Tunnel Bluff Woods Natural Area
A 288-acre natural area on the lower Current River with old-growth sycamore bottomland and a natural dolomite arch in the east-bank bluff, reached on foot from a signed pull-off on Forest Service Road 3140 west of Grandin, or by floating across from Gooseneck.
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Tunnel Bluff Woods is a 288-acre designated natural area where the lower Current River runs between gravel bars and some of the oldest bottomland forest in this reach: sycamores that keep growing long past the younger stands behind them, with pawpaw and spicebush underneath and steep oak and pine hills rising on both sides. The Conservation Department designated the area in 1994, and the land sits inside both the Mark Twain National Forest and Ozark National Scenic Riverways, owned by the Forest Service and the Park Service.
The name comes from the east bank. Set into the bluff there is a natural arch of Gasconade dolomite, about fifteen feet high, fifteen feet across, and twenty feet deep, which the Department reads as what is left of an old cave roof. Getting to that side by land is a walk, not a drive-up: from Grandin, Highway O runs west nearly five miles to Forest Service Road 3140, the gravel road follows the hills for another 2.75 miles to a pull-off and a natural area sign on the north side, and from there you walk north into the woods. The Department recommends a map and compass, and that advice fits the place: there is no developed trail system waiting at the sign.
The west half is reached a completely different way. Forest Service Road 3142 comes east from Highway C to the Park Service campground and canoe access at Gooseneck, and from there the crossing is by boat, floating over to the east half. However you arrive, the river is part of the visit: the Department names smallmouth bass, goggle-eye, walleye, and suckers in this water, and fishing is permitted, as is hunting in season. No fee and no hours are stated for the area, so the honest plan is daylight, a map, and a check of river conditions before the west-side route.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No fee is stated by the official source for this natural area, marked unknown.
- Hours and seasons
- No hours and no seasonal closure are stated by the official source for this natural area. The Department lists it as open to the public. River conditions and flood closures can change river access on the west side.
- Parking
- Roadside pull-off on the north side of Forest Service Road 3140, 2.75 miles west of its Highway O junction, marked by a natural area sign (Missouri Department of Conservation). The trailhead place record at 36.8102541, -90.9412146 sits at 2.8 road miles west of that junction on the north side, per Google Maps directions read 2026-11-09; no paved parking lot is stated or visible.
- Accessibility
- No accessibility statement is published for this natural area. The east access is a roadside pull-off on a gravel forest road and a walk north into undeveloped woods; the Department recommends a map and compass, and no developed trail or facility is stated.
- Nearest town
- Grandin, Missouri
- Region
- Southeast Missouri
- Coordinates
- 36.8102541, -90.9412146
What you can do there
- Pull-off and natural area sign on the north side of Forest Service Road 3140, 2.75 miles west of Highway O (Missouri Department of Conservation; the pull-off is named by the Department, and the trailhead place record sits at that distance on that side of the road, Google Maps 2026-11-09)
- Walk-in access north from the pull-off into the natural area (Missouri Department of Conservation)
- No developed facilities are stated for the east access: no parking lot, restroom, picnic area, or campground is published for it