Driving about 45 minutes south of St. Louis you can check out two remains of low-water dams and mills in Cedar Hill and Morse Mill. Just in time for Halloween, Morse Mill also has a spooky past. CEDAR HILL PARK I stopped at the seven-acre Cedar Hill Park and explored the grounds walking down to the Big River. Here I walked along the shoreline with…
Find remains of a mill and take a walk along Big River at Byrnes Mill City Park south of Fenton, Mo. just off of Missouri Highway 30. Arriving at the Park A playground faces a parking lot at the center of Byrnes Mill along Byrnes Mill Road. I checked out this park with my son who of course first wanted to do the playground. A…
A tall narrow cave in limestone is at the end of a two-mile out-and-back hike at Sandy Creek Natural Tunnel Conservation Area. (Sadly, this land is no longer available for hiking and no longer open to the public) Created when a stream branch took a shortcut to Sandy Creek creating a natural tunnel. The tunnel is 12 feet wide, and 16 feet high inside a…
Two mighty rivers, the Mississippi and Missouri, come together at the Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones- Confluence Point State Park. The park is located east of West Alton, Mo., in St. Charles County, Mo. You can see this point after a short .6-mile out and back hike with only 20 feet of elevation gain. The trail surface is a mix of paved and unpaved sections…
Hiking along Big Creek and exploring prairie fields and wooded hills is a day at Indian Camp Creek Park north of Wentzville, Mo. It is St. Charles County’s largest park at 603 acres and has more than ten miles of trails. At the Parking Lot at Indian Camp Creek Park I parked in the first lot after the equestrian parking. Near parking are a playground,…
Seeing buffalo and hiking out on a bluff that juts out towards the water was part of my time at Buffalo Rock State Park near Ottawa, Ill. After stopping here, we went into Ottawa and had lunch at a local brewery, and walked around the historic Washington Park with Abraham Lincoln connections. (This was our first stop on our trip to the Starved Rock State…
Hike through woods and along a stream in the heart of suburban south county St. Louis at Officer Blake C. Snyder Memorial Park. Long Loop and Out and Back I hiked about 3.2 miles using the different trails in the park and taking some short trails out to Gravois Creek and back. Starting the Hike I parked near the playground and shelter house and headed…
Hiking around a crystal-clear lake and finding myself alone at a huge sandy beach was my day at Council Bluff Lake.
Lower Meramec Park is a walk-through flat bottomland forest with Meramec River views with a trailhead just off of Interstate 55.
Hiking by small ponds and seeing wildlife is part of a day on the trails at Glen Travis Park and Rabbit Run Park in St. Peters, Mo. The parks are located not far from the Mid Rivers Mall shopping area in a suburban neighborhood. About The Walk This was a paved 1.3-mile loop hike with an out and back to Dardenne Creek and using the…
