jams, spreads, barbecue sauces and mushroom
sauces from farm-grown shitake mushroom. 1/2 mile
west of Dogwood Canyon on Missouri 86. 1-800-333-4159.
RUTH AND PAUL HENNING CONSERVATION AREA - 1,534-acre natural
area, hiking trails. Stream-side Trail, winds 1.75-mile to a
glade - White River Bald's Natural Area; half-mile round-trip
asphalt trail to to top of Dewey Bald and 40-foot observation
tower overlooking Branson; self-guided 3.7-mile Henning
Homesteader's Trail passes old homesteads - trail accessed on
north side of the area off Missouri 248. Enter on Missouri 76
West one-third mile past Country Tonite Theater.
SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS FISH HATCHERY - The Missouri Department of
Conservation raises 800,000 trout annually and releases most into
Lake Taneycomo, 10% to four Missouri trout parks, includes
self-guided hatchery tour, educational exhibits, 10-minute video
about hatchery process, four hiking trails. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
daily; closed Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission free; trout
food 25 cents. Six miles southwest of Branson at base of Table
Rock Dam. Go south on U.S. 65, west on Missouri 76, south on
Missouri 165, left on Hatchery Road. Call (417) 334-4865.
TALKING ROCKS CAVERN - Part of a 400-acre park with an
interpretive, half-mile nature trail and picnic area. A 45-minute
walking tour. Fee: $9.95 for adult; children $4.95. On Missouri
13 just south of Missouri 76 intersection. Call 1-800-600-2283.