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. 

Late September Hiking at the Prairie Garden Trust

 

We enjoyed a lovely fall morning walking at the Prairie Garden Trust near Fulton & New Bloomfield, MO. Rain was predicted and we worried a bit about muddy trails with all the rain we have been receiving. Fortunately there was no rain and the trail surfaces were good.

PGT welcomes visitors to stroll around the PGT April through October. They ask that you let them know a day ahead if it’s your first visit to the area. Contact information and maps are available on their web site.

You can click on the photo above or use the following url https://youtu.be/Gpoeh6rrN7E to see a short video compilation of photos.

You can also see more details on our PGT walk at AllTrails.

Walking at the Prairie Garden Trust

 
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon walking at the Prairie Garden Trust (PGT) just south of Fulton in Callaway County, MO.

The PGT offers an amazing area with multiple trails and paths that wind through a variety of settings. You can view ponds, lakes, prairie, or woods. We particularly enjoy dropping down to walk along Hillers Creek.

We walked 3.67 miles with 226 feet of elevation change and you can visit AllTrails for a map and related details for our walk.

Visit the PGT website for upcoming events, maps, and more information.

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.

Turkey Creek Trail in Three Creeks Conservation Area

Earlier in the day we walked on the Deer Run Trail at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. The Turkey Creek Interpretative Trail was our afternoon walk after a quick lunch in Annie, our 1996C210P Roadtrek, and a short 15-minute drive to the Three Creeks Conservation Area.

We thoroughly enjoyed the loop and will look forward to returning again. There were four or five water crossing and number of interpretive signs linked to a brochure with details. 

You can watch a short YouTube video of our walk via "Turkey Creek Trail in Three Creeks Conservation Area."

You can also view our route on AllTrails. The loop was 2.97 miles with 187 feet of elevation change. The Conservation Department was concluding a controlled burn which added a bit of excitement as we approached the end of the loop and the last ridge walk.

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!

Update on our Blog and Videos...

It has been a while since we've posted anything....not for lack of travel or walking...and don't have any useful explanation beyond we're retired and it is sometimes hard for some of us (me!) to do what is needed or desired. 

I am beginning work on accumulated videos for our YouTube channel and will begin working up blog posts to track our 2022 adventures.

We did just return from a couple of nights chasing leaves and fall colors across mid-Missouri in Annie and the photo above is one Linda took while we camped at the Ray Behrens Corp of Engineers Campground at Mark Twain Lake. 

Afternoon Hike on the County House Trail

We hiked the County House Trail in Columbia, MO on a cool and windy March afternoon. We started from the Forum Trail Head on the MKT Trail. We walked 5.5 miles with 92 feet of elevation change.

The trail has a crushed rock surface until you pass the Twin Lakes Recreation Area where it is paved.

You can see a map of our route on AllTrails, Afternoon hike on County House Trail.

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.

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.

Walking at the Grindstone Nature Area

 Columbia, MO is blessed with an extensive trail network and a varied community of trail users. While it is a short drive for us from the nearby town where we live, we try to fit in a walk when we are in Columbia to visit family or our dulcimer teacher. We squeezed in a pleasant walk at the Grindstone Nature Area a few days ago in early February.

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.

Walking the Trails at the Springfield, MO Conservation Nature Center

We made a quick overnight trip to Springfield, MO in mid-September 2021 and returned to the Springfield Conservation Nature Center to walk on their trails before returning home. 

You can view our path via AllTrials. We walked just over four miles with elevation change of 289 feet.

The Missouri Conservation Department offers a number of nature and education centers. We created a map of the centers listed on the conservation department's web site. You can click on an icon/marker and find more information on each center via Google Maps.

Walking Two Trails in Mexico, MO

 

We drove in Annie, our Roadtrek, to Mexico, MO for our Friday outing and completed trails in two city parks. The Lakeview Park Trail and the Green Estates Park Trail are pleasant paved loops of roughly one mile each. 

The trails and parks are well maintained. They are also popular destinations and easy to access with plenty of parking options. 

You can view our YouTube video via the link below.