Rocky Creek Conservation Area
More than 38,000 acres of oak, hickory, and shortleaf pine in scattered Shannon County tracts, introduced by a five-mile driving tour through a pine-oak woodland restoration project south of Eminence, with nine miles of the Ozark Trail and primitive camping.
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Rocky Creek is less a single place than a small county of public forest: more than 38,000 acres of oak, hickory, and shortleaf pine in scattered Shannon County tracts, threaded with streams, limestone glades, caves, and fissures. The visit most people can actually plan around is the one MDC built for the purpose, a five-mile driving tour through the 1,500-acre Woodland Restoration Project unit south of Eminence, where numbered stops walk you through an open pine-oak woodland being brought back with prescribed fire and careful timber work.
The tour starts at a gravel crossroads in deep forest and runs counterclockwise on unpaved county roads, past yellow signs that explain each treatment area in plain terms. It is slow, quiet country: interior forest birds, turkey and deer sign, and long stretches where the only other traffic is the occasional ATV the birding guide warns about. Come for the drive and the birding, and do not expect a developed site at the other end; there are no toilets at the tour unit and no camping amenities anywhere in the area.
Beyond the tour unit, the wider area is walk-in Ozarks. A nine-mile stretch of the Ozark Trail crosses it, forest roads and interior trails run throughout, and hikers can camp along the trails or at the Blue Springs Fields Camping Area with nothing provided but the ground. MDC also holds Current River frontage east of Eminence, reached from Highway 106, with fishing for bass, goggle-eye, and suckers. Treat the map pin honestly: it marks the driving tour start, the area's documented visitor arrival point, not the whole 38,000 acres, and the MDC area map is the tool for exploring the other tracts.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No fee is stated by the Missouri Department of Conservation on the Rocky Creek Conservation Area pages read for this listing, marked unknown. Do not assume the visit is free; check the MDC area page before you go.
- Hours and seasons
- No site hours and no seasonal closure are stated by MDC for this area on the pages read for this listing. This is a working forest: MDC manages parts of it with prescribed fire and timber harvests, and posted signs, area maps, and road conditions govern on the day. The tracts are scattered, so confirm the tract you mean to visit on the MDC area map before you go.
- Parking
- There is no developed parking lot at the driving tour start. The tour begins at the junction of County Roads 313 and 324 south of Eminence, a small triangular gravel junction in the forest; satellite imagery read for this listing (2026-11-09) shows a small widened gravel patch at the junction and no marked lot, pull-off, or readable sign. Reaching it (Missouri Birding Society guide, from Eminence): Highway 19 south 1.3 miles, left on Route F 3.1 miles, continue on County Road 106-513 about 3.3 miles, left on County Road 313 about half a mile to the junction with County Road 324; Google Maps routes the junction 9.6 road miles and 15 minutes from Eminence and 26.0 road miles from Van Buren. The listing pin (37.061464, -91.314281) is the eastern vertex of that junction, where the tour turns onto County Road 324. Other tracts are reached from Highways 19 and 106 (MDC); the pin does not mark them.
- Accessibility
- The driving tour itself is taken from your own vehicle on unpaved county roads. Birding at the tour unit is limited to the car or short walks on those unpaved roads for visitors with difficulty walking (Missouri Birding Society guide to the unit). There are no toilets at the tour unit, and no accessibility statement is published for the area as a whole by MDC.
- Nearest town
- Eminence, Missouri
- Region
- Southeast Missouri
- Coordinates
- 37.061464, -91.314281
What you can do there
- The Pine-Oak Woodland Driving Tour: a five-mile loop through the 1,500-acre Woodland Restoration Project unit, with numbered stops and yellow silviculture signs explaining the forest work along the route (MDC; Missouri Birding Society guide)
- A nine-mile portion of Missouri's Ozark Trail crosses the area, with hiking on forest roads and interior trails throughout (MDC)
- Primitive camping: hikers can camp along trails or at the Blue Springs Fields Camping Area; no camping amenities are provided (MDC)
- Two designated natural areas inside the boundary, Mill Mountain and Powder Mill Cave, and the named Open Hollow and Big Branch glades (MDC)
- Current River frontage: MDC states the area provides access to the river for canoeing, boating, swimming, and fishing, near the Highway 106 bridge reach east of Eminence; the launch point itself is not the pin for this listing (see Parking)
- Fishing for bass, goggle-eye, and suckers in the Current River and the nearby Jacks Fork River (MDC)