A Few Days in the Arcadia Valley

My daughter is a sophomore at the college where I work, and earlier in the year we discussed doing something fun for spring break. I thought I'd take a couple of days off around one of the weekends, but then I remembered that after all these years, I have twenty days of vacation. Even though it's my travel-abroad year and I'll be gone for two weeks in September, I realized I had more than enough time leftover to take the whole week of spring break off. So, that's exactly what I did.

Back in 2020, I was going to take my daughter to the Arcadia Valley in the Missouri Ozarks (specifically the St. Francois Mountains), but then the pandemic happened. I asked her if she wanted to finally take that trip, and she did, so I booked three nights in Ironton, MO.

We arrived late afternoon on a Monday, and after unpacking, we drove over to Elephant Rocks State Park. It was very cold, so we checked out the shut-in before calling it a day.

The next day was a little warmer, and we packed up for a full day out. Our first stop was Taum Sauk State Park, where I bagged my 9th state high point. We hiked around for a while and enjoyed the beauty and serenity.

We next headed to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. The trail started off by following a small river.

As we progressed along, we kept seeing rocks and boulders.

Which got bigger and in larger quantities until we reached a boulder field.

It was fun to climb around on the boulders and get an interesting vantage point of the shut-in. According to Wikipedia, "The term 'shut-in' refers to a place where the river's breadth is limited by hard rock that is resistant to erosion. In these shut-ins, the river cascades over and around smooth-worn igneous rock, creating a natural water park that is used by park visitors when water levels are not dangerously high."

I climbed up higher while my daughter spent her time climbing around the boulders.

I eventually reached a point when I could see the full shut-in, and it's gorgeous.

After a picnic lunch, we headed back over to Elephant Rocks State Park. We climbed up a HUGE rock face to the top. Was there a staircase on the other side that we could have taken? Yes, but was it more fun to scale the rock? Also yes.

This was basically a rocky hill with large, giant rocks atop and around it.

The Ozarks are rocky terrain, after all.

We went over to this park's shut-in, but as it was an overcast day, the colors weren't as vibrant as the day before (see the very first photo).

After being out and about all day, we went back to our lodging after this.

The next day, we headed to St. Francois State Park, where we set out on Mooner's Hollow Trail. It was also much warmer this day - in fact, we got all four seasons in the four days we were on this trip.

My daughter loved looking through all the rocks at each creek we were at. Here she is showing me some rock she found.

She found this cool geode.

And I snapped a picture of some volcanic rock. The St. Francois Mountains are the eroded remnants of a massive volcanic range.

After prying Nature Girl from the water, we were back on the trail.

More rocks!

We had to cross this creek just on the left side of this waterfall.

I'm too slow for my kid, so she bailed on me. lol That's okay, when I finally made it from the valley to this ridge line, I got to soak it all in.

As I made my way back down, this part of the trail was just rock.

The trail was a butt-kicker for me, and we were on the trail for three hours. We stopped to get a bite to eat before going back to our lodging and relaxing on the provided chairs outside our door. From here, we even had a view of a mountain and a stream. And where there is water, you will find my daughter.

The first quarter of the year was a tough one for both of us, so this trip was just what we needed. It was peaceful and relaxing, and we got to spend some quality time together.