Wildflower Hikes: Trail Among the Trees
A nearby and old favorite- Trail Among the Trees at Rockwood Reservation!
This trail is at Rockwood Reservations. This is a conservation area, one of the oldest in Missouri. I have strong and fond memories of attending day camps and outdoor activities here as a kid, and I love this area. There are several great trails out here, and it is a super popular place to hike, bike, picnic, and birdwatch. Click here for a link to a map of the area.
Trail Among the Trees is my favorite. There’s variety and it’s beautiful. It’s listed on the map as 1.5 miles long, but All Trails has it just under two miles long The end of the trail does not completely loop to the trail head, so you will have to walk between them. There is also a connection to the Lime Kiln Trail, and doing these together makes an absolutely delightful hike. The trail is a mix of natural and paved surface.
It truly is a trail among the trees, as it climbs up a ridge and back down again. The elevation gain is about 250 feet. You begin on a paved trail that switches up the slope. This is a gorgeous run. You get up to natural surface and rocky surface and you emerge on the edge of a ridge with a gorgeous view of the tree tops. And there’s a bench. 🙂
You then continue to rise up the ridge and then walk along the ridge among the treetops for a while. This is paved again. Then you switch back down the ridge and there are a couple of bridges and you follow above the creek, then descend down to a creek crossing. You then follow a natural surface trail next to a creek and a bluff for a while until you come out on the road. There used to be a staircase, but the trail is rerouted at this time.
This is one of my favorite trails, and it is often what I choose on my birthday becauase of all the wildflowers! There is something magical about walking among the treetops when the dogwoods and redbuds are blooming, along with the bright spring green leaves appearing. It makes you feel things.
