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Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge

On December 29, 2024, we were on our way to see the Eagles in Clarksville and to camp for the night when we realized there were so many places along Highway 79 to visit and see. I was excited for the upcoming adventures. We visited Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge first, randomly turning off at the sign. It is maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The headquarters office was closed, but we were able to drive around.

Next to the headquarters building is a parking area with the first place to view. We found this map which was helpful. Many of the roads were closed and we were not sure why, but we were still able to see a lot from the roads we were allowed to drive on.

There were interpretive boards to read and a pond in the distance to view. As you can see from the clouds, we were pushing forward with rain clouds nearby. The percentage of chances of rain for the time we were there was not great, but storm clouds always seemed to be threatening.

There is an island in the pond where I imagine a lot of water fowl hang out.

The roads were flat gravel roads and marshes came up to the roads. We turned at the end of this road.

We did see a few other cars driving through, but not many on this day. Here is the road we went down after the turn, with marshy areas up to the road. It made me wonder if the roads were ever flooded during big storms.

I found this view artistic with the bare trees. I thought it might make a great black and white photo. We could hear a lot of water fowl noise on the other side of the trees, but could not really see it as they were far away.

This was the first pull-off to park and we did not see too much here, but it was a pretty spot.

Then we pulled into an loop drive which went further into the marshy area and we could see the zillions of water fowl that we had been hearing. They were quiet a distance away, so we could not enjoy them close up, but it was still fun to see.

We traveled further down the main road.

We were able to see more water fowl, but again, the abundance of them were far in the distance. This and below photo is with my distance lens and I still could not get a good photo of them.

Several times we found the roads off the main road were closed. I am sure we could have parked and walked down the road, but the cold and rain were still eminent, so we did not do so.

I spotted this little hump in the distance in the middle of the views of the hills from the valley and wondered what the deal with it was.

We did drive around to the parking lot where one could get out to walk down a trail. We did get out and began walking to the beginning of the trail, but then the rain started and we decided to turn around and head out the way we came in.