I’m heading off for a 10 day tour of the St Francois Mountains of SE Missouri.  I’ve been in the area only once before, at Bell Mountain, and there are so many other places nearby that have been on my must-see list.  I should be able to hit all of them plus a couple others in this one trip.

The itinerary includes hiking at Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness, Crane Lake Recreation Area, Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park, Elephant Rocks State Park, Hughes Mountain Natural Area, trail work at Council Bluff Lake, some sort of trip to Bell Mountain Wilderness and/or Meramec State Park, and a hike at Graham Cave State Park east of Columbia on the way home.

This will be my first real vacation in about 30 years and should be a pretty good adventure.