Rippee Conservation Area features tall dolomite bluffs, like the one pictured here, along with forests of oak-hickory, shortleaf pine and bottomland hardwoods. It also offers access to Bryant and Rippee creeks.
RIPPEE CONSERVATION AREA
OWNER: Missouri Department of Conservation, 417-256-7161 ACREAGE: 419 acres MAP: nature.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/conservation-areas/6412map.pdf
HOURS OPEN: Area is open from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, dog training, launching and landing boats are allowed 24 hours a day in areas where these activities are permitted.
HISTORY: The Rippee Conservation Area has a lively history, which includes Indian camps, Civil War skirmishes and a large pioneer settlement supported by a major wagon road.
HAPPY CAMPERS: This area offers 15 individual campsites. Privies, campfire rings and picnic tables are provided in the camping area.
LAND COVER: This area consists of 342 acres of forest and woodland, 34 acres of grassland, 26 acres of wildlife food plots, 7.5 acres of campground and parking lots, 6 acres of glade and 4 acres of old fields.
RIVER ACCESS: A public access to Bryant Creek can be used as a float access during the early spring months when the water is high. Visitors can also visit the smaller stream, Rippee Creek, from this conservation area.
BRYANT CREEK NATURAL AREA: About 18 acres (1.5 miles of creek and buffer zone) of the Rippee Conservation Area are designated as the Bryant Creek Natural Area. Bryant Creek (see page 28) is a small, high-quality river with 15 species of fish and crayfish that occur in the Ozarks and nowhere else in the world. Those species include the Ozark shiner, Ozark madtom, bluestripe darter, golden crayfish and Ozark crayfish.
PUBLIC HUNTING: Rippee Conservation Area is open to public hunting and has a good population of deer. It also boasts a fair population of dove, rabbit, squirrel and turkey.
WILDLIFE VIEWING: Turkey, deer, quail, rabbits, river otters, squirrels and bald eagles live within or visit the area.
VEGETATION: Little bluestem grass and Missouri coneflower grow at Rippee. Venus’ hair fern and grass of Parnassus grow in a seep (a moist or wet area where water, usually groundwater, reaches the earth’s surface from an underground aquifer) on the glade. The upper part of the glade is dolomite and sandstone and grades into a sandstone forest/savanna.
DIRECTIONS
From Rockbridge in northern Ozark County, travel north on Highway N for 5 miles. Turn right onto Highway OO and continue for 5 miles. Turn left onto Highway 14 and continue for 4 miles. Turn left onto Country Road 328 and drive to the conservation area.
THE REAL OZARKS MAGAZINE
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