Back in May I talked Russ into getting up early on a Saturday morning and driving 90 miles to hike a 2 mile trail. He wasn’t thrilled, he hates getting up early & going that far to hike 2 miles…Really?! I’d heard great things about Pickle Springs Natural Area, my mind was made up. My daughter agreed to watch the dog for the day, no excuses.

My expectations for Pickle Springs were pretty high, based on comments and pictures from friends. My high expectations were blown away again and again that day! A hike that should have taken around 2 hours took us 5 hours! I’m a slow hiker, but there were so many things to explore and climb on and take pictures of! Massive boulders, canyons, bluffs, tall fragrant pine trees…a favorite of mine but not very common in Missouri. The only drawback…too many people. Although I can’t blame anyone for wanting to be there! This is definitely one of my top 3 trails…so far!! We are for sure going to hike this trail in the fall and winter.

 I’ll let the many pictures I took tell the rest, after all…a picture is worth a thousand words!

Earlier I said the only drawback was too many people. I should have said disrespectful people. Nothing pisses me off more than finding trash along the trail, or so I thought. On a giant boulder, some nit wit thought being the one and only graffiti artist would be a good thing. NOT! Keep it on the bathroom stalls, please. And by the canyon, I found…eewwww…a pair of men’s underwear! And later, a couple different socks. How does one not know they lost A sock or their underwear?!! Ugggg 

This canyon area was beautiful. Pictures don’t do it justice. There was a small tunnel at one end of it and Russ managed to climb through. I hiked around to the other side and waited and waited, all kinds of disastrous thoughts running through my head! He made it, no problems.

The next set of pictures are from my favorite area. Pine trees everywhere!! It smelled so good! And the views were spectacular!