Missouri State Parks to Host Guided Hikes on January 1

New Year’s Day is a time when people, some hungover, reflect on the previous year and have their first opportunity to put off a resolution. On New Year’s Day morning in 2024, Jesze Doleh asked a group of hikers at Thousand Hills State Park to pause near a creek and quietly concentrate on the surroundings.

“I was looking around as everybody was just closing their eyes, and everyone’s faces were calm, and they seemed excited to be there,” says Doleh, a specialist for the state park. “Sometimes I think we hike really fast and miss some of the beautiful things around us.”

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) hopes to inspire this type of appreciation for nature with its annual First Day Hike program, part of a nationwide initiative that provides guided hikes on the first day of the new year.

And even though it is often chilly and much of the population may not have gotten much sleep, people are still willing to make the trip to parks, which might otherwise be empty.

“People will travel to parks that they have never been just to do the First Day Hike,” says Daniel Brigman, superintendent at Knob Noster and Katy Trail state parks.  “It gives them a chance to get outdoors, start the new year off fresh, and maybe inspire them to visit other parks.”

A National Movement
Across the United States this year, hundreds of park staff and volunteers plan to host First Day Hikes. Some years, more than 55,000 people have participated, according to the American Hiking Society.

In Missouri, 23 state parks have scheduled hikes. Last year, nearly 800 people registered for hikes, according to MoDNR.

At Thousand Hills, Doleh plans to take visitors along its most popular route, Red Bud Trail, and start at Forest Lake, a 573-acre feature with an interesting history.

In the 1950s, Kirksville’s population was growing, and city officials were concerned about having enough drinking water for residents. As such, they decided to dam Big Creek and turn it into a reservoir. If people from outside Kirksville travel for the First Day Hike — which is often the case — Doleh plans to discuss its history.

“Not only is the lake a place that people like to come and hang out, it’s a place that helps both us and animals in the area live,” says Doleh. “I like that tie-in to our lives.”

Like the other hikes, the event’s timing in winter also provides participants with a different glimpse of the park than they would during warmer parts of the year.

“The trees are pretty bare, but we do have some evergreen trees on the trail, so they pop,” Doleh says. “Sometimes, if we have had a snow and the trail is not too snowy, you can see tracks from some of our animals, like our deer.”

A Tradition Like No Other
Brigman has been leading the First Day Hikes for about a decade and enjoys the annual event. “It helps me interact with visitors I normally wouldn’t see,” he says. “They can ask me questions they may not have had a chance to.”

Brigman plans to host two hikes: one that takes visitors along the Katy and Rock Island trails, both of which were converted from railroad tracks, and a second in Knob Noster, located in western Missouri, along the Spirit Trail, which just opened and goes through an open woodland area with sycamore, oak and hickory trees. They will also travel across a new 150-foot bridge over Clear Fork Creek.

“That will give us a chance for people to see a section of the park that they may not have ever known was there,” Brigman says.

On the Katy and Rock Island hike, Brigman plans to discuss the history of the routes.

“Between the Rock Island and Katy, it’s one of the longest rail trails in the world, so we’ll talk about the importance of that,” Brigman says.

The projects turned abandoned railways into an attraction that brings more than 400,000 people each year.

“If we hadn’t developed it, then it would just be an overgrown railway,” Brigman says.

There Will Be Hot Chocolate
If the weather is cold on January 1, Anna Persell, superintendent of Crowder State Park in northern Missouri, has a solution: hot cocoa.

“One year, it was almost a blizzard after we started hiking, so that was definitely memorable,” Persell says. “Other years, it has been nice and warm and there was no need for the hot chocolate.”

Persell plans to take visitors to Redbud Trail (not to be confused with Red Bud Trail at Thousand Hills). This trail winds through land that resembles the Ozark highlands hundreds of miles away in southern Missouri and features sandstone bluffs and rocky streams.

“You’re walking through a low area and on the top of the hill,” says Crowder. “That trail is definitely known for the rock features.”

Rock Bridge New Year
For people looking for several hiking options, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park near Columbia would be a good park to visit on New Year’s Day.

Benedict Nagy, superintendent of the park, has scheduled six hikes, including three that lead to the Devil’s Icebox cave and another led by a volunteer, Marilyn Tolson, with a unique insight into the park. She spent time at her grandparents’ mansion, which once sat atop the rock bridge for which the park is named. The park also once featured the first paper mill west of the Mississippi River and a whiskey distillery from the 1800s.

“She will talk about the natural resources and about the history of it, before it was a park,” says Nagy. “This includes the town, its industries, and its social activities, like dances.”

Bennett Spring Fling
Sam Grove, a naturalist and resource interpreter, plans to provide visitors to Bennett Spring State Park near Lebanon “interpretive moments.”

“We will stop at various points, and we will just talk about the things that we see and try to make a connection between the surroundings and the hikers,” Grove says. “Maybe if we run into an animal or something like that, I’ll be able to explain what that is, teach people about it, and try to help them connect with it. Hopefully they will remember it in the future and want to protect it.”

The hike will follow the Savannah Ridge Trail, which features woodland that during warmer parts of the year is filled with wildflowers.

“It’s just a really great trail for birding and looking at wildlife,” Grove says.

But on January 1, some of the land will likely look charred.

This is because the park staff will have recently completed a prescribed burn, which benefits the land. Grove plans to discuss why such burns are essential to spur the growth of the wildflowers in the spring.

“I hope this gets people excited,” says Grove, “and they come back in the spring to see all the changes.”

For a full list of First Day Hikes at Missouri State Parks, go here.

Author: Eric Berger is a contributor to Terrain.

Top image: Ian Scargill.