Your Guide to Fall Fun in Southwest Missouri

Fall is here. The crisp autumn air and fiery leaves are short-lived here, where summer encroaches on the season a little too long, and winter comes hard and fast. So make sure you soak up every pumpkin-colored and apple-scented moment of our shortest—but arguably very best—season. We can help you out with that. Use this guide to fall fun in southwest Missouri to plan every moment of your perfect autumn.

Branson Scenic Railway

Did you know you can board the Ozark Zephyr in downtown Branson, climb into a seat on the glass-domed viewing car and eat a plated meal while you watch the fall-colored Ozarks hills roll by? Yep, believe it or not, Branson Scenic Railway offers more than just those wildly popular Polar Express tours in the winter. Oh, and if you want the views without the dinner, you can book a simple fall color excursion too—no meal included.

Lady Liberty Cruises

Another great option if you don’t want to have to lift a finger is the Lady Liberty yacht, which you can book for a variety of cruises through Big Cedar Lodge. They take you around Table Rock Lake, so you can view the fall color from the water—a magical experience. Cruise themes include brunch cruises, wine dinner cruises, seafood cruises and more.

Pink Jeep Tours

There are a handful of different tours you can take around the Branson area via Pink Jeep Tours (including ones focused around lakes and landmarks, downtown Branson destinations and more). We recommend the Ozark Mountain Crawl option for a fall excursion. This guided Jeep Wrangler tour takes you to see wide vistas around the Branson area that offer the most fall-color bang for your buck.

Chopper Charter

Now, if you really want to get high above the trees, opt for a helicopter tour that takes off from Branson. It’s a view of the Ozarks hills like no other.  Chopper Charter offers a handful of cleverly named tours (The Preview, The Matinee), but if you spring for the biggest one (The Encore) you’ll get to see even more of the wooded hills and Table Rock Lake views that make the region so gorgeous.

Branson Zipline

Or maybe instead of soaring above the trees, you want to sail straight through the canopy. We got you: What you need for that is a zipline. Branson Zip Line has 10 sky bridges and seven ziplines peppered around Wolfe Mountain, and you can glide from one to the other as you explore. It puts you right in the middle of all that fall color—and offers a bit of a thrill too.

Fall Drives

And finally, the easiest way to see fall color is to hop in your car and hit the road. In the Ava area, Glade Top Trail National Forest Scenic Byway offers 23 miles of quiet wooded wonders with a few scenic overlooks. Near Cassville, Sugar Camp Scenic Byway offers a great drive to cap off a day at Roaring River State Park. Then down in northwest Arkansas, you can hit the Pig Trail Scenic Byway, the Arkansas Scenic 7 Byway or Mount Magazine Scenic Byway.

Fall Seasonal Treats

Andy’s Frozen Custard (several locations)
Andy’s never disappoints when it comes to seasonal flavors, but fall is for sure our favorite. You have pumpkin pie concretes, apple pie sundaes, s’mores jackhammers and the gigantic, hand-dipped, super-sticky, totally addictive caramel apples.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

The European (105 Park Central Square, Springfield, MO)
Everything seems to come in a pumpkin spice variety this time of year, but the pumpkin spice latte from The European is truly an elevated version. It features a homemade syrup that’s made with roasted pumpkin and ginger. This drink is the ultimate hug in a mug.

Apple Cider Slushies

Murphy Orchard (255 US-60, Marionville, MO)
When you stop by the farmstand at Murphy Orchard to stock up on freshly picked apples and other fall harvest goodies, you have to order an apple cider slushie too. It’s crisp, sweet, cold and refreshing, and it just tastes like the perfect fall sip.

Apple Cider Donuts

Gardener’s Orchard (4455 W. Farm Rd. 2, Brighton, MO)
The soft and fluffy apple cider donuts at Gardener’s Orchard are the perfect snack attack satisfier, but here’s a hot tip for anybody with a big-time sweet tooth: You can get them dunked into an apple cider ice cream float too. Whoa! 

Mr. Pumpkin

Mother’s Brewing Co. (215 S. Grant Ave., Springfield, MO)
This beloved pumpkin ale is brewed locally in Springfield and is much anticipated by its rabid fans year after year. It’s made with pumpkin puree and warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and mace.

Smoked Maple Latte

The Workshop at Finley Farms (840 Finley Farms Ln, Ozark, MO)
This double-shot espresso latte evokes cozy bonfires on cool fall nights. It’s made with smoked maple syrup that’s made in-house and is topped with just a bit of smoked Maldon sea salt.

Friday Night Lights

There’s just something so nostalgic about Friday Night Lights, when high school football players bring their best before cheering crowds of fans showing all the local love. It’s where decades-long rivalries play out on the field, cheerleaders bring the energy and everybody shows off their best school spirit. Between the lights, the sounds and the love of the game, nothing feels like fall more than a little Friday Night Lights.

Some of the most well-known Ozarks-area high school rivalries include Glendale High School and Kickapoo High School (both Springfield-based adversaries) or Ozark High School and Nixa High School (neighboring towns with plenty of friendly competition between them). But if you can’t catch a classic rivalry game, any of these energy-packed events will be a fun way to cheer on local athletes. Check out some upcoming games below.

