A fall break with this one

Sarah had a bit of a Fall Break and asked if we could do something.

Well, yeah.

I had recently read about Elephant Rock State Park about an hour south of St. Louis and suggested we try that. This is an area that is familiar to her as a favorite spot for hiking and camping. There are a number of State Parks, foothills and the highest peak in Missouri all within about a half hour of our destination.

We only did the 1 mile hike around the rocks, but made several forays off the well-marked path to climb and explore. It is just beautiful and lots of fun for all ages. We could imagine our little people exploring all the nooks and crannies. The path is wheel chair accessible (though it would be a bit of a challenge with all the leaves) and the interesting markers along the path include Braille on the signage.

So here are some fun photos of our day.

We arrived about noon and used one of the many picnic tables by the parking area for our lunch.

It turned out to be a borgas-smorg.

After lunch, we started out on the trail. We hadn’t gone far when we marveled at this tree that ate a rock or so it seems…

We also found a rock that looked like it ate a tree…

Later we were climbing out to check out the “elephants and we could look across at the tree and see it’s trunk coming up between the crevices of a big rock.

The foliage was beautiful and we saw so many of these scrappy trees that were all scraggly and close to the ground or reaching up to the sky that had the biggest red oak leaves.

Sarah used her plant app and we found out these are Black Jack Oak trees. Of course I googled and found out they range from Northeast down through Midwest to the South and grow best in poor soil. I would say a rock is about as poor of soil as you can find.

We loved them.

From the area where the “elephants” are – huge rocks that if you squint and use your imagination you can sort of see the herd, we had a wonderful view of the Taum Sauk mountain foothills.

We did some bird watching and just sat a while in the warmth of the sun being thankful for the beauty and also if you look to the right of that picture you might see an elephant..

The glacial rock was used for quarrying building material for St. Louis back in the day, and this lovely watering hole is the result.

Some other delights were the many passages between the rocks that invited off-roading, and made us think that there have to be fairy houses tucked away in all kinds of fun places.

God even left a heart for me, as is His way…

We spent about two hours with our lunch, exploring paths off the beaten trail and sitting for a while to just be together.

We decided to stop for a chai tea break on the way back to St. Louis and found this little place in Leadington, Missouri.

It was cute and the beverages refreshed us.

We made our way back to where I left my car in a Sam’s lot in South County, hugged and parted ways.

Best. Day. Ever.

If you are local, this is wonderful day trip. You bypass the downtown St. Louis traffic from our area and get to enjoy the scenic views of 255 around the south side and down to the Arcadia area.

I highly recommend it for road trip.

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