Adventure off the beaten path: Northern MO trail trifecta
Crowder State Park near Trenton, Mo.
Visit three parks in one day, returning with a full tank of nature.
By Roy Harryman
Publisher
Is Northern Missouri at the top of your hiking list? Or is it even on it?
This sparsely populated area is characterized by rolling prairie, pockets of preserved forest and even some steep hills. When everyone else is heading south to the Ozarks, the north is open for the rest of us to experience the quiet solitude of nature. Let’s seize the day!
While there’s much to explore in Missouri’s north, this post will detail a “surgical strike” that can be completed in a long day trip. If you have time to extend it, by all means do so.
First stop: Crowder State Park
The first stop is Crowder State Park, 90 minutes from Downtown Kansas City. Few people realize that northern Missouri’s native habitat was shortgrass prairie mixed with forest. While most of those wooded areas are gone, about 2,000 acres are preserved at Crowder, which is near the town of Trenton. Here, you’ll find rolling hills, ravines and sandstone outcroppings. You’ll also encounter Crowder Lake, the Thompson River, wildflowers and wildlife among this park’s 17 miles of trails.
Clear streams trickle through a valley at Crowder State Park in northern Missouri.
Pershing State Park
About an hour southwest is Pershing State Park, near Laclede. It is another remnant of northern Missouri’s wild past. Pershing centers on what is known as “wet prairie” – the wooded bottomland that follows the meandering Locust Creek. Some of this ecosystem is protected by boardwalks. Birds, reptiles and waterfowl are abundant along the park’s nine scenic miles of trails.
Boardwalks protect the wet prairie ecosystem at Crowder State Park in Missouri.
Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge, in northern Missouri, is hope to myriad species of migrating birds.
Last stop: Swan Lake
The final stop on the trifecta is the 10,000-acre Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge, between the small towns of Laclede and Brunswick. There aren’t any real trails here, but you can easily explore the area by walking its exclusively gravel roads. The wildlife you will see will depend on the time of year you visit, but at the right time it can be spectacular.
In northern Missouri, going off the beaten path means taking an onramp to secluded corners of nature at its best.
Roy Harryman is the publisher of Kansas City Hiker.