About Rocheport, Missouri
Rocheport was voted the #1 Daytrip Destination by readers of The Kansas City Star. Located an easy two-hour drive from Kansas City & St. Louis, Rocheport has become a popular day trip and weekend destination.
- Often called the Scenic Gateway to the Katy Trail, Rocheport offers cyclists, hikers, and walkers a beautiful stretch of Katy Trail State Park to enjoy.
- The Katy Trail State Park is America’s longest Rails-to-Trails Project, spanning 237 miles of classic Missouri river country scenery.
- In addition to natural beauty, Rocheport offers great gourmet restaurants, nationally recognized antique shops, art galleries, gift shops, and more.
- The small town (population 239) offers an ideal walking experience, with shops, restaurants, the trail, and accommodations all within a six-block area.
- The historic district includes many fine examples of early river town architecture.
Lewis and Clark camped six miles downriver from here in June of 1804 and described pictographs near what is now the east entrance of the M-K-T tunnel.
The town was established in 1825 and quickly prospered. Rocheport hosted the state Whig convention in 1840, and by 1849 river traffic increased to 500 steamboat landings. Rocheport was the site of guerilla fighting during the Civil War and changed hands many times.
Rocheport is on the National Register of Historic Places as is the main house at the Katy Trail Bed & Breakfast.
Visit the Rocheport area website at Rocheport-MO.com
About the Katy Trail State Park
The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad (the Katy) came to Rocheport in 1893 and operated here until 1986. Then some local visionaries planted the seeds for the bicycle path which now occupies much of the abandoned M-K-T rail corridor in Missouri.
Katy Trail State Park is one of the premier hike/bike paths in our country, and Rocheport is in the most spectacular part of the trail.
A few hundred yards west of the Katy Trail B & B you can ride through the only tunnel on the entire M-K-T system. And less than one mile to the east you will be at the base of 200-foot cliffs and at the edge of the Missouri River. One can rent a bike at the Meriweather Cafe and Bike Shop. Call the Cafe for more information: (573) 698-1222.
As Mark Twain once said, “Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.”
Learn more about the Katy Trail State Park at BikeKatyTrail.com.