Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area

It was a cool afternoon after thunderstorms rattled through a few hours earlier and some time in the marshy  bottomlands  of the Missouri river seemed like a great place to take some photos and go bird watching. So off to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area north of St. Louis. To reach the area, go north approximately 2.8 miles from the I-270 Riverview Drive exit. Riverview Drive becomes Columbia Bottom Road at its intersection with Larimore Road. This area was acquired in 1997 and is really coming into it’s own. There are some  5 miles of paved roads with numerous pull offs with access to boardwalks out into the marsh and some interpretative signage. The paved road ends at a very nicely done overlook at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi  rivers. A very strong, large powerful section of water alive with currents, barges, seagulls, skimmers, and large tree snags rolling around as they are pulled downstream.

In addition to the paved road, there is also a long section of gravel road that is well maintained and it too has numerous small parking lots and pullouts. The little pullouts are great because they look  out over open marshy patches.  These little areas are filled with bird life that generally beat a hasty retreat when you first show up. But roll down your windows,  turn off the engine, don’t make much of any sound  - even talking and the birds begin to re-populate the area and it is great fun to watch the show they put on. The showing off, the squabbling, the determined hunting done by the egrets and herons.  The landings and take offs. While we were there we saw crows, herons, egrets, red winged blackbirds, common rails, Blue winged Teals, a small wood duck, Killdeer, mallards, geese, a snake, turtles everything to indicate a healthy marsh. I photographed a nice red winged blackbird,  a good close up of a heron, a rail, and the Blue Winged Teal.

It was just a half an hour before sunset and the clouds leftover from the earlier thunderstorms were making a very attractive sky.  Off to the NE the clouds were a magnificent blue that was turning the marsh waters the same tone of blue and just making a terribly beautiful  scene.  Meanwhile, to the due west  there were a couple of left over white streamers of clouds with the orange setting sun back lighting them and showing the flat spring landscape in perfect detail and relief. I got shots of these scenes too. It was turning out to be quite the photography trip.

We inched along the gravel road, one to see as much wildlife as possible and two, to be as quiet as possible. The windows in the Jeep were rolled down completely. It was rather cool as the sun was setting and the thunderstorms had brought in a cooler air mass.  I’ve learned in situations like this, that is looking for wildlife to photograph on a large landscape is to keep the camera in hand, turned on, long lens set to infinity attached.  That way you only have to switch off the vehicle( this will eliminate some of the blurring on long shots ) swing up the camera and try and make a good shot.  I saw a lot of the kind of wildife you would expect from this kind of landscape in the Midwest. There were whitetail deer, coyotes, skunks, opossums, grey squirrels, and  red-tailed hawk, I already mentioned the other birds.  We took a stroll out onto a boardwalk over the bottomland waters. The reeds were just a few inches above the edge of the boards.  These are very well built and maintained structures that run straight as a desert road out into the marsh. We saw a couple of dragonflies, a big wasp and butterflies.  Walking back on the boardwalk to the parking lot, the white wood seemed to be a glowing path through the deep green vegetation.

Fishing is not to be ignored at this area. Fishermen are very welcome here with a large parking lot with plenty of room for trailers and expansive boat ramps leading down to the river.  The area also includes part of an island which divides the Missouri river into two channels as it joins the Mississippi river. The ramps lead down into slack water and not the main channel so it’s safer, although with these big rivers safety should never be ignored.  The confluence of these two great rivers provides some of the best cat fishing in the country.

The Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area is a great place for biking, hiking, photography, birdwatching, fishing, many more activities year round.