St Louis region – Page 11

McKelvey Woods Nature Trail

Warm air and sloppy snow mounds, a chorus of birds and brilliant sunshine; it smells like rain and feels like spring as I head to McKelvey Woods.

It’s a short trail, parallel to Fee Fee Greenway, but separated by the creek and it’s steep muddy banks. It’s not at all quiet, beneath the constant roar of the highway, but somehow feels secluded all the same.

A couple of benches line the trail, and a picnic table nestles into the curve of the creek. Somehow hidden in the tall bare trees, birds and insects call beneath the background roar.

In a single sighting, a tiny bird darts from the brush across the creek, like a cowboy in an old time western, dashing for a better vantage point.

St Ann Park

Wintry dusk and snow melt puddles. The ground is mushy soft even where the snow has managed to soak beneath the surface.

It’s a wonderful playground park, with play structures spaced along it’s length and basketball courts at the end

The towering trees and wide fields, rest quietly in the January still tonight, waiting for spring to bring the return of the squealing laughter of the neighborhood children.

Hellebusch Park

A fast, wet, sloppy snow came through late yesterday afternoon. An inch or so was predicted, but skidding along the highway with my young nephew beside me, I had no idea it was all going to happen over about thirty minutes.

By morning, the roads were cleared, the winds were still, and the parks transformed.

I was a little nervous, standing in the crunchy chunks of scrapped ice in the parking lot. I’d been to this park a few times for summer picnics, but not enough to be very familiar with it. I was pretty sure there was a path around the fishing ponds, but it wasn’t at all obvious where it was.

A radio program, as I climbed out of the truck, had been discussing the health benefits of ice baths. I had no interest in giving it a try right now!

I crept carefully down the hill, the ground was already growing soft and mushy beneath the snow. Firm and paved, the pathway was simple enough to find once I was there.

Two pairs of prints went before me, one human, one meandering canine, circling the pond and drifting to the edge of the woods.

A splash of water pours into the spillway. Birds call, a siren wails, and a snow shovel scrapes on a nearby driveway. The world awakens to meet the day.

Bootleggers Run

I had to try this one based on the name alone.

Skirting a ridge overlooking Creve Couer Lake, the trail seems primarily designed for mountain biking, though the trail head shows both biking and hiking icons.

It’s full of mounds and switchbacks, and it drifts in and out of the trees in a five mile loop. The roar of the nearby interstate is surprisingly muted today. I can’t tell if it’s due to the height of the hill and the cover of the trees, or just a temporary factor of the lowering clouds.

The mist advances to full on drizzle by the time I’m half way around.

High above the lake, it’s beautiful and peaceful in the late winter afternoon.

I suspect it’s much livelier in the summer, between the mountain bikers and the overhead ropes course that share the grounds.

For today, it’s so still that a family of wandering deer barely registers my presence.

Matthews Park

A quick walk today, in the early morning chill. I had only a few minutes between the rising sun and the call of work, so I stopped at a small neighborhood playground nearby. There are no official walking trails, but there’s a sloping field of huge old trees that are beautiful to wander through and alive with the morning songs of the birds.

The watercolor skies brush through the treetops, as I crunch over scattered leaves and knobby hills, infused with the strength to start my day.

McDonnell County Park

I vaguely remember this one. I used to come here years ago to help supervise an 8th grade service day. The kids would lay mulch around flower beds and trees, then eat lunch and play on the playground. I never knew the trail was here.

Designed as a fitness trail, it winding and hilly with challenge structures and instruction boards along the path. A quick breeze stirs dried brown leaves, still clinging to a clump of trees in an eerie rattle.

The playground’s deserted in this wintry late afternoon, the horizon already tinged with the glow of sunset.

Fee Fee Greenway

The paved, curving greenway trail stretches from Maryland Heights Community Center to the edge of Creve Couer Lake Park. It’s not a long trail for bike ride, but it’s a nice short cut to the lake and the Katy Trail connector from there.

It’s mostly deserted today and a little cool despite the slanting afternoon sun. Nature trails wind off the pavement toward the creek. They’re too close to the highway to really be quiet, but even over the dull roar of the traffic, are the sounds of birds and deer and rustling underbrush.

It practically serves as a backyard for the houses edging the park. I wonder how many take advantage of it. The short worn cut-outs from the neighborhoods all along the trail, suggest that many people do.

A quiet picnic alcove, at the end of the nature trail, overlooks the creek and the tangled bramble of winter weeds and mossy branches.

Cliff Caves County Park

So many colors. I expect winter to be grey and brown, but it’s filled with subtle shades begging to be noticed. The weeds along the trail glow bronze and gold in the sunshine. Green moss clings to shaded logs and Sycamore trees tower stark and white in their winter pride.

The park is packed today. Clear skies, bright sun, and winter warmth of temperatures in the mid fifties, brought out families and dogs, mountain bike riders and even a horse or two, crossing the trail ahead of me.

There’s a place for nearly anything you’d want to do here. Paved walkways surrounding the cave, biking trails along the Mississippi River, and multiple side trails for mountain biking and horseback riding.

It’s nowhere near as remote as it feels within the paths. Beautiful homes line the bluffs, and two large parking lots sit within easy access of neighborhood roads and I-255.

Riverwoods Trail

What’s left of it anyway. A part of the expanding Missouri River Greenway, it’s a frequent victim of the equally expanding Missouri River. A section of the trail regularly drops of into the river in the early spring floods. This time, they may have given up on rerouting it again.

It’s accessible still, linked at either end to the Earth City Levee trail. It’s mostly deserted today. Hidden beneath the roar of the Blanchette Bridge, it shelters its flocks of birds and quietly monitors the banks of Old Town St Charles.

Route 66 State Park

I forgot how hard it is to get here. There’s no access from I-44 west. I have to take the next exit and backtrack along the access road. It’s colder today, barely skimming 40. I’m wishing for my hat I left in the truck, but then keep taking off my gloves to write or take pictures.

The park incorporates a section of old Route 66 and is bounded by I-44 and the Meramec River. I wander a cracked and deserted ghost town road as the highway roars only yards way. Rounding the inner loop trail, it fades away in a chorus of birds

So many birds, so impossible to capture. Marshes line the trail, alive with calls and sudden burst of color. A brilliant cardinal in a thick green cedar, rests so quietly he looks like a ceramic Christmas tree ornament. I catch my breath and reach for my camera … and he’s gone before I can lift to my eye. Blue jays, robins, and so many I don’t even know, taunt me throughout the morning, pausing just long enough to be seen, before soaring off to the next hidden grove. Only the owl held just long enough to react to the click of my shutter.