Walking at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

 We enjoyed a lovely morning walking yesterday at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. 

We walked the loops on the Grassland Trail and Karst Trail. After lunch, we then walked a short distance counter clockwise from the Gans Creek Wild Area - Wagon Wheel Trailhead.

I quickly created a short video clip that you can view on YouTube, Walking at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

You can also visit AllTrails to view maps of our routes. 

Camping at Finger Lakes State Park

We looked at the upcoming weather reports with a predicted return1 to chilly temperatures and decided to sneak in a mid-week overnight to Finger Lakes State Park. 

The park is just north of Columbia, MO and primarily designed to serve off-road vehicles and motorcycles.  

The park offers a pleasant campground and one trail for bicycles and hikers. The Kelley Branch Mountain Bike Trail is a 2.75 mile loop. Thanks to work of the COMO Trails Association, the trail surface was in good condition and was quite a bit better than the mud we saw on the ORV trails.

You can find more information on our routes at AllTrails, either the Afternoon hike on the Kelley Branch Trail or the Morning Roadwalk.

Walking at Graham Cave State Park

We enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon hiking several trails at Graham Cave State Park located near Danville, MO.

We walked up to the cave and then followed several trails to ultimately reach the campground. We then walked along the park roads back toward the main parking lot where we parked. You can find detailed trail information including maps and short descriptions of each trail on the Graham Cave State Park website. 

You can also see details of our walk on AllTrails with 3.73 miles and 443 feet of elevation change.

Loutre River serves as a western boundary of the state park.

Trail surfaces were generally in very good condition. We walked through a couple 

of muddy spots, but all-in-all, we returned to Annie, our Roadtrek, with clean boots.

Hiking the Deer Run Trail at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

 

We enjoyed a lovely winter February day earlier this week by trying two trails that we've never tried before and have posted a short YouTube video, "Deer Run Trail at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park."

We've visited Rock Bridge Memorial Park many times and have walked a number of the trails. 

Somehow, we've never tried the Deer Run Trail and were guessing our hesitancy to try it is based on the facts that it is the longest trail in the park at 4.0 miles and doesn't offer the natural wonders like a huge rock bridge or a cave. However, we've had the trail on our to-do list for a while and are now very pleased to say we'll be back again.

Following the hike we drove 15 minutes and visited the Three Creeks Conservation Area for another hike. We'll put up another post on that trail in a few days.

Thanks for following along and we welcome comments or suggestions.

Wonderful Mid-December Weekend at Runge Conservation Nature Center and Graham Cave State Park

 

We took advantage of relatively warmer weekend temperatures and walked on trails at Runge Conservation Nature Center Saturday afternoon and then at Graham Cave State Park on Sunday. 

Both of these areas are within a thirty minute drive from our home and we typically stop by several times a year to stretch our legs.

 

 

 

 

 

The temperatures in the 40s without wind were ideal for walking in December and we encountered a few fellow hikers.

While we didn't camp, we did recognize our one year anniversary of our first camping trip in Annie, our 1996C210P Roadtrek. The camping trip back in mid-December 2021 was also at Graham Cave State Park. 

You can view a short video slide show that we posted to remember some of our adventures this past year with Annie as we drove 6,133 miles and camped out 32 nights.

Hiking the Woodbine Trail at Babler Memorial State Park

After our National Take a Hike Day post two weeks ago, we made plans to drive to Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park on Saturday, November 19th to participate in the scheduled ranger led walk. 

We enjoyed a lovely morning walk with the park naturalist and several others. The sun was out and the walk was very pleasant.  We feel especially fortunate that we were able to see several frost flowers.

We pulled together a brief slide show on YouTube, Babler Memorial State Park Nat'l Take A Hike Day.

You can also view our route on AllTrails at National Take A Hike Event. We walked just under two miles with elevation change of 210 feet on the Woodbine Trail. Babler State Park also offers a number of other trails and we plan to return for a night or two in the future for more trail walking.

Let us know you favorite trails if you are familiar with Babler State Park or the other parks in the area. You can leave a comment below. Thanks!

High Ridge Trail Loop at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

We enjoyed a lovely morning walk on the High Ridge Trail at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. We were fortunate to be on the trail before 10:00 am and the ground was still relatively firm. I'm sure later in the day that there were very muddy sections once the temperatures increased a bit.

 

Two days previously we walked a bit on this trail to reach the Terry Turner Memorial Bench before returning to the trail head via the connector trail. You can visit our blog post on this earlier walk.

You can see our route and other details of the walk at AllTrails, Morning hike on High Ridge Trail. The entire loop was 1.8 miles with 233 feet of elevation change.

Walking the High Ridge Trail to find the Terry Turner Memorial Bench

After walking on the Devil's Ice Box Trail, we drove a short distance to the Rock Bridge Memorial State Park office.

We were on a mission to see if we could find the Terry Turner Memorial Bench and staff at the office weren't certain, but thought the bench was located at a high point on the High Ridge Trail. They were correct and we located the bench before returning to our vehicle after a 0.6 mile walk with 115 feet of elevation change.

