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I am well aware that much of the country does not think of Missouri first when they think of “outdoor adventure”, and that’s just fine. As a state positioned dead center in the continental U.S., we enjoy an abundance of resources that result from being a point of convergence: the convergence of cultures (and the legacies of those cultures- often this is a struggle too), the convergence of the largest rivers in North America, the convergence of a once sprawling ocean and once soaring mountains, lost in time, but leaving a geological uniqueness found little elsewhere on Earth. It’s all here, and frankly, if you want to flyover it, that’s fine too; it just keeps the crowds down for those of us that choose to revel in it.

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A rather diminutive sign, one on each side of a small parking lot, greats visitors to Hickory Canyons Natural Area. The State’s Natural Areas are not managed by the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the State Parks, but are instead  maintained by the Department of Conservation, which also cares for Missouri’s Conservation Areas. The Natural Areas tend to be smaller than State Parks (though not always), and are designed to preserve areas of unique ecology still existing as they were in a time prior to western civilization’s encroachment.

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The water was rushing and I was thirsty, so I drank out of the swollen stream above using my Lifestraw Flex water filter. It was so cool, and delicious! These little, lightweight filters are easy to add to an existing kit, and in addition to things like bacteria and protozoa, they reduce or remove lead, some chemicals and fertilizers, and micro plastics. Sort of a no-brainer if you don’t like hauling heavy liters of water around all day, and they provide clean drinking water to communities around the world in desperate need of it (I may do a review of my water filter and other outdoor gear in the future; let me know in the comments if you’d like that).

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photo by @skiye30 of me crossing one of the streams

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image of @skiye30 (Isaac Richardson) setting up a shot

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One of the persevering nicknames of Missouri is “the cave state”, and that is for good reason. The karst topography of the State features more than 6,000 known caves (there are only approximately 17,000 caves in the whole U.S.). The caves have factored into local lore as well, from the story of Tom Sawyer, to the legend of MoMo, to their real life use as natural refrigerators for lagering (ever wonder why Anheuser-Busch is in STL?). The State even possesses some extremely rare cave formations, such as the “showerhead and bathtub” formation at Ozark Caverns in Lake of the Ozark State Park, one of only 14 such formations known to exist in the whole world. At Hickory Canyons, the box canyons feature many small, cave-like indents right along the trail.

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me enjoying the view, photo by @skiye30

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One of the things that makes Hickory Canyons really special is it’s abundance of wet-weather waterfalls. As you begin hiking, little ribbons of water tumble across the path seemingly every few feet (sometimes coursing along the path itself), and it’s a question where they must all be heading. The thunder of cascading water that you hear echoing through the forest is a clue. When you finally catch up to the source of the sound, a moment of awe transcends, and the stigma of Missouri wilderness as unexceptional instantly evaporates. On this April day, we observed no less than twelve waterfalls over the course of only 1.25 miles of trail, and while those were not all spectacular torrents, it’s still some great waterfall density, not just for Missouri, but for anywhere in the lower 48.

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me standing in front of a second huge waterfall, photo by @skiye30

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@skiye30, photographing the waterfall and his return stream crossing

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