Branson area - Arkansas

[NeBlackshirts]

This coming week me and the family are headed to Branson MO for my daughter’s dance competition. She’s done Thursday so we thought about making a mini vacation out of the trip.

Any good trails or off road parks we should look into?

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[kodiakisland]

No help on trails around Branson, but hope you enjoy the trip. Expect more traffic and longer times to get where ever you are going. Traffic sucks in Branson during the summer. Great place to visit.

 

[NeBlackshirts]

No help on trails around Branson, but hope you enjoy the trip. Expect more traffic and longer times to get where ever you are going. Traffic sucks in Branson during the summer. Great place to visit.

Thanks for the heads up. Never been but hear good things about the area.

 

[dbarbee]

I’m not aware of any off-road parks but there are lots of scenic drives in the Ozarks.

One of our favorites is to drive south on 65 to Harrison, AR and then AR7 to Jasper, AR. In Jasper you can eat breakfast or lunch at the Ozark Cafe and then continue south on 7 to the Arkansas Grand Canyon or back to Harrison on AR74 and AR 43.

For shopping in Branson, Branson Landing and Tanger Outlet Mall have a variety of shops.

Hwy 76 through town can get pretty busy but if you make use of the many bypass routes you can avoid it to get most places.

And of course, there are plenty of shows, museums, and restaurants to satisfy about any taste.

 

[NeBlackshirts]

I’m not aware of any off-road parks but there are lots of scenic drives in the Ozarks.

One of our favorites is to drive south on 65 to Harrison, AR and then AR7 to Jasper, AR. In Jasper you can eat breakfast or lunch at the Ozark Cafe and then continue south on 7 to the Arkansas Grand Canyon or back to Harrison on AR74 and AR 43.

For shopping in Branson, Branson Landing and Tanger Outlet Mall have a variety of shops.

Hwy 76 through town can get pretty busy but if you make use of the many bypass routes you can avoid it to get most places.

And of course, there are plenty of shows, museums, and restaurants to satisfy about any taste.

Nice, I was actually looking at a route to Harrison but didn’t think about Jasper. I like this, one thing that surprised me about owning the Bronco is how much we enjoy cruising back highways with the top off. Sounds like a good enjoyable trip.

 

[BaseBD]

We did tex-plex in Hollister MO over Christmas. It was a fun day of trails through the woods. There is also SMORR (southwest missouri off road ranch) in Seymour MO. About 1 hr from Branson. I haven't been there yet but is supposed to be a very good park.

 

[TPadden72]

Too many to list, get county maps, GPS, and a full tank of gas... not much cell connection.

The Ozarks are basically unpaved road heaven, for Missouri any numbered county road is unpnaved, the paved roads are lettered. In Taney and Ozark County 90% of the roads are unpaved. Over 85% of county roads in Arkansas are unpaved, making dirt and gravel routes essential for rural transit, timber, agriculture, and recreation.

Tom

 

[GoHawks63]

Last time I was in Branson was just over 20 years ago. My late wife's cousin owned a timeshare and they were staying at the Big Cedar lodge and invited us down. I believe at the time the Lodge was owned by the same company that owned the Bass Pro Shop stores, although I'm not sure.

The resort was on Table Rock Lake and all they asked of us was if we could bring our 21 ft. Glastron deck boat we had at the time. I towed it behind our 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser. The resort charged us $10/night for a covered slip.

Don't know if it's still the case, but the lake didn't have a lot of traffic, so it was a lot of fun whether we were just cruising around or doing high speed runs. One of the best vacations we took as a family. Beautiful area.

Can't speak for the trails though.

 

[userdude]

There's a lot of scenic driving to do south of Branson at least, in Arkansas. I was going to suggest the Winona Scenic Drive, but it's further south than i remember (about a three hour drive to Perryvile to enter). it is off road, though, but not too technical. Lots of state parks and the Buffalo National River isn't but maybe an hour away. The Mark Twain National Forest is also pretty, it's more central Missouri.

 

[Razorbak86]

If you’re willing to drive a bit, there are some scenic sites that are well-known. 1.5 hours SSW is Whitaker Point (Hawksbill Crag), one of the most photographed sites in Arkansas, and 2.0 hours due South is Car Wash Falls.

 

[NeBlackshirts]

Ok, so have an update on the Branson trip. We ended up on Friday having no dance competition so we took some suggestions from here and headed to Car Wash Falls. Ended up having a great time even if it was a little warm when we arrived. That river that runs along that road is awesome. So clean and beautiful was nice to stop and get out and enjoy seeing turtles and fish swimming around so clearly.

lol regarding the path I took. Well I did download a route and was able to upload onto the Broncos navigation a route also because as mentioned it is zero cell service lol. I think somewhere along the way from highway 123 and making the journey to highway 16 we got directions twisted. Honestly I can’t even find the road we came out onto 16 from on any maps. Was definitely steep and very rocky with pretty tight twists lol. I had a hardcore SXS guy ask “sooo the Bronco did ok”. He seemed amazed by how well I made it through this path we took.

So we started from the bottom coming off of 123 and headed north. We made it to Car Wash Falls easy no issues. After a while we came to a Y in the road. Go left over a concrete river crossing or head straight up a fairly steep slope. We went straight up the slope and basically along the river. Was a lot of fun with lots of fun muddy spots and places to enjoy the view of the river below.
After that we continued straight never turned on what was Deer Tower Trail. Again awesome trail and not really a big deal for the Bronco. At some point we ended up on a new trail cause the Deer Tower Road snakes off to the east and we never went east. We stayed along the river to our left side the whole way to County Road 311. At this point we thought ok 16 has to be close. So as the direction said we turned west onto Newton County 7460 until County Road 312 at which we started to head north again. Stayed on 312 until it like disappeared and we ended up on North Carolina Highway 7520.

So the picture of the road signs is were we finally ended our adventure and that was us coming off of NC 7480 and onto NC 7520. No clue how we ended up on this path and maybe people familiar with the area can shed some light. All I know is the Bronco was flawless, the family had fun, and we found $20 on the trail lol. Was definitely a trip the family will never forget.

My daughter was sending pics to all her guy friends back home and was smiling from them thinking it was so awesome that we did this adventure. That’s what it’s all about, the memories that will last forever lol.

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