ABOUT THE PARK:
Ha Ha Tonka State Park - Missouri State Parks
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 37.973763, -92.762490
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| 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:
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| We crossed the road carefully (55 mph speed limit) to ... |
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| ... the yellow trail where we stayed to the right, then ... |
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| ... right on the red-blazed boardwalk. |
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| Lake of the Ozarks comes into view higher up. |
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| Continue along the parking lot ... |
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| ... with an overlook along the way. |
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| Another overlook before the castle. |
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| A huge viewing platform that we will be seeing from the other side later. |
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| On to the Quarry Trail loop. |
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| Back at the castle retracing through the parking lot back to ... |
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| ... the boardwalk where we had come in from earlier. |
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| At the point where we had come in on the boardwalk at the beginning we kept right and continued. |
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| Staying on the trail when the boardwalk ends. |
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| Right to the spring. |
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| It's a massive and impressive set of steps! |
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| All the way at the bottom the largest spring I have ever seen. It's more like a river flowing out of a cavern. |
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| Continuing on. |
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| The castle ruins up above with that huge overlook platform to the left. |
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| We turned right for the Island Trail. |
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| 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. |
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| There are tons of turkey vultures and apparently they like to roost in the bluffs below the castle ruins. |
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| Coming up out of the spring area there aren't nearly as many steps as there were going down the other side. |
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| At the top we turned right on the paved path to ... |
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| ... a left on the steps just before the parking lot. |
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| Heading to the Boulder Ridge Trail. |
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| Right on red. We'd be coming back and taking blue later. |
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| After crossing the park road ... |
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| ... looks like this is the official start of the Boulder Ridge Trail. We went around counter clockwise. |
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| We took a break at the far end with some partial overlooks of the lake. |
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| Returning on the other side of the loop are the boulders. |
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| Crossing back over the road.... |
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| ... then back at that intersection right on blue to finish the Spring Trail. |
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| At the intersection we turned right through a parking lot and across the road to the right of ... |
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| ... the old post office turning left on the Devil's Kitchen Trail at the entrance drive of another parking lot and picnic shelter. |
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| Devil's Kitchen Trail. |
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| Crossing over Post Office Road. |
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| Devil's Kitchen where it is raining water from above. |
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| We continued on from Devil's Kitchen wanting to meet up with the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail only to find ... |
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| ... the trail was completely flooded out. I tried bushwhacking to the right to get around but it was a complete swamp in all directions. |
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| We had no choice but to backtrack. |
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| Instead we turned left on Post Office Road. |
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| It was a pleasant, easy road walk for about half a mile. |
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| At the special use area parking ... |
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| ... 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. |
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| At the intersection we turned right to loop around counterclockwise. |
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| Taking a left on the white connector trail to cut off two miles. |
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| Then a left again back on the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail. |
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| 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. |
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| Connecting back to the Turkey Pen Hollow Trail ... |
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| ... back to the parking lot. |
