The eagles were very active this weekend. The babies in the nest were very large, but still had black heads. They were spreading their wings looking like they were getting ready to leave the nest. Beautiful, majestic birds. Can’t get enough pictures of them, but will have to wait until next year now.
The are at least five eagles nests around the lake that you can really only see early in the year before the leaves fill in. Nothing more enjoyable than watching the eagles protect and care for their young.
A cool 53 degrees out on the lake, but a beautiful day!
Boudreaux Visitor Center on Google Maps
Took a drive down to the Cannon Dam area where we enjoyed walking below the dam and up to the M.W. Boudreaux Visitor Center. There are spectacular views around the dam, but the best views are from the visitor center lookout areas.
This is the first in a series of our favorite Mark Twain Lake coves. It was here that I used my new spyglass (father’s day present from Katie and Chet) to make sure there were no pirates hidden in the back of the cove.
The cove is located behind the Spaulding Boat Ramp. We like this cove because it winds back to where you are not visible from the lake and it blocks the wind well on windy days.
No trip to Mark Twain Lake is complete without a visit to the Florida Resort and Winery. Florida Missouri is known for being the birthplace of Mark Twain. You can get to the winery by car or boat. We like to park the boat in the cove and walk up the hill for a bottle of wine or a nice cold wine slushy (which is awesome on a hot summer day).
Check out their music schedule here: Florida Winery Entertainment
From their web site:
“The Florida Vineyard is a little under an acre and was created in April of 2013. The Hagan Family teamed up to plant over 600 vines in 4 days. Teeth chattered in the cold rain that descended upon them as they worked long hours to complete the task. Hagan-Binder Landscape Design lead them through the final vine being planted. A joyous celebration of their efforts ensued afterwards. The celebrated grapes that were planted included Cabernet Franc, Treminette, Vignoles, and Chambourcin.”
There are numerous small lakes and ponds around the Mark Twain Lake area to enjoy fishing, walking or just relaxing.
This was our first time watching the fireworks from the lake (part of the annual Mark Twain Lake Rodeo). It was a beautiful evening with at least a hundred boats waiting for the event to begin. We anticipated issues with that many boats trying to get off of the lake at the same time, but there were no issues at all.
Mark Twain Lake was created by the Cannon Dam impounding the Salt River.
Clarence Cannon Dam is a 138 feet high and 1,940 feet long combination concrete gravity embankment dam. The dam contains 450,000 cubic yards of concrete and 3,000,000 cubic yards of earth-fill.
The dam contains a hydroelectric power plant, with two generators, capable of producing up to 58 megawatts (78,000 hp) of power, or enough to supply a town of 20,000 people. When both units are operating at capacity, as much as 5,400,000 US gallons of water pass through the turbines each minute. [1]
After several years of camping at Ray Behrens Campground, we decided to sell the camper trailer and purchase a condominium. We wanted to spend more time enjoying the lake and surrounding area and less time setting up and tearing down the camp site.
