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St. Louis Outdoor Adventures
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Dedicated to providing the best information about amazing outdoor destinations & experiences within a 3 hour drive of St. Louis.
Amazing adventures, close to home.
I finally got back to paddling the Meramec River. For this weekend's trip, we decided to head to the top of Section II, a 10-mile section from Campbell Bridge to Sappington Bridge near Bourbon Missouri. A lot of minor things went wrong and left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for this trip but it was still a beautiful section of the river. ![]()
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I recently built out a kayak rack for may trailer so I could hall 6 kayaks easily and securely. We loaded up 5 kayaks on the new trailer and headed to the pull-out point at Sappington Bridge Access, a 1 hour, 15 minute drive. The trailer did great on the highway but the last road to the access point had some monster potholes that appeared suddenly and one was enough to make the top kayak jump off the rack to freedom. I only found out about this when we got to Sappington Bridge Access and my friend said, "Didn't you have 5 boats when we left?". We quickly drove back about a 1/2 mile and found the escapee safely on the side of the road where some kind soul had move it out of harms way. Luckily, the damage was very minimal.![]()
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After retrieving the kayak, we drove the wrong way on a dirt road for about 3 miles before realizing the error of our ways. We then managed to correctly follow the directions we had pre-downloaded from Google (no cell signal) along a rough dirt road for 10 miles. My new kayak rack, which I designed to be easy to disassemble into small pieces, failed it's 2nd real-world test in minor ways a few times and answered a question I had while building it of, "Do I really need to worry about the whole rack lifting up 6 inches and coming out of the slide in holders on the trailer?" with a very strong, yes, yes I do. A couple ratchet straps should solve that problem. ![]()
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We finally arrived at Campbell Bridge Access at around 1pm. There were several other groups also putting-in from the 3 outfitters (Blue Springs Ranch, 3 Bridges Canoe Rental, Ozark Outdoors) that service that section of the river. Loaded the boats, lathered on the sunscreen, and got on the water at 1:20pm. ![]()
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This section of the Meramec proved to be fairly crowded for a Sunday afternoon. Power boats, jet skis, rafts, and kayaks. I'm used to having the lower Meramec largely to myself. This was much more crowded than I've gotten used to but nowhere near approaching the party atmosphere the Huzzah and Current can become on Saturdays. ![]()
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The river here is very pretty with lots of towering exposed sandstone bluffs, forested hills, and lowland forests and farmland. Not much development in the section. Just a few cottages along the way. The rapids were all very tame class I's and there weren't many of those. It took about 4 hours of very relaxed paddling/floating with lots of breaks to stop and swim. ![]()
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Between the relatively long drive to get here, the 30 minute drive between the put-in and pull-out, the crowds, and the lack of rapids, I don't really plan to come back to this section anytime soon. There are closer sections with better rapids, easier shuttling, and less crowds that are equally pretty. We did find a much better, paved route between the Sappington Bridge and Campbell Bridge for retrieving the canoe trailer but it still took an hour round trip and that's just too long for a 10-mile section of river.
A deluge of rain Saturday morning wasn't so good for my boys' baseball games but did provide a fabulous opportunity for me to chase some new waterfalls. After consulting a recent Waterfall post from the Midwest Nomads (link below), I decided to see what the Myron and Sonia Glassberg Family Conservation Area had to offer. Spectacular! (mostly)...![]()
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Before I even left the parking lot, a nice mini-waterfall greeted me. Then, a beautiful stream flows parallel to the path from the very start. Within a 150 yards of the parking lot is a beautiful 6 foot waterfall just off to the left of the path. ![]()
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If you go right at the fork, the path follows along the stream with some beautiful sandstone formations on the left and then quickly leads to another beautiful shorter-but-wider waterfall. That first 1/2 mile or so was the prettiest part of the 3.1 mile hike (at least on that particular day). ![]()
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From there, you follow what seems to be an old driveway climbing up to what I'm guessing used to be a house not so long ago. I had to jump over one fairly wide section where the stream crossed the driveway. Another half-mile up there is a nice, small lake. From the lake, I ended up taking what I'll call an inner-loop trail that led around the lake and while it was well-marked, it clearly is no longer maintained or used much. Might be best to avoid that. Instead continue up the driveway path. ![]()
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At the old homestead site, I freed a stuck turtle but then was hoping for some views of the Meramec River valley but was thwarted by the thick Spring foliage. Further along the trail, an overlook sign lead me to an interesting rock outcropping that looked like it might provide decent views but I decided to skip the view as the rumbling of thunder in the distance was clearly getting louder plus the winds were picking up and shifting indicating. A storm was imminent and my current spot high on a ridge was likely not an ideal place to greet it. ![]()
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So, I hustled along for a bit, but didn't hustle enough as I was still on a fairly exposed ridge when the storm reached me. Not a lot of lighting at that point but a heavy rain with a few minutes of dime-sized hail increased the adventure aspect of the journey. ![]()
