My Corner Online

Finger Lakes State Park

Finger Lakes State Park is located at 1505 Peabody Rd, Columbia, Boone County, Missouri. We visited on June 16, 2023. This is one of two over-the-road trail state parks in Missouri, with the other being St. Joe State Park. I have found OTR parks to be too noisy for me, so I was expecting the same here, but found it to be okay. Maybe we were just there on a less busy day.

We drove around, as you can see in the video, exploring the areas to learn the map. The campgrounds seemed nice, as well as the OTR trails. There was only two hiking trails. We found the motocross track as well which I enjoyed watching the few that were utilizing it with great memories of when my nephew raced motocross.

We wanted to take a hike on the trail, but it was so hot and our time was limited, so we had to choose between hiking and boating. What I found unique about this park was that they had a water trail! How cool is that! They actually had multiple water trails. We rented a canoe as we happened to have brought along the girl's (dog's) life vested so we were prepared.

This is the office where you stop to check in and rent or whatever.

This was the first look at the Finger Lakes that we saw at a parking lot near the park office. Apparently there is a Finger Lakes in almost (if not all) every state!

This is the next parking area where people who bring their own canoes and kayaks were putting in.

You can see on the left side of this photo where the boat rental is located, just across from the other parking lot. This is where we put in.

While on the water trail we passed the beach, so in the above video you can see the beach from the short hike to it and you can see the beach from the water view.

It was a short distance that we went on purpose, but we were glad to be able to create a distance just right for us. It was a peaceful canoe trip.

Both girls stayed under my legs and near my feet for most of the trip. They had never canoed before! Ria was relaxed and laid down, but Ms. Tizzy kept wanting me to hold her. Eventually I picked her up and she looked around for a while and realized it was not so bad! When I put her down, she kept getting braver and braver until she was standing up on the edge of the canoe to see and watch things in the distance. Once she started doing it, her sister began to mimic her by walking around the boat too. I thought it felt safer when they were not moving and rocking the boat, but I was glad to see them feel comfortable.