Places to Go: Three Creeks CA

By Larry Archer | September 1, 2021
From Missouri Conservationist: September 2021
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Bad math makes for one great outdoor opportunity

It’s the classic case of bad math adding up to a great outdoor experience. Take three creeks, add two trails, and you get one great outdoor opportunity. That’s the equation visitors encounter at Three Creeks Conservation Area (CA) in Boone County.

“Three Creeks, being right south of Columbia, gets lots of use on it basically year-round,” said Three Creeks CA Manager Bob Rives. “But during the summer months into the fall, we usually just see a lot of hiking, camping, and then it’s got an active horseback riding community as well.”

Fueling this activity is the area’s 8-mile Three Creeks Trail, a multiuse trail allowing hiking, biking, and horseback riding, and its 3-mile hiking-only Turkey Creek Trail. Running through the 1,500-acre, primarily wooded area, the trails’ terrain provides users with a variety of views, Rives said.

“Having the Bonne Femme, the Bass, and the Turkey creeks — making the Three Creeks — creates a lot of bluffs, so you get a lot of topography and you get a lot of different natural communities and forest types, from bottomland forest all the way up to woodlands pretty quickly over the landscape.”

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This Issue's Staff

MAGAZINE MANAGER
Stephanie Thurber

EDITOR
Angie Daly Morfeld

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Larry Archer

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cliff White

STAFF WRITERS
Bonnie Chasteen
Kristie Hilgedick
Joe Jerek

DESIGNERS
Shawn Carey
Marci Porter

PHOTOGRAPHERS
Noppadol Paothong
David Stonner

CIRCULATION MANAGER
Laura Scheuler