Bennett Springs State Park

We are headed to Lebanon, MO where Bennett Springs State Park is to do a little camping on the Niangua River. We have never been camping here before so we are super excited to check it out, do a canoe trip & some trout fishing!

The campsite was an awesome place & once we got all set up we took a little walk around the area, threw some rocks in the river & met some folks along the way who were camping there as well.

Our 2nd day there was spent touring the fish hatchery, feeding the fish, watching the expert fisherman catch rainbow trout & then my boys tried some fishing themselves.

Our last full day camping here at Bennett Springs was spent taking a canoe trip down the Niangua River. I was SO nervous about taking this canoe trip with Mason on board & Shane later told me he was also! I had no idea how deep it would be, if it would be treacherous or hairpin turns or not & my fear of losing Mase down the river was enough to make me ill. 

The lady at the office assured us the river wasn't any deeper than 2-3 ft, it was crystal clear so you could see the bottom & it was a very calm, peaceful 3 mile trip. So we agreed to go & the nice thing about this campsite was that they had shuttles that took you to the drop off site & your canoe trip ended right at the campsite. SO nice!

So I strapped that life jacket on my child as tight as I could get it, sat his little chair in front of me so I could see him at all times (& grab him easily) & away we went down the river. 

For someone who had never been in a canoe before I was scared to death. Not for myself but scared to death the canoe would tip over & I would lose my child down the river. As you can see in the pics it was a super calm & peaceful ride so I was able to relax a bit.

Mason was enjoying it for about a mile & then for some reason he got scared & kept saying "I hope the alligators don't get us." I tried to reassure him that there weren't any gators in the water but he didn't quite believe me. 

We pulled over half way down the river for some lunch & let Mason fish a bit. It was so quiet & peaceful on the river. I was SO enjoying our little afternoon excursion until out of the corner of my eye I see something moving on the rocks & spotted a baby Copperhead snake wiggling it's way towards my son. One thing about me is I don't do snakes - especially poisonous ones. I had no idea where the Mama snake was & I wasn't about to find out so I quickly scooped Mase up, threw our stuff in the canoe & we got the heck out of there & fast. 

 Turtles sunning on the log

Around the corner was a fork in the river. We had encountered several of these forks & would always take the left side which proved to be a good choice. There were two teenage kids sitting on the bank & we asked them which way to take & they said the right side is better so that is the way we took. A**holes. Those kids were a**holes. They told us to take the right side for a reason because they knew what was ahead. 

Two minutes later we are in a turbulant area with a 90 degree hairpin turn, Class VI rapids (okay maybe I am exaggerating a wee bit here but it felt like it at the time) tree limbs are down & we are ducking to avoid from hitting our heads & doing what we can to avoid tipping over the canoe. I have Mase between my legs scared to death, Shane is steering the front, I am steering the back & by the grace of God we managed to get out of that death trap without tipping over or losing my child or getting a divorce. Man nothing challenges your marriage like a canoe trip let me tell you!!

Once we made it back smooth territory we looked back & saw that those two kids had left. Imagine that! I was SO mad - clearly they saw we had a child with us!? I made Shane pull over to the bank so I could calm down & pray to God for saving us. After that little situation Mason was done with the canoe trip & so was I. Unfortunately, we still had at least a mile yet to go. 

The rest of the trip down the river was smooth as glass & the river was super shallow. It was actually quite enjoyable & Mason was able to calm down a bit & enjoy it as well. 

It took us about 4 hours to canoe down the river & we got back to the campsite around 2pm. We turned in our canoe, got our fishing poles & sat on the bank to do a bit of fishing. We saw trout in the clear, shallow water but sadly never ended up catching any.

The next morning we sadly packed up the camper & made our way home. I always hate packing up & leaving our camping trips. We absolutely loved it here at Bennett Springs State Park & are looking SO forward to heading back there Memorial week in May. 

I just love all these awesome memories we are making as a family & all the quality time we are spending together! Warms this Mama's heart!