There are few places I have found to be as magical as Eminence, Missouri. My first trip to Jack’s Fork River, I was 15 years old. I went with my mom and dad, two sisters, and friends of my parents and their children. We went for a long weekend for a summer canoeing trip; my first time in a canoe. I rode with my sister and her husband down the river, and I was in awe by the bluffs that surrounded us. None of us were avid canoers, and I think we all flipped our canoe at least once as we drifted down the river. We took one more trip with this group the following summer, and we all had a ball.

My ex-husband and I took our three oldest children and my daughter's friend, Brooke, to Eminence in the summer of 2014. We rented a cabin for the 6 of us not far from the river's edge. Climbing up a large rock, the kids enjoyed plunging into the crystal clear waters below. It took my breath as Jackson, seven at the time, made his first leap from the boulder. The smile on his face when he emerged from under the water made me smile. My kids, knowing my fear of heights, dared me to jump off the 10-15 foot rock. I couldn't turn them down. I swam around to the backside of the boulder, climbed onto the flat rock, and peeked over the edge. Nope, that wasn't about to happen. I have two fears that can cause me to panic: heights and snakes. As I was turning back to climb down the rock, defeated by its sheer drop into the water, a small water snake climbed onto the ledge below me effectively blocking my way down. Oh. Hell. No. It was decision time. Do I jump from the rock avoiding the snake, or do I cross the snake avoiding the jump? Either would require an enormous amount of nerve and a change of pants. The decision may be one of the most critical of my life. I turned back toward the water and jumped. I swam as if my life depended on it, not breathing until my feet were standing on the rocky beach far away from the jump and the snake. My kids could not stop laughing.

The next day, we canoed Jack's Fork. Alison, Brooke, and I in one canoe, Jacob, Jackson, and Ethan in another. The girls and I did great, not flipping our canoe once. The boys on the other hand, well.….

The trip down the river was as incredible as I had remembered; the bluffs of the Ozark Scenic Waterways lined the sides of the river as we made our way down from Alley Spring. There are only a few places that the river runs swiftly, adding a little more technical maneuvering to our canoe trip. We saw plenty of wildlife along the way. There is an overabundance of water snakes, but as long as we steered clear of them, I was okay. Fish were swimming throughout the clear waters, and turtles were sunning on almost every log we passed. There is a herd of wild horses in Eminence; I had heard of them but never seen them. As we rounded a bend in the river, I could see something standing in the woods. We quickly guided our canoe to the shoreline and ran up the small bank to get a better look. Standing amid a forest of trees were some of the most majestic horses I had ever seen. All but one were white, speckled with dirt, and the other was black and gray, a complete opposite to the rest of the herd. I stood and watched them for a long while before we returned to our canoes to complete our trip.

In the summer of 2015, we brought our five kids, my mom, and my sisters and their families back to Eminence. The weather outlook was less than ideal, rain and thunderstorms predicted for our day of canoeing. The rain started before we left for our day-long outing, but we opted to go anyway with hopes it would clear. I wanted to trade my straw hat for one of those ridiculous looking umbrella hats to keep me dry, but otherwise, we were having a blast. The thunder echoed throughout the area, and the lightning streaked impressively across the sky. Taking cover wasn't an option; there aren't many places to stop on the first part of the trip that would have offered shelter. The pouring rains made the water of the river run a little swifter, and the kids were having a tough time controlling their canoes. On one occasion, the boys wedged the boat under a log, and my brother in laws worked diligently to recover it. At the halfway mark, the rain and thunder stopped, and we had an uneventful trip the rest of the day. When we arrived back at our cabin, we discovered we had not only been on the river during a severe thunderstorm, but tornado warnings had been issued, as well. Despite the weather, the trip was amazing and memorable.

I had experienced the area four times in the summer season, so in February of 2017, with rare 70-degree temps predicted, I decided to take my kids on a camping and canoeing trip while the trees were still bare. For all the times I had been to Eminence, this was the first time I would camp there. Eminence is about a five-hour drive from our home in Kentucky; we left early on Friday morning, arriving well before dark to set up camp. We stayed at a backcountry campsite with no running water and vault toilets, but more importantly, not another soul in the vicinity. Before building our fire to cook supper, we took a hike to the spring just a little walk away from where we were staying. The kids skipped rocks off the water’s surface competing to see whose rock could go the farthest. We returned to camp, ate our dinner, and retired to bed before our day of canoeing the next day.

There are several outfitters in Eminence that run canoe services, including transportation to and from the launch and pull out areas. Most will come to where you are staying, eliminating the need for transportation to and from your destination. We have always chosen to go with Harvey’s Canoe Rental, ( https://www.harveysalleyspring.com/ ) the employees are kind, informative, and timely. They provide the canoes/kayaks, lifejackets, paddles, and trash containers for the day. During the winter months, the water runs a little less rapidly, and the darkness comes a little earlier; therefore, the day-trips are typically limited to 4-5 hours. We made our reservations the day before, and the weather for the day of our trip was a little iffy, a 50% chance of rain. We initially intended to leave around 10 am, but we awoke to a downpour. I called Harvey’s to delay the trip, a request they had no problem honoring, and we decided we would try to go around 1 pm.

We drove from our campsite to Harvey’s because we were camped a little far out for them to come and get us. The rain had stopped, and there were signs of sunshine trying to peek through the clouds. Harvey’s drove us from their main quarters in downtown Eminence to Alley Spring launch site. Our trip would end downriver in Eminence, about 4 hours away. Logan, Hayden and I took a canoe, Ethan and Jackson had a kayak. The water was reasonably calm, very few rapids to maneuver, but this gave us time to enjoy the scenery around us. In most places, the water is so clear you can see to the bottom. We could see the fish, moving slowly under the ripples made by our paddles. Given our late departure, we had already eaten lunch, but we stopped on a rocky beach for a snack halfway through our trip. Ethan and Jackson had no problems maneuvering their kayak, and I had very little trouble guiding mine. However, keeping my youngest still in front of the canoe had proven challenging. Because the water was flowing less swiftly than summer, we were also paddling more than I had in the past.

The bluffs of the Ozarks were more visible than when I’d been here before. No one else was on the river at the time, and the silence was peaceful. We saw a small cave-like structure on the land that I hadn’t ever seen on past trips. We pulled onto the shoreline and explored the surrounding area before returning to our boats for the rest of the venture downstream. As we rounded the bend coming into Eminence, everything seemed eerily quiet. During the summer, this area is usually bustling with campers, swimmers, and several other canoes. I was enjoying every moment of the solitude. The bridge crossing over the river was our indication we were coming to the end of our adventure, and I wasn’t ready for it to be over just yet. The employees from Harvey’s were waiting on the shore for us and helped us to maneuver our canoe and kayak to the ramp to load up on the trailer.

Camping in Eminence was one of the most memorable trips I have had with my boys. The peaceful surroundings, the clarity of the water, the excitement of my boys, and experiencing the area in the winter were new adventures for me, and I loved every moment of being there. I have always said, “Eminence seems like a place I could be at home, at peace, a place where I belong.”