My Corner Online
Big Oak Tree State Park
We visited Big Oak Tree State Park on September 5, 2015. Big Oak Tree State Park is located at 13640 MO-102, East Prairie, Mississippi County, in the bootheel of Missouri. Anyone who lives in Southeast Missouri has heard how it is called "Swampeast Missouri” and this park is a great example of the marsh that the original explorers would have seen in this corner of the State of Missouri. There is a boardwalk trail through the swamp, similar to areas in Southern Illinois as well. This park is full of historic "champion" trees and they are marked as such. There are three trails available and we did the Boardwalk Trail which is .7 mile. The Bottomland Trail is 1.4 miles and the Cypress Trail is .8 mile, so there are several opportunities for the outdoors at this park.
To the left, you can see the list of the Champion Trees found in the park. They are shown on the map o the left.
The boardwalk is a bit odd because it is metal instead of wood, but I think it used to be wood but it rotted and this lasts longer.
In the video slideshow above you will see lots of photos of hubby with his arms waving. To us it had seemed a long time since anyone had been down the trail because of the numerous cobwebs. He was joking that he was my night in shining armor knocking down all the cobwebs for me as I followed. It was actually quiet funny and memorable.
I believe this was on the roadway as we were leaving to drive home, just down some country road. I had to stop and take a photo of it. I like the silloette.
There were lots of fabulous farm fields. I wanted to stop and photograph all the scenes.
Cornfield with a beautiful blue sky. I believe this one as taken as we drove in towards the park.
This is where we were at one of the farm fields. You can see the gree is the park. You can also see that the park is not far from Kentucky where Reelfoot National Wildlife and Reelfoot Lake is located.
Hubby and his stick, my knight in shining armor!
It literally feels like you are walking on water and that a water snake could slither up at any moment. It was actually a little creepy the further I got from dry land.
Here you see the sign for the State Champion Pumpkin Ash Fraxinus Tomentosa which has a circumfrance of 14feet, 3 inches and a height of 133 feet and a spread of 73 feet.
We found another State Champion tree, former State Co-Champion Bur Oak Quercus macrocarpa, Circumfrance 17'7", Height 142', Spread 88', fell on 12-25-2009 (Christmas Day).
Here is the champion tree that fell.
This is the picnic area at the entrance of the park.