My Corner Online

Little Black Conservation Area

Little Black Conservation Area is in Ripley County between Grandin and Doniphan, Missouri. While we were there (June 3, 2023), we wanted to be sure to visit a second place in the county, so we visited this conservation area. There really is not a whole lot here for me. It was a bit intimidating driving down the one lane gravel road into the deep forest. If we had met a vehicle going in the other direction, it would have made for a difficult situation. We finally arrived at a picnic area with a glimpse of the Little Black River, but I was not impressed and had no desire to go that far for that place. I suppose a fisherman looking for a quiet place would enjoy the seclusion.

We turned the other direction at the "T" and found where the river crossed the road and I really liked that spot and could have sat there for a little bit, although I was fairly certain snakes were nearby and would not have wanted to greet one. We drove back out to the main highway and down a bit to the other part of the conservation area and found a very large parking lot. It showed that there was a trail there, but the trail indicated it was for the archery range and not knowing or wanting to get shot with a bow, we scooted along.

This was our destination, down in the middle of the deep forest. The little gap to the left of the picnic table is where you can see the river. I'll give them credit in that the area was mown, so someone has been down in there. There was also a campfire area so I guess locals might hang out here.

The blue line shows our way to the picnic area, which was to the right of the "T" and then we went back to the left of the "T" just to where the Little Black River crossed the road.

You can see the road continues on the other side of the river which is more like a creek bed, so you have to drive through the water to continue on.

It was very peaceful here.

There was the sound of trickling water in this little area and I could have sat a chair down here and read a book.

This is where we drove to get to the archery range and the large parking lot as can be seen in the above video.