bump. time to refresh the thread. let's expand to within about 6 hours of KC. looking for serenity, cabins, scenery, canoeing, somethin'.

i did a google image search for "okoboji, iowa" and saw this:

Roaring River is a pretty nice park, they have some good cabins, easy Trout Fishing as well. You can make easy trips to Eureka Springs from Roaring river as well.

I would also look at something in the Ozark National Forest like in the Jasper Arkansas area.

Are you kidding me - Kid Rock AND Kenny G? Why would you want to go anywhere BUT Okoboji?

You can make it to Decorah, Iowa, in 6 hours, if you push a little. I think you can hit all those needs there. I get up there a couple of times a year for work. Town of about 8,500 people with a small liberal arts college. They also have a bike share, a coop grocery store, and a community radio station. The sports bar has an option for grass-fed beef or veggie patties on your burgers, and they have an excellent small brewery called Toppling Goliath. Canoeing available on the Upper Iowa River and lots of bicycling options. Oh, and it's home to Seed Savers Exchange, one of the last bulwarks for heritage plants.

http://www.decorahia.org/decorah.asp
http://www.canoedecorah.com/
http://www.chimneyrocks.com/
http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://www.tgbrews.com/site/

ETA:
A couple of restaurants
http://www.rubaiyatrestaurant.com
http://laranabistro.com/

Eureka Springs, AR is great. It's a surprisingly cool little town. Lots of creative people, fun bars, haunted hotels, some great driving roads and scenery.

Here is some info about attractions in the area: http://pca-escape.org/about.asp

And I'd reiterate my suggestion for Queen Wilhelmina State Park in Mena, AR, if the travel window has been stretched to 6 hours.

Did this exact trip last fall. Stayed at the Cottage House, which is in DT Council Grove. Great place to stay.

Ate a meal at Trail Days Cafe and it was amazing. The owners spent several decades restoring their building and they are amazing historians to converse with. If you have a passion for building preservation, these folks would be a real inspiration for you. He had some great stories about fighting architects that said nothing could be done to save a building. He usually won, and Council Grove is a prettier town because of it. What got him interested was watching the City/County leaders tear down the historic county courthouse in the '60s because it was "obsolete". He said it was the most beautiful courthouse in KS.

Day tripped to Cottonwood Falls and Z-Bar. Both are worth visiting. Can't beat the Flint Hills for beauty when the sun angle is right.

http://www.traildayscafeandmuseum.org/home
http://www.cottagehousehotel.com/
http://www.kansastravel.org/tallgrassprairie.htm

St. Fracois Mountains. This region includes the Tom Sauk, Johnson's Shut-Ins, and Elephant Rocks. From what I hear, restoration of the Shut-Ins has gone at a pretty good pace.
There is also the typical float trip down the Current River.

I'll second this. Fairly new to the KC area, we just made our first trip to Eureka Springs. Had a great time. Some very good food, wine, shopping (I don't think my husband is allowing me to go back for a while) and beautiful area. We stayed at Crescent Hotel, but there are lots of places with cabins, if that's your preference.

Deb

Float/camp the MO or the Kaw if you're adventurous and kind of a self-starter. I prefer the Kaw because it has more islands to camp on and you can wade/swim in it more safely but the MO has more civilization.

Tanking on those Nebraska prairie rivers is pretty great. I like the Cedar out of Fullerton.

Wilson Lake in central Kansas is lovely, has wonderfully clear water, is set in gorgeous hills, and is close to Lucas/Garden of Eden.

And Grafton, IL is a great weekend if you're in the mood for "stuff white people would call charming" getaway, though I don't know much about camping opportunities. I'd bet there are ample options though.

A little bit closer is Mt Magazne State Park which encompasses the highest point in Arkansas. I was there over Christmas on the way to KC and the lodge near the top of the peak is pretty impressive. I want to go back and spend a couple of nights there.

Spent our honeymoon there in the middle of winter. We had the town and the hotel, for that matter, to ourselves. It was really quite pleasant and a unique experience.

i'll add the historic park inn in mason city, iowa. last standing hotel designed by frank lloyd wright. the town itself is quaint, but would need to be coupled with another destination to hold your attention for more than two days. the hotel restaurant should be open by now, but there are also a couple of decent places to eat downtown.

http://wrightonthepark.org/

The flint hills outside Manhattan KS are gorgeous in the spring. And fall.
http://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm

I've floated the Kansas River from near Manhattan downstream to near Topeka several times. It's not a bad trip but can be slow in summer. I do not advise, however, doing this trip in the spring when Tuttle Creek and other reservoirs on the tributaries are releasing water. During those times, the Kansas River flows bank to bank with a fairly swift current and covers the point bars; it can be dangerous for the inexperienced paddler.

A great trip near KC is the Little Niangua River. It is closer to KC than the Niangua, smaller and faster, and doesn't get anywhere near the traffic as the Niangua River. It's spring fed so it has pretty good water throughout summer and some brilliant scenery along the way. It's a relatively tight valley and a bit of a challenge because it's quick and narrow.

Never been on it but about 3 hours from here down 71 highway is the Elk River. Whenever going by there does seem to be pretty good weekend business with nearby towns like Noel.

Pere Marquette State Park is right there at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi River, but I've not done more than check out the visitors center. It does have camping. It's worth walking around Elsah, IL too, it's a New Englandy "professor ghetto" village on the Mississippi next to Principia College. That stuff is worth a chunk of a day in the fall if you want to mix up a "normal" trip to St. Louis. The leaf peeping along the Alton pool is about as good as it gets in the lower midwest, as far as I've seen. That area feels almost more like somewhere in the Great Lakes region in the fall, really, especially with all the sailboats out there and the kind of Door County, WI tourist vibe of Grafton.

I've been there. Its okay. A bit rowdy on weekends with float trips and such.

We are thinking of going to this (Eco Zipline Tours) and maybe parlay it into St. Louis or some winery stuff.

The 2nd video is pretty cool.

http://www.ecoziplinetours.com/video.php

Anyone have thoughts on hiking within a short(ish) drive of KC? I'd like to be able to take off early on a Saturday morning, do some hiking, camp and return on Sunday. I went with some friends to Weston Bend recently but found the paved trail between the park and Weston to be uninteresting--it's really just more of an access road. Although, I should say it was pretty great to be able to walk from the state park to Weston.

Any good camping and hiking I ought to know about in addition to, say, the Flint Hills?