Terry was a close friend  and classmate of Linda who loved hiking and was active with the Sierra Club. She visited the area many times before it became a state park and returned often to its trails over the years. She passed away too early in life. 

We reached the bench and returned via the connector trail planning to return a couple of days later to complete the entire trail. We did then return and I'll post another video of that portion of the trail here in a few days.

You can also visit AllTrails for a map of our route, Morning hike on High Ridge Trail.

Morning Hike on Devil's Ice Box Trail

We enjoyed a wonderful day hiking on a couple of trails at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park in early March.  We then hiked on a bit of the Bear Creek Trail in northern Columbia, MO later in the afternoon. I'll break out the three hikes into separate short blog posts.

Our first walk was a 40 minute along the Devil's Ice Box Trail for 0.74 miles.

The entire trail is routed on a boardwalk where you cross over the Rock Bridge and then up toward Devil's Ice Box. We were fortunate that the gate at the Ice Box was open allowing walkers to descend into the cave. There have been times when park staff closed off this access to protect bats or other life in the cave.

You can follow our route via AllTrails,  Morning hike on Devil's Ice Box Trail.

Leave a comment below if you know how many steps walkers have to ascend and descend on the trail. For some reason, we didn't think to count and plan to return again to find out.

Hiking the Sinkhole Trail

We enjoyed a warm February day walking two trails at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park a few days ago and previously posted information on the Karst Trail. We also completed a 1.5 mile loop on the Sinkhole trail.

The trail surface was generally fine with some thawing and mud...until we began the decent back toward Devil's Ice Box and the parking lot at the trailhead. This last stretch was ice covered or slick mud on a sloping trail surface. Fortunately, we took it slowly and avoided falling.

You can also find more information about hike on AllTrails at https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-hike-d93591b--251.

Annie, our 1996 Roadtrek, awaited our return from another lovely mid-Missouri outing.

 

Mid-February Walk on the Karst Trail

 

We enjoyed a very pleasant mid-February afternoon walk on the Karst Trail at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

You can also visit AllTrails for a map and more details on our walk.

Annie waited patiently while we walked and we were delighted to see her as we returned to the trail head.

Hiking at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

We were able to take advantage of a beautiful sunny day this past Saturday to visit Rock Bridge Memorial State Park just south of Columbia, MO. The state park offers many miles of trials that are popular with hikers and mountain bikers. 

Our focus was the Grassland Trail and corresponding trail head on the southern edge of the park. 

The Grassland Trail is a two mile loop through pleasant terrain with a number of natural sinkholes. There were quite a few other people out enjoying the weather, including a number with dogs.

The trail head also provides access to the Sinkhole Trail. We took a short break after finishing the Grassland Trail loop and walked across the road from the parking lot to begin the Sinkhole Trail. We ended up walking two miles out and back on a couple of connector trails and the wooded paths were a pleasant contrast to the open fields of the Grassland Trail.

Camping at Roaring River State Park during the last week of 2021

 A bit of cooler air has settled over central Missoui as we finish off this first week of 2022. I find it hard to believe that we enjoyed three nights of wonderful camping just last week. We stayed at Roaring River State Park in the southwestern part of the state and it was perfect weather for hiking.

And Annie, our new to us 1996 Roadtrek, performed flawlessly in our second and farthest excursion to-date.  We didn't de-winterize for the trip and chose Roaring River as a destination because it is one of a handful of Missouri State Parks that have heated shower and bathroom facilities. 

We also enjoyed trying out several of our Christmas presents. Linda decided the rocking camp chair performed flawlessly and we cooked steaks on our new Solo stove.

Roaring River State Park is well known for its large natural spring and trout hatchery. It was also a site for CCC and WPA activity in the 1930s and many structures remain from that period. There is also a very nice lodge constructed in recent years that was unfortunately closed for the season when we visited. 

Most of our time was spent hiking and we walked on five of the park's seven trails. You can find brief descriptions of each trail along with trail maps that can be printed.

I am also including links below for a couple of our routes recorded on AllTrails.

Our route on the Devil's Kitchen Trail

Our route on the Springhouse Trail

Here's to a New Year!

 We send well wishes for your new year as we begin 2022. We were fortunate to end this last year in good health and took full advantage of December weather that was unseasonably warm. 

Family members were able to gather for several days and we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon walk on Christmas Day on the Grindstone Trail in Columbia, MO. You can follow along by clicking the video below or view a shorter GoPro Quick edit of the Christmas Day Walk.

 

After family members returned home, we left in our 1996 Roadtrek for three nights of camping and hiking at Roaring River State Park in southwest Missouri. 

 

Linda tried out her new rocking camp chair and Solo stove.  And, El Halcón, our spirit animal, flew in to check up on our well being.  We were also able to hike on five different trails in the park. 

We then returned home just before lower temperatures and freezing precipitation arrived on New Years Day. We just finished a video and it will be live on our YouTube channel before too long.

We'll be watching the weather for windows of warmer temperatures and see if we can squeeze in additional camping trips here in Missouri or a bit further south in Arkansas. Stay tuned and let us know what adventures you are planning for 2022.