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The storm soon faded to a nice drizzle for the remainder of the hike. The last 3rd of the hike wound through a mix of woods and what I'm guessing was some old farmland with a mix of newer forest and meadows. Nice, but nothing spectacular. As I got closer to the start of the trail, I again had to cross streams a couple times. ![]()
I'm glad I wore a Gore-Tex jacket and "waterproof" boots but even though both mostly performed admirably, pretty much all of me was quite damp by the end of the hike but it was warm enough it didn't bother me. ![]()
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I'm not sure what the creek and falls might look like in less-wet weather (though I definitely hope to visit again soon). I would guess there would be some flowing water in the creek except during dry summer and autumn times. But, I'm quite sure if you want roaring waterfalls, your best bet would be after a good rain during Spring or late Winter. #hikemissouri #waterfalls #MissouriAdventure #stlouisoutdoors
Spring blooms along the Meramec Greenway. Perhaps the best wild flower display I've even seen. Bluebells, woodland phlox, and blue-eyed Marys along the Rock Hollow and Al Foster trails. These pics are from Saturday. Get out quick if you want to see them as the coming heat will decimate them quickly![]()
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If you park at the Al Foster Memorial Trailhead it is a flat and easy bike or walk towards Sherman Beach Park on an 8' wide crushed limestone path that follows the flooded Meramec River. Take the left onto the paved Rock Hollow trail for the best of the blue bells. #greatriversgreenway #alfostertrail #rockhollowtrail #meramecgreenway
"Don't go chasing waterfalls" is terrible advice IMHO. Chasing waterfalls is awesome! But for waterfalls around St. Louis, you really need wet conditions for most waterfalls to actually have, well, falling water. So maybe it should be, "Don't go chasing waterfalls in Missouri in the Summer during dry conditions..." I guess that doesn't work as well as a song so TLC just shortened it... ![]()
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Anywho, Midwest Nomads has a great list of the best waterfalls in our area. Definitely worth checking out with all this rain and coolness we've been having.
While I'm a big fan of whitewater, my neighbor's preferred form of kayaking is, "sneaking up on turtles". Today, he introduced me to a new-to-me place, Dresser Island (Pool 26). ![]()
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I found it to be a rather fascinating drive to a largely undiscovered area located 10 minutes North of 367 on the Missouri side of the Mississippi. A nice spot to explore the sloughs and wetlands off the Mississippi. Abundant birds and wildlife with calm, sheltered waters make this a very relaxing paddle. Definitely one I will do again soon.
What is the best 3-5 mile hike under an hour's drive from Clayton? A friend asked me this question today. Figured I share my thoughts here but would love to hear from others. ![]()
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My top 2 are Lewis and Clark and Castlewood as they have beautiful views over river valleys and nice creeks. But he had already done both of those and wanted something new. ![]()
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My next tier would be Don Robison State Park, Lone Elk and Rockwoods Reservation (Lime Kiln and Trail Through the Trees). Greensfelder and Cliff Cave are right up there too. ![]()
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Powder Valley is the absolute closest that is still a really nice hike with a great creek. Emmenegger is just on the other side of 270 from Powder Valley and is also a great quickie. ![]()
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Right at an hour, you've got Pere Marquette State Park and St. Francis State Park. Pere Maquette has so much to offer, it is better for a full-day trip. St. Francis State Park has a great hike along a beautiful creek with a nice cascades section. ![]()
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If you are willing to go a bit over an hour, Pickle Springs and Hawn State Park are totally worth it. ![]()
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Thoughts?
Jutting unexpectedly out of bottomland farms, a spine of limestone bluffs walls in the Mississippi flood plains in Illinois for a long stretch just South of St. Louis. The most majestic of these bluffs, following a previous life as a very active mine, have been turned into a great hiking trail, the Salt Lick Point trail. The mines still exist within the bluffs, with massive holes still visible, but now serve as a massive cold-storage facility. ![]()
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The hiking trail is great with lots of scenic views of the Mississippi River valley. Both sides of the trail fall precipitously off as you start the hike with a steep climb that quickly provides a towering view of the landscape. Definitely not the right hike for anyone with weak hearts or knees but for those looking for a new, unique, this a great one.
Lots of great hikes and info in this piece along with a few decent photos. I've added several hikes to my TO DO list based on this. Definitely worth a read. www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/we-did-52-hikes-in-2021-here-s-what-we-learned/article_79260773-dffb-...
We did 52 hikes in 2021. Here’s what we learned.
www.stltoday.com
To help get you started on your own 52-Hike Challenge in 2022, here are some of our favorites from the past year.
With yesterday's snow, I decided I wanted to find a new creek to hike and LaBarque Creek Conservation Area is somewhere I've been meaning to check out for years. It is a beautiful 3 mile hike not far from Don Robinson State Park. We didn't find as many frozen water falls and creeks as I was hoping but we only stuck to the trail yesterday and, often, much of the best stuff is off trail. Definitely want to visit LCCA in other seasons to see it's beauty year round. It could definitely be a new favorite.
I love catching a sunset over the water from my kayak but on this particular day, I pulled off the water a good bit before sunset and decided to explore Route 66 State Park by car and foot and it turned out to be one of the best sunsets I've seen in Missouri. Planning to do a sunset bike ride there this year. Photos from June 25, 2021