Greensfelder County Park

The epic 22+ mile hike in the Grand Canyon is glaring at me, now hovering only a few weeks out.  It’s crunch time and I needed a good test of my readiness and to work out a few tweaks to my gear.  Once again, Greensfelder County Park got the call and answered with a suitable challenge.  I was fortunate to be joined by fellow rim to rim hikers Eric and AJ.  We met at the Fox Creek trailhead about 6:00 to get a jump on the forecast of mid 90’s with high humidity.  I had planned a new route through the park, trying to bite off some of the more challenging portions of all of the trails where possible.  Not completely sure how this would play out, we left a vehicle near the visitor center in the park to provide another transportation option as needed.

Our trio jumped off to an uphill start, opting for the almost straight uphill Roundhouse trail rather than the more scenic Green Rock.  Apparently they had just completed some much-needed maintenance on this trail, as the low spots were all filled in with gravel and the vegetation in the center of the trail appeared to have been treated with herbicide.  The trail briefly parallels Fox Creek which provides some interest as well as and increase in plant variety.  We took the right loup up to the roundhouse, and the vertical climb was a good wake up call.

From the top of the hill we changed over to the Green Rock trail as it cuts south and east towards the back side of Six Flags.  It’s nice to take on this stretch early before the amusement park opens so that you are spared from the constant noise of the rides and screaming from the visitors.  And really none of this part is “easy”.  The trail is narrow, rocky, and curvey as it winds up an down the hillside through a thick forest, a glade, and paw paw thickets.  The large log at the end of a curve in trail at the 6 mile mark once again proved to be a great place for a sandwich and a rest.

Our trio plodded along the Green Rock/DeClue trail until it met with the scenic road that cuts through the park.  We walked on it for a few hundred yards downhill until we jumped onto the Beulah Trail, a new one for me.  The Beulah was beautiful, climbing up and down through the forest like the rest of Greensfelder.  However, the trail surface was mostly soft earth with fewer rock piles and other obstructions than Green Rock.  It was also quiet, way out in the middle of no where if you look on a map, and we didn’t see any other hikers at all.

After winding up and down 4 ridges, we finally arrived, weary and worn, at the scenic overlook for an extended lunch and short nap, at least for me.  We changed socks, re-applied body glide (an essential in this kind of humidity), and laughed as we compared our varying body aches.  The companionship was pleasant, a nice change from the solo hikes I often take.

After lunch we took off refreshed, going down the Scenic Trail back to where it met again with Green Rock before switching over the Eagle Valley Trail.  We enjoyed the simplicity of this flat section of trail as it follows along a creek, then took the connector to the Mustang Trail.  Everything changed here, as the Mustang Trail (See my past blog post here:

Greensfelder Park

We were immediately met by a straight up hill climb from the creek, and really found very little relief for the next 1/2 mile.  There really is very little in the way of switchbacks on the Mustang, the trail pretty much goes straight uphill or downhill wasting no time or space.  Today the trail was in pretty rough shape, very overgrown and clearly horses had been using it frequently and in wet conditions. When we finally reached the top of the hill and the parking lot I felt like I had just gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson (that shows my age and my current complete lack of knowledge of anything related to boxing).

From there, we refilled some water at the visitor center and ended the day with a 2.6 mile loop on the Dogwood Trail.  This is a nice little loop trail with some decent climbs and lots of scenery.  We all decided to call it a day, opting for the car ride back to the original trailhead rather than taking the last 2.5 miles on Green Rock.  The three of us sat and enjoyed some cold refreshments and planned our next outing.  Lastly, our group spent lots of time discussing the Grand Canyon, what to expect on the trail, and finalizing gear and food changes.  It was a great day, even if I was so sore I could barely climb back into my truck.  I guess 18.2 miles in this roller-coaster park will do that to you.

All in all, I enjoyed the route that we took through the park.  The Beulah trail and the scenic overlook were highlights.  While I do love this park, the lack of appropriate signage and trail blazes can at times be very frustrating.  They do a great job of sticking a large, 6×6 post in the middle of the trail with no other options of travel and then absolutely nothing at a 3-way intersection forcing you to make an educated guess on which way to go.  There are literally no blazes along the way and in some cases the maps from the county website are incorrect.  All part of the adventure, I suppose, but just caution any first time hikers to be prepared for some confusion along the way.

Also interesting to me is how quickly Summer came to St. Louis.  Two weeks ago when I hiked the trail was full of migrating songbirds with some remnants of spring flowers still blooming.  Today the woods were quiet with exception of the resident wood thrush, pewees, woodpeckers and wrens.  Hickory nuts were forming, fragrant sumac berries were ripening, and gnats and ticks were plentiful.  I feel like the long winter robbed us of any legitimate spring, and I’m not really happy about that.  However, it was still a glorious day in the MO-Outdoors, and I look forward to getting back out there to see what surprises are in store for me.

For more information about Greensfelder County Park, check out:

https://www.stlouisco.com/parksandrecreation/parkpages/greensfelder