Abandon the car. Trust your feet. Treat your senses. If you are looking for hiking trails, the Middle Mississippi River Valley along the Great River Road has some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere and easily accessible hiking trails in the United States.
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Battle of Athens State Historic Site
Revere, Missouri
The Battle of Athens State Historic Site has 3 trails providing a little over 2 miles of trails for hiking. The Snow Trillium trail leads hikes through a natural area while the Mill Trail skirts portions of the historic Civil War battle site.
Wakonda State Park
LaGrange, Missouri
Wakonda State Park has 8 trails providing more than 15 miles of multi-use trails for hiking and biking. These are ideal for bird watching or view the park’s rare sand prairie flora and several run along the shores of the park’s lakes.
Siloam Springs State Park
Clayton, Illinois
Siloam Springs State Park has about 12 miles of scenic hiking trails that go from valleys to flatlands throughout the park, including a combination 6-mile hiking and backpacking trail. Most trails are easy, but Hoot Owl at 1.5 miles and Red Oak backpack trail at 4 miles are moderate.
Cuivre River State Park
Troy, Missouri
Cuivre River State Park is one of the state’s largest and most rugged parks and brings to mind the Ozarks in an area otherwise predominately dominated by agricultural. The park’s 10 trails provide about 40 miles of trails for hiking with some that allow horseback riding. The trails traverse through all of the park’s natural features including native prairie, sinkhole ponds, woodlands, and a clear, rock-bottomed stream. Big Sugar Creek is one of the finest undisturbed streams left in northeastern Missouri. Several trails lead through the Lincoln Hills Natural Area and its many unique natural features. spring when many woodland wildflowers are abundant in the spring and wildflowers coexist with the prairie grasses in the summer and the fall.
Ted Shanks Conservation Area
Ashburn, Missouri
Ted Shanks Conservation Area is located in northern Pike County at the confluence of the Salt and Mississippi Rivers. Ted Shanks Conservation Area consists of 6,705 acres and contains a variety of habitats including bottomland hardwood timber, marshes, emergent wetlands, agricultural row crops, oxbow lakes and sloughs, old fields, and upland woods. Over 35 miles of levees and a 1/3-mile Disabled-Accessible Trail provide excellent hiking opportunities. Bald Eagles can be seen in the colder months.
McCully Heritage Project
Kampsville, Illinois
The McCully Heritage Project was created by an endowment by the late Howard and Eva McCully and its focus is on cultural and environmental enjoyment, education, and preservation. Located about 1 mile south of the Kampsville Free Ferry off of the Great River Road, the Project consists of 940 acres encompassing woodlands, prairie, wetlands, and agricultural land. With over 15 miles of hiking trails traveling through this diverse terrain, the area is truly a hiker's delight.
Pere Marquette State Park
Grafton, Illinois
Hikers will find a variety of hiking opportunities at the Pere Marquette State Park with 10 trails that total approximately 12 miles. The trails' ratings range from easy to difficult and travel through a variety of habitats. There are 9 scenic overlooks along the trails that provide the hiker with a panorama of the countryside. The trails are color-coded and are clearly marked with paint on the trees and signposts.
Olin Nature Preserve
Godfrey, Illinois
Located on the top of the Mississippi bluffs in Godfrey, the Olin Nature Preserve is a 300 acre Illinois Nature Preserve with wide trails through woodlands and native hill prairies, and contains several scenic views overlooking the Mississippi River. The Preserve is closed from November 15 to March 15.
Heartland Prairie
Alton, Illinois
Take a trip back in time to see what Illinois once looked like. Although Illinois still is known as the "Prairie State," less than 0.01% of Illinois' original 21 million acres of prairie remains in isolated patches around the state. One such place is the 27 acre tall grass Heartland Prairie on the north side of Gordon Moore Park. The Heartland Prairie was planted by the Sierra Club in 1977. This oasis of native prairie is managed by The Nature Institute, which keeps the trails maintained, provides incredible trail/plant guides, and does annual and semi-annual controlled burns.
Rockwoods Reservation
Wildwood, MO
Rockwoods Reservation is an 1,880 acres conservation area .that has a rich diversity of plant and animal life as well as springs, caves, and rock formations. Cool, moist, north facing ravines and lush creek bottoms contrast with the nearby arid, rocky ridge tops, and south slopes. The terrain is reminiscent of the Ozark hills and, indeed, many plants and animals found in hill country are also found here. The area also includes about 13 miles of foot trails of varying length and difficulty.
Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center
Kirkwood, Missouri
Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center is a 112-acre oasis of an oak and hickory forest in suburban St. Louis. The site offers three paved trails with a combined length of a little over two miles. The 0.3-mile flat Tanglevine Trail is fully accessible and signage interpreting various aspects of the natural aspects of the area. The 1.2-mile Trail of Many Creeks begins with a foot bridge high above the road leading into the park and features a wildlife observation deck and a short loop for less ambitious hikers. The 0.7 mile Broken Ridge Trail goes up and down hills as it travels through the oak and hickory forest that covers Powder Valley.
Laumeier Sculpture Park
Kirkwood, Missouri
The Laumeier Sculpture Park is a 98-acre park with an outdoor sculpture garden that contains a collection of more than 80 sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists. The Park has 3 accessible paved trails traversing 1.5 miles that visit many of the park’s pieces. During regular Museum Gift Shop hours visitors can rent iPods and take an audio tour that focuses on the highlights of the collection. A Blind Maquette Program is available for some of the sculptures. This program features a sculptor's three-dimensional sketch, a way of viewing the piece and working out the details before actually making the real thing. Several maquettes with Braille text plaques are installed near the full-sized sculptures to allow visitors with visual impairments to enjoy the works.
John F. Kennedy Memorial Forest
St. Louis, Missouri
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Forest consists of approximately 90 acres of varied habitat in the southwest corner of Forest Park. The Kennedy Forest is crisscrossed with a network of trails of all sorts. Some trails are wide and paved to accommodate both pedestrians and bicyclists. Other trails are wide gravel trails that give visitors a more natural experience. One of the most important trails is the John F. Kennedy Trail, commonly called the Boardwalk. This trail, which is just under a 1/2 mile in length, was built to ADA specifications. The trail zig zags along a gentle slope through the forest with wooden boardwalks traversing the small ravines and gullies.
Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park
Wildwood, Missouri
A horse trail, a paved trail, and four looped hiking trails offer different views, landscapes and distances that wind their way through Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park's narrow coves, deep sheltered valleys and towering forests. Two miles of trail are paved; however, the trail contains slopes that may be prohibitive to some users. More than 200 picnic sites provide outdoor dining opportunities while enjoying the peace and tranquility of the park. The park features maturing old-growth forests, with two areas being particularly noteworthy. In Cochran Woods, century-old white oak, northern red oak, sugar maple and walnut tower over an understory of flowering dogwood, redbud and pawpaw.
