Hughes Mountain Natural Area was the next stop on day 3 and another wonderful surprise. The glade on top was far bigger, and the view was far more expansive than I imagined. Continue reading
Day 3 started at Elephant Rocks State Park, a bit north of Johnson’s Shut-ins.
Saturday afternoon was spent at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park. The park has reopened in stages following the Big Flood, with the final piece being the new campground opening April 2010.
Saturday morning I headed for Taum Sauk Mountain State Park. Besides being the highest point in Missouri, it’s also home to the tallest waterfall and deepest valley in the state so I expected some great scenery. Continue reading
Crane Lake Recreation Area was next on the itinerary. It’s a 100 acre man-made lake circumscribed by a 5 mile trail that is one of the few National Recreation Trails in the state. Continue reading
My adventures started with a day hike at Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness, the smallest of Missouri’s wilderness areas and probably the least-visited. The trail begins on Little Grass Mountain and proceeds south to the top of Rock Pile Mountain. The trail is unmarked but was generally easy to follow since I had a map to give me a clue which way to go. Continue reading
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.
“A Complete Guide to Hiking and Backpacking in Missouri” describes the Piney Creek Wilderness as “a terrain of tortured roughness” and “Hiking Missouri” gives its Lookout Tower Trail the highest difficulty rating (5 boots!) so I was immediately smitten, of course. Still, it took nearly a year for me to get there, which I did on my way back from the North Sylamore Creek trip.
Yet another tower that can't be climbed
I intended to hike the 4 mile Lookout Tower Trail loop counter-clockwise. The trail south to the creek was easy enough to follow, as was the part that ran along the south side of the creek. The trail heading back north, however, turned out to be a different one a little further east. Instead of heading up a drainage and then gradually climbing onto a ridge, it climbed about 350 feet right up the steep tail-end of the ridge. There were some switchbacks but even they were pretty steep. Fortunately, after that climb you have more than a mile of relatively level trail.
The main purpose of this trip was reconnaissance for future backpacking trips. I had read comments on-line that said that the terrain was so rugged that it was difficult to find areas to camp. Along the south-bound leg of the trail I saw two areas that had been used before – with fire rings – where one could probably cram 4 tents. Along that ridge on the north-bound leg I think you could fit many more and be less crowded.
I saw just a tiny bit of the area but it looks promising and is about 1/2 hour closer (and less used?) than Paddy Creek Wilderness, so I’ll definitely be back. Someday I’ll make it to the nearby Roaring River State Park as well, to hike the interesting-sounding trails there.
I’ve now seen 6 of Missouri’s 8 wilderness areas and may be able to see another (Rock Pile Mountain) within the month.
For some time, the local Sierra Club group has done an annual trip to the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area in north central Arkansas. The main attraction for me has been the 23-mile North Sylamore Creek Trail. During my first visit last year I hiked the Allison to Gunner Pool sections. This year I did the Cripple Turkey to Gunner Pool sections so I’ve now hiked the entire trail.
Backing up a bit, Blanchard Springs was closed this year, apparently due to recent flooding, so we stayed at the next campground to the west – Gunner Pool. On Friday 4 of us drove to the Barkshed trail head and hiked back to Gunner Pool.
We were planning to hike the Cripple Turkey to Barkshed sections on Saturday but for various reasons the others weren’t able to do it. One was kind enough to drive me to Cripple Turkey and drop me there so I could hike 13.5 miles back to Gunner Pool.
My ride leaves. I’m kinda committed now.
Besides being the western end of the North Sylamore Creek Trail, the Cripple Turkey trail head is also the intersection with the Sylamore section of the Ozark Highlands Trail.
The section between Cripple Turkey and Cole Fork Road was a nice walk in the woods but there was nothing particularly scenic about it. It’s a relatively new trail and needs more traffic to help keep grass from growing in the tread.
This large tree was growing in less than a foot of soil on top of a rock slab. It was bound to fall over.
An orienteering control point next to the trail
The trail crosses Barkshed Creek on the west side of the Cole Fork Road trail head. This was a nice place to eat lunch and resupply with water.
Between Cole Fork Road and Barkshed are some scenic areas.
This is a particularly nice area about 1/2 mile north of the Barkshed trail head where the trail follows the bluff around a bend in the creek.
Looking downstream from the bridge at Barkshed trail head
Of course, the wildflowers were great. The bluffs were often draped in hydrangea, heuchera, columbine, and shooting star that grew from crevices.
Spiderwort – Tradescantia
Columbine – Aquilegia
Shooting Star – Dodecatheon
Maybe next year I’ll try hiking the entire trail in one (long!) day.
I spent the weekend at or near Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas with a group from the Adventure Club. The main objective was to backpack the 15-mile Butterfield Trail (which is mostly next door in the Ozark National Forest) and then see some of the short trails in the park if time permitted.
The carved and elaborately-painted sign at the entrance
We started at the Lee Creek trail head near campground “A” where we were greeted by an albino squirrel.
Albino squirrel
We crossed the creek, passed the walk-in camping area, and then headed up a long, but not steep, climb. After about 2.5 miles we left the park and entered the ONF.
Heading across Lee Creek to the trail head
So many acres, so little time!
The trails were well-marked with one notable exception but a map is still a good idea. There are a few horse trails in the area so those can be combined with the hiking trail to get some different lengths if desired.
One of many small waterfalls
Major rock fractures in Quaill Valley
Climbing up through Butterfield Falls
Lee Creek, just south of the park boundary
The sky was overcast most of the time and we had a couple sprinkles while eating lunch Saturday. We knew before the trip that there was a good chance of some kind of rain on Sunday so I checked the forecast while we set up camp on Sunday. There was a “significant probability of severe storms” for northern Arkansas with reports of tornadoes and baseball-size hail in Oklahoma. We decided to pack and hike-out in the twilight to one of the park’s campgrounds so we could at least take shelter in one of the bathrooms if that came our way. Lesson learned: check the forecast before setting up camp!
A fairly gentle rain started about 6:30 Sunday morning but mostly stopped by 7:30. Oh well. At least we now had more time to explore one of the park’s star attractions: the Devil’s Den Trail. 
Twin Falls
Unfortunately, the light was too dim for my crappy camera to get many non-blurry pictures and the battery ran out of juice too so I don’t have many pictures from that area. Pictures don’t do it justice anyway. Go see it in person!
My SteriPen failed again, and this time the problem is the bulb. It’s a bit over a year old but has a 3 year warranty so I’ll see how that works out. Update: I sent it in for repair and had a replacement in 2 weeks.
Michael R - The Compulsive Hiker
The Compulsive Hiker 