Wakonda State Park - La Grange, Missouri

The drive from Kirksville to Wakonda State Park took us through several small Missouri towns. The kind where time seems to have stood still and if you blink you might miss them. It was the kind of drive that was relaxing.

This was our first time at Wakonda State Park and it ended up being a favorite state park of mine. We arrived just after Labor Day, so there weren’t as many people here as there are before school starts. I loved the miles of paved roads for biking and walking, the water for sitting by and relaxing, the quietness, and all of the opportunities for taking photos.

Our first night here we were rewarded with a spectacular sunset.

While our last night greeted us with a gorgeous view of a full moon.

Days in-between, for me, were spent walking and riding my bike, watching for different birds, and just enjoying nature. Tracy’s days were spent working, figuring out a Zwift setup that works for him, and fine tuning his internet setup.

There are two campgrounds at this park. We stayed in the Wakonda Lake Campground that has full hookups and bigger sites. Boulder Lake Campground only has electric and most of their sites are smaller.

There are not a lot of things to do near the state park, but Quincy, Illinois, isn’t far and it has a variety of shops and restaurants. Driving to Quincy was one of my first longer trips by myself driving a truck that I wasn’t used to and wasn’t yet comfortable in trying to park in small spaces. Unfortunately, I let my uneasiness with the truck curb my eagerness to explore and only did the few things I needed to do - grocery shop and buy essentials, my two least favorite things to do.

On our last weekend here, Mara was able to come stay with us. I loved that we got to spend one more weekend with her before we headed East, as we knew we wouldn’t see her again before Thanksgiving.