April 18, 2020
Rock Hollow Trail is located in Wildwood, MO and is a joint venture between the city, St. Louis County Parks, DNR, and Great Rivers Greenway. It’s not very nice of me to post this blog while the trail is essentially closed due to COVID-19, but the photos are too good not to share. I lucked out and managed to get in a lunch time hike just before the order went out. The trail itself is actually open, but the parking areas accessing it are closed. So unless you live nearby, then these photos might be the closest you can get to it this spring.
Trailhead
Rock Hollow Trail can be accessed via two different trailheads. The primary one is located at Ridge Meadows Elementary School, 777 Ridge Rd. This is basically the top of the hill and allows direct access to the 2.3 mile paved trail. The other trailhead is located at the Al Foster Memorial Trailhead near 109 and Old State Road in Glencoe. From there you have to walk 8/10 of a mile on the Al Foster Trail before it meets up with Rock Hollow. The advantage here is that this portion of the trail is essentially flat.
Surprisingly beautiful
The Rock Hollow trail is completely paved and is 10’ wide, so on paper sounds rather boring. However, the trail slides down the gut of two high ridges and travels alongside a wet weather creek. Both sides of the trail are graced with scenic rock outcroppings and a few small waterfalls when the conditions are right. The hillsides along the trail are full of mature oak, ash, maples, hickories, dogwood and serviceberry providing plenty of shade and fall color. This time of year, the forest floor is covered in wildflowers. The trail is a great birdwatching spot and perfect for a lunchtime or after work suburban hike.
This was exactly the case for me. I had just finished one appointment in the area and had time to kill before the next one. I set out from the school parking lot on a warm afternoon and immediately met with serviceberry in bloom on both sides of the trail. Wildflowers continued to brighten up the early spring woods and the closer that I got to the bottom the more I found. Soon I stumbled upon a few clusters of bluebells, and finally the mother lode.
The Virginia Bluebell Show
If hiking the Rock Hollow Trail in the Spring, avoid the temptation to head back before you reach the lower portions of the trail. There is a very large field of bluebells growing along a creek, covering the bottoms with bright green foliage and showy blue blossoms. The browns and grays of the upper early spring hillsides are a stark contrast from this burst of Spring. There are a few benches here where you can soak it all in, or better yet, wander a bit off trail and get up close and personal with the welcome blooms.
More Wildflowers
Of course there are other wildflowers to see along the way. Bloodroot, spring beauty, Dutchman’s breeches, Toothwort, and wild phlox are plentiful. In addition, serviceberry, redbuds, and dogwoods also call for attention on the hillsides. I almost killed myself scaling a small bluff to photograph a serviceberry, but it was worth it. I don’t think that I have ever walked Rock Hollow Trail in the summer. However, I know it is a worthwhile hike in winter, spring and fall.
Other Opportunities
Rock Hollow Trail is also popular with cyclists, but care must be taken going down the steep hill. The trail can actually act as a connector and to the Al Foster Trail and the various legs of the Bluffview Trail. Someone could easily log quite a few miles on this system from just one of these trailheads. There is no doubt that west St. Louis County is blessed with an extensive and well-maintained trail system. The Rock Hollow Trail fits in just fine in my opinion.
For maps and additional information, here are some helpful links:
https://www.stlouisco.com/Parks-and-Recreation/Trails/Rock-Hollow-Trails
https://www.cityofwildwood.com/390/Rock-Hollow-Trail
Also, here is an old post about the Al Foster Memorial Trail
