My Corner Online
Mark Twain Lake & Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, & Ray Behrens Recreation Area
We visited Mark Twain Lake on June 1 and 2, 2024. We stayed at Ray Behrens Recreation Area run by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, and the above image is from our campsite. We could barely see the lake through the trees. The campground is in Ralls County, but some of the places we visited were in Monroe County.
This is the marina at Ray Behrens and there is a store and restaurant in that building on the water, as seen in the above video.
Near Ray Behrens is the Clarence Cannon Dam & M.W. Boudreaux Memorial Visitor Center, also in Ralls County. There is a huge map as in the above photo at the visitor center which shows just how large Mark Twain Lake. It is great for boaters, but since we do not boat, we are not really "lake people" and there is not a whole lot else to do around the area. There were a few trails around the visitor center which were short and nice.
This is at the visitor's center overlooking the dam.
This is a view from behind the visitor center and down a short trail. There were two overlooks. You can see the same in the above video.
This is the second overlook down the trail.
This is the museum for Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, which is in Monroe County. It was not open on the Sunday that we were there which was disappointing. Mark Twain's home where he was born has been moved to inside this building.
We did do a short hike down to the lake at the birthplace historic site and there was a great view at the end.
On the road out from the birthplace historic place was Tom Sawyer Lake which is part of Mark Twain State Park. It looked like a nice area to park and walk around the lake, but we had to choose our activities for our limited time. We did drive around looking at the various parts of Mark Twain State Park.
I am not sure why I do not have any photos, but we did visit the City of Florida next as this is where Mark Twain was actually born. They have a marker there and they also have lots of markers around the city with things to read and see. You get out of the vehicle at each place, or even walk from one to another. At the river there is a nice short hiking trail with markers to read. They really did a good job in making it a nice place for travelors. There are few residents of this city. You can see some of it in the above video.
We drove back around to Ralls County and north of the dam and visitor's center John Spalding Recreation Area beach. We did not pay, so we just drove through. It looked to be accessible by boat and by land. According to the map, there are two beaches for swimmers, but the one at Indian Creek Recreation Area was only open to those reserved to camp in that place. It was also a little more of a distance to drive to, so we did not go there. It is on the northern end of the lake. So for those who do not boat, it seemed to me only one place to get into the water at John Spalding and it was not free.
We drove down to the recreation area at the spillway and it seemed like a nice place for a picnic.