Meramec State Park Weekend

This is going to be a fairly photo intensive post. I'm still a little too tired to put much to words, but I'll say it was a very fun weekend in the woods and a relatively easy hike compared to some we've done in the past. Meramec State Park is about 2.5 hours northeast of Springfield. I imagine it's a sea of people in the summer months, but when you camp with nights down in the 20s, you only see a handful of other campers. Winter makes for a great trail filter.

We started off the trip by hitting up the Swiss Inn in Lebanon, Missouri. After stuffing our faces, we headed to our weekend's destination and set up camp. Brian often makes soups for out camp dinners well ahead of time and freezes them. He then plops them down in a Dutch oven over the fire or on a camp stove and we end up eating really well. I made cornbread and biscuits ahead of time, as well.

Up Saturday morning to a breakfast of potatoes, eggs, bacon and biscuits. Then we hit the 8.5 mile Wilderness Loop Trail for the day. The Wilderness Trail is a nice meandering walk in the woods. It has a little elevation change, but nothing like what we are used to doing in northern Arkansas. There were springs, caves and creeks aplenty, as well a couple nice glades and pine stands.

The ice on the creeks was so thick in places, it begged testing out how thick.

Sunday morning, breakfast followed by more hiking on the shorter trails around the campground. Darren had gotten up earlier than the rest of us and discovered a snake back in a cave. It must have become active during the warm day on Saturday only to have to seek shelter when night fell and the air got well below freezing again.

The Meramec River (See October 2011 post for fishing and kayaking pics).

Sycamore trees along the river.

300+ year old burr oak.

Thanks to Brian D. and Darren G. for another great trip and especially to Darren for the heart felt embarrassment (you arsehole). It was a good trip. Lots of walking, scenery, a couple mom'n'pop restaurants hit and fun BS-ing around the campfire.

For more info on Meramec State Park, copy this link into your web browser: http://mostateparks.com/park/meramec-state-park