On our second day we entered the Ozark Plateau and realized our trip plans would have to change. Missouri Route 19 bisects the vast woods and rugged terrain of this ancient mountain range.

The "spine" of the Ozarks Plateau is along Interstate 44, he says. Springfield has an elevation of 1,300 feet. Hermitage and Lake of the Ozarks, for example, are at about 800 feet.

An intricate system of basins, channels, and levees called the Headwaters Diversion carries water from the eastern Missouri Ozark Plateau to the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau. The ...