SierraScape January - August 2018
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by Doug Melville
EMG Outings Committee Chair

This is a follow up from our earlier article on our hiking group's plan to visit all 88 Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites as part of the Missouri State Parks Centennial Celebration Passport Program.

Our plan was to first visit the Southeast Region of Missouri. This first go round showed that our ambitious plan to visit all 18 sites in just four days was a lot to accomplish for this large area of the state. We ended up going into the night to get to our motels before calling it a day. We had a deer incident with one of our cars but no person was hurt. The car remained drive-able so we kept on going. Our plan was to stop for at least an hour at each location to hike or to go on a tour of a historic site before pushing on to the next stop. We did accomplish our goal of 18 stops in just 4 days. There were 5 of us that made this journey, Katie Wodell, Tina Mathes, Phil Tomber, Marion Richardson and myself using 3 cars going some 1,200 miles.

After seven weeks, we headed out again on June 5 to the Kansas City Region of Missouri to visit 7 State Parks and 5 State Historic Sites in 4 days and 3 nights. This proved to be a better and less stressful trek as we finished each day by 5:00 PM so that we were able to check into a motel and eat supper at a reasonable hour. This time we never drove at night and only saw deer from afar. In hindsight, it would have been better if we would have used 5 days and 4 nights to see the Southeast Region. Something to remember for the Sesquicentennial celebration in 2067. We kept our same group of 5 only this time we used 2 cars instead of 3 which made for easier following and leading. When we returned to St. Louis, we had driven some 1,100 miles in a 4 day span.

For our final destination, we journeyed to the Southwestern portion of the state known as the Lakes Region to visit 10 State Parks and 4 State Historic Sites. This time to the larger area we needed to cover, we opted for a 5 day, 4 night journey to complete our trek. Because Phil had done most of these locations on an earlier visit by himself, Phil stayed with us for only the first 3 days and completed his passport on August 9 at Nathan Boone's Home to became the first person in our group to complete his Passport Book. The rest of us had to wait until we visited all our stops. I completed mine on August 11 by visiting Table Rock Lake State Park. Katie completed hers on September 13, with a visit to Onondaga Cave State Park. Tina and Marion finished theirs by visiting the First Missouri State Capitol in St. Charles also on September 13.

The parks were all great in their own way from the deep gorge at Grand Gulf State Park with its disappearing water (we drove across the border into Arkansas to see it reappear in Mammoth Spring State Park, Arkansas, some 8 miles away) to Arrow Rock State Historic Site where the movers and shakers lived during the early 19th century when Missouri became a state. The Civil War was played out within the state's boundary. Missouri was 4th in the number of battles fought here. You learn about the size of the state with Missouri being the largest state in the Union when it became the 24th state in 1821 after the Missouri Compromise was approved by Congress. Seeing Harry and Bess' home in Independence (note we also visited the National Sites within Missouri's borders run by the National Parks Service which were also celebrating their Centennial) showed the humble aspects of our 33rd President. Missouri has 4 covered bridges that show the ingenuity and craftsmanship involved with this transportation marvel of the 19th century. From Samuel Clemens' (aka. Mark Twain) humble beginning in Florida, Missouri to his life on the river to end as a great writer and his bad luck with finances, lets us know that even great people have their own problems. Watkins Woolen Mill shed light on what it was like to work in an 19th century factory and their disregard for human life. Missouri has 4 caves in the State Park System (Fisher, Onondaga, Cathedral and Ozark Caves) that are available for tours that show the power of water on limestone and the cave formations created from the ground water leaking through the cave's ceiling. At Ha Ha Tonka State Park you witness the Karst topography of the land where a former cave had its ceiling collapse creating long narrow canyons with steep sides.

Above all we have seen a lot of park enthusiasts from all over the county enjoying the recreational activities that our state offers. The many happy Missourians enjoying our State Parks bring home the fact that Missourians enjoy being outdoors enjoying our parks and relaxing with their families. Our State Parks are one of Missouri's important assets that we want to maintain for our native Missourians as well as any out-of-state visitors for now and for the many generations to come.