Wakonda State Park

If the word “haven” gets thrown around here a lot, and let us explain why. Take Wakonda State Park, for example. This northeastern Missouri sand prairie is rare, a place where you can witness thriving plants and animals that you won’t get to see anywhere else. On top of all the incredible birdwatching and nature tramping you can do, there are six lakes on which you can take a leisurely float, boat, swim in, and fish on. Yes, you read that right. Six lakes! If you’ve just been wanting to lay in the sand or get a volleyball game goin’, you are a mere few steps away from the largest sand beach in the entire state park system. Over 20,000 square feet of shoreline! Fond of hittin’ the mountain biking trails? There are tons of track to pedal. Want to picnic with a view of Waconda Lake? Pack up the sandwiches now. Want to stay the entire week because it’s too nice to leave? Yeah, us too. If there was ever a park that could be called a haven—for family-fun, for outdoors recreation, for accommodating camping, for refreshing solitude and that glorious fresh air—it must be this one.