Lake of the Ozarks

Easy accessibility

Because LOZ was privately funded, property lines extend all the way to the lakeshore. Thus, it’s a relatively affordable location for second homes, especially for out-of-state buyers. Major airports in St. Louis and Kansas City are within 3 hours, and interstate highways I-70, I-44 and I-49 make LOZ easily accessible for drivers trailering runabouts, jet skis and bass boats.

Launch your LOZ adventures at the place where the lake began — Willmore Lodge, the sprawling, pine log-structure that Union Electric built as its administrative center during Bagnell Dam’s construction. Today it’s on the National Register of Historic Places and houses both the LOZ Visitors Center and Bagnell Dam History Museum. The free museum’s exhibits range from George Catlin’s 1830s paintings of Osage Indians to photos documenting the dam’s construction, and the Lodge’s must-see lake view is simply extraordinary.

Bagnell Dam Boulevard, a.k.a. Bus. Hwy. 54, crosses the top of the dam, and west of it, the Bagnell Dam Strip has been a tourist magnet since the 1930s. Its kitschy attractions include a homey Stewart’s Restaurant that serves enormous cinnamon rolls and the Malted Monkey’s rope course and liquor-spiked milkshakes, but the Boulevard also leads to a fine dining surprise — JB Hook’s, which dishes out legendary steaks, seafood and lake views. Tip: try JB Hook’s signature Mayfair salad, a St. Louis original with creamy anchovy dressing. In nearby Osage Beach, Wobbly Boots’ award- winning smoked meats are a hybrid of the styles of barbecue hubs such as St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas and Memphis. Its tangy, house-made sauce has a hint of heat, and the hearty sides include pork-laced baked beans and cheesy corn with ham. On LOZ’s main channel, Shorty Pants Lounge hugs the lakefront, offers live entertainment, and specializes in Cajun cuisine. Think jambalaya and crawfish-n-shrimp étouffée plus delish sides like sweet bourbon carrots and cornbread muffins served with honey.

Park it

Southeast of Osage Beach, Lake of the Ozarks State Park is the largest in Missouri, a 17,500-acre oasis where some 2 million annual visitors enjoy the woodlands, wildlife, campgrounds, trails, beaches and marinas that surround 85 miles of scenic Grand Glaize shoreline. Assistant superintendent Brian Fredrick met my group at the Grand Glaize Beach Marina for a pontoon tour of the park’s remarkable Aquatic Trail, which gives boaters a from-the-water perspective on geological and cultural features.

As we departed the dock, Fredrick stated the obvious. “This is a beautiful and fun place to be,” he said. “Everybody who comes here is in a good mood.”

Beautiful indeed, for as Fredrick noted, Missouri’s karst landscape consists of porous limestone and dolomite bedrock. It’s easily eroded by water, and the Aquatic Trail’s dramatic rock formations include recess caves and the fancifully named “Nature’s Window” stone arch. On the Big Niangua, Ha Ha Tonka State Park is a geologic wonderland whose karst topography includes a 70-foot-wide natural bridge and the Colosseum, a 500-foot-long sinkhole that formed when a giant cavern collapsed. Named for Ha Ha Tonka Lake, which means “laughing waters” in Osage, the park is best-known for the ruins of a 60-room castle that Kansas City tycoon Robert Snyder started building in 1904. Snyder died before the castle was completed, and even though his sons finished it, a 1942 fire destroyed it and turned its skeleton into an unnatural attraction.

Straddling the tip of cove on LOZ’s main channel, the family-owned-and-operated Alhonna Resort is an oldie but goodie that has spawned multi-generation memories ever since its 1954 debut. Its casual Blue Cat Lounge bar and restaurant inspired the Netflix series Ozark, and its marina, which has an enclosed fishing dock, offers transient and overnight slips.

Cheeseburger in paradise

From its photo-op sculpture of blue flip-flops to the Jolly Mon indoor waterpark to WaveRunner rentals, Margaritaville Lake Resort gives a nod to the singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffet’s laidback lifestyle. Add a spa, pools, multiple dining-and-drinking venues (tip: Windrose Marker 26 Lakeside Dining enjoys particularly splendid sunset views), and The Oaks golf course that renowned architects Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge designed, and you’ve got a something-for-everybody destination.

The Grande Dame of LOZ’s waterfront resorts, the Lodge of the Four Seasons, sits on the main channel and balances a sophisticated modern aesthetic with gorgeous Japanese gardens designed by Masaji “Buffy” Murai. Its two golf courses — The Cove, by Robert Trent Jones and The Ridge, by Ken Kavanaugh — yield stunning lake views that make it hard to keep your eye on the ball. There’s also HK’s — an elegant steakhouse famed for its onion rings — and a marina which offers a captain’s service as well as sunset cruises on a floating tiki bar.

The Lake of the Ozarks Golf Trail’s 12 challenging courses take full advantage of the area’s distinctive landscape of wooded hills, rocky bluffs and sparkling lake vistas. One of the prettiest is Old Kinderhook Resort and Golf Club, a hidden gem where the dense morning mist slowly rises from the lush course that Tom Weiskopf masterfully tucked into the undulating Ozark landscape.

Old Kinderhook’s iconic Lodge overlooks the golf course, and since the resort borders the Big Niangua, it not only uses lake water for irrigation but also has transient slips for boaters who want to bring their clubs, have a nice dinner in The Trophy Room, and stay overnight. The reality is when you visit LOZ, you find you really don’t want to leave. It may not be the Great Lakes, but it is a great lake in its own right, and worth getting to know.