Ha Ha Tonka State Park, MO

ABOUT THE PARK:
Ha Ha Tonka State Park - Missouri State Parks

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 37.973763, -92.762490

Ha Ha Tonka Oak Woodland Natural Area Parking

TRAIL MAP:
The links on the park site are not working at this time.  I had called in advance and requested a copy of the paper map be mailed since the online map is hard to use in planning a hike with multiple trails.

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HIKE DISTANCE:  11.5 miles

THE HIKE:

We crossed the road carefully (55  mph speed limit) to ...

... the yellow trail where we stayed to the right, then ...

... right on the red-blazed boardwalk.

Lake of the Ozarks comes into view higher up.

Continue along the parking lot ...

... with an overlook along the way.

Another overlook before the castle.

A huge viewing platform that we will be seeing from the other side later.

On to the Quarry Trail loop.

Back at the castle retracing through the parking lot back to ...

... the boardwalk where we had come in from earlier.

At the point where we had come in on the boardwalk at the beginning we kept right and continued.

Staying on the trail when the boardwalk ends.

Right to the spring.

It's a massive and impressive set of steps!

All the way at the bottom the largest spring I have ever seen.  It's more like a river flowing out of a cavern.

Continuing on.

The castle ruins up above with that huge overlook platform to the left.

We turned right for the Island Trail.

Zooming in to the overlook at the castle ruins.  It's a lot busier up there now which is why we go there early and head towards solitude later.

There are tons of turkey vultures and apparently they like to roost in the bluffs below the castle ruins.

Coming up out of the spring area there aren't nearly as many steps as there were going down the other side.

At the top we turned right on the paved path to ...

... a left on the steps just before the parking lot.

Heading to the Boulder Ridge Trail.

Right on red.  We'd be coming back and taking blue later.

After crossing the park road ...

... looks like this is the official start of the Boulder Ridge Trail.  We went around counter clockwise.

We took a break at the far end with some partial overlooks of the lake.

Returning on the other side of the loop are the boulders.

Crossing back over the road....

... then back at that intersection right on blue to finish the Spring Trail.

At the intersection we turned right through a parking lot and across the road to the right of ...

... the old post office turning left on the Devil's Kitchen Trail at the entrance drive of another parking lot and picnic shelter.

Devil's Kitchen Trail.

Crossing over Post Office Road.

Devil's Kitchen where it is raining water from above.

We continued on from Devil's Kitchen wanting to meet up with the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail only to find ...

... the trail was completely flooded out.  I tried bushwhacking to the right to get around but it was a complete swamp in all directions.

We had no choice but to backtrack.

Instead we turned left on Post Office Road.

It was a pleasant, easy road walk for about half a mile.

At the special use area parking ...

... left on the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail.  I wish there would have been time to do the entire 7 miles because this was my favorite, most remote part of the hike.  But only time to do about half of it. 

At the intersection we turned right to loop around counterclockwise.

Taking a left on the white connector trail to cut off two miles.

Then a left again back on the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail.

We turned right on the Acorn Trail where we ran into many others walking that loop.  We had seen nobody on the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail.

Connecting back to the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail ...

... back to the parking lot.

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