Get Lost in a Corn Maze

Pick Your Own Pumpkin at a Local Pumpkin Patch

Fall Roundup at Sycamore Creek & Family Ranch

2657 Sunset Inn Rd., Branson
The pumpkins: Pick-your-own and take it home!
The food: The best food combo that not enough people are talking about: wood-fired pizza and s’mores. We suggest renting a fire pit for the optimal group marshmallow toasting experience!
The fun: Enjoy classic fall activities like hayrides and a corn maze, or try your hand at pickleball, cornhole and the challenge course.

Pickin’ Patch Farm

22813 Hwy ZZ, Marionville
The pumpkins: One-of-a-kind, picked by you from the field or plucked up from the market
The food: This patch is optimal for a fall picnic, offering lovely outdoor areas
The fun: Milo maze, round bale maze, corn bins, backyard play sets, hayrides, a pick-your-own pumpkin patch and more.
The shopping: Hello, gourds galore! Pickin’ Patch has all sorts of homegrown wonders that will amp up your Halloween front-porch display, including pumpkins in every shape and color.

Barnhouse Pumpkin Patch

5484 W. Sunshine St., Springfield
The pumpkins: You can pick them and you can paint them!
The food: On weekends, enjoy food from local vendors who set up shop on the farm.
The fun: Catch an outdoor movie, navigate your way through the hay-bale maze or let out your competitive side in a round of pumpkin bowling!
The shopping: Browse festive front-porch decor like mums, colorful gourds, milo stalks and scarecrows––the perfect complement to your hand-picked or painted pumpkin.

More Fall Fun

Fall is as much a feeling as it is a season, and we rounded up our favorite ways to find those unbeatable vibes in the Ozarks.

Have you ever caught a whiff of crisp leaves crunching underfoot and felt, miraculously, like a kid again? There’s just something about the sensory infusions that come with autumn that transports you.

Christmas can kind of do it.  The first warm and sunny days of spring can kind of do it. But nothing compares to the exquisite vibes of a perfect fall day. To celebrate this incomparable feeling, we’ve curated a collection of our favorite places and moments around the Ozarks that make this season the very best of all.

Nature Hunting

Everybody knows the landscape changes this time of  year, but we recommend you keep an eye out for wonders beyond just changing leaf colors. Look to the ground and search for some Osage orange, those lime green and alien-looking fruits that fall from trees around the area. It’s not the only native fruit that emerges in fall. Edible goodies like pawpaws, persimmons and black walnuts are all ready to eat this time of year as well—and they all grow wild around the Ozarks.

Market Hopping

You can find fall markets here and there around the Ozarks, but one of the best for immersive fall vibes is Schofield + Gray (358 Hill St., Fordland, MO), where pumpkins grace the winding pathways that take you from vendor to vendor while witches’ hats strung from the trees above add a bit of whimsy and magic. As you walk through this shady outdoor market, you can shop for decor for your house, antiques, crafts and lots more while you take in the season.

Pumpkin Shopping

From the road, this little urban farm might not look like much, but once you start to explore you’ll find that Fassnight Creek Farm (1366 S. Fort Ave., Springfield, MO) is home to some of the best funky pumpkins in the area. There are pumpkins in every color (the sage green ones are our favorite) and every texture (we’ll take a warty gourd any day) and every size from itty bitty baby ones to massive monsters. And don’t even get us started on the mum selection. It’s the best place to infuse big fall vibes onto your front porch.

Maze Exploring

You can certainly get lost in The Maize (20591 Lawrence 2200, Aurora, MO) at any time of day, since the expansive maze covers 5 acres of super-tall corn. But we recommend leaning into the spooky parts of the season and visiting after dark. That’s when the maze becomes more than just a genuinely confusing series of pathways—it also becomes a “haunted” Field of Screams. Yep, the creeps come out at night as actors in costume flood the maze, and the lack of light adds a whole new element to this bit of fall fun.

Overnight Camping

Camping just hits different this time of year. Summer camping means waking up inside a tent-turned-oven covered in mosquito bites and sweating like crazy. Fall camping means cool nights cozied up around a bonfire with s’mores (then snuggled up in sleeping bags), and we love it. You can camp so many places around the Ozarks, but Mill Creek Campground (1236 State Hwy RB, Lampe, MO) on the shores of Table Rock Lake offers unbeatable scenic views.

Jack-o’-Lantern Carving

What’s your ideal carving pumpkin shape? Tall and thin or short and squat? Or maybe you prefer to visit a pumpkin patch and let the pumpkin choose you. A great local patch that’s always worth a visit is the Pickin’ Patch Farm (22813 Hwy Zz, Marionville, MO), where you can pluck a carving pumpkin from the field or shop the market for more aesthetically pleasing pumpkin varieties for your home decor. Either way, you’ll love the shady area with cozy rocking chairs, a cute little pumpkin checkerboard hanging from a tree, vintage decor and mums everywhere.

Apple Picking

Although one beloved apple-picking spot is no more as of this season (RIP to the orchard at Sunshine Valley Farm), there are a few other places where you can enjoy some fresh air while you pluck apples from the trees. A new favorite is Gardener’s Orchard & Bakery (4455 W. Farm Rd. 2, Brighton, MO). They grow 13 varieties, such as Fuji, Jonathan, Cameo and lots more. The farm is also home to tasty concessions, a pumpkin patch, fall flower picking, a giant slide, a petting zoo and more. Visit on a cool day to really feel the fall love.