Elephant Rocks State Park
.
.
Elephant Rocks State Park. A place in Missouri where you can go to see the
elephants! Well….okay rocks shaped like elephants. Well...large
boulders that if you squint really really hard kind of look like elephants
lined up at the circus. Lol The "elephant" granite boulders at this Missouri
state park are a unique geological feature thought to have formed
1.5 billion years ago and over the years has gotten the attention of
history buffs, geologists, and kids that love to climb all over them. I came across this park
while researching places to visit on my road trip in September of 2020
and thought it was too unique of a place to pass up. Read all about the day
my friend Abigail and I let our inner kid out below!
.
The first boulder we saw came at the very start of the *Braille trail
(about 1 mile loop) and we both thought this was
the perfect place for our first photo op!
.
*One really cool thing to note about this trail is that not only is it
wheelchair accessible, but is also crafted to help the visually
impaired. There is a rope that follows the entirety of the trail for
people to hold on to to make sure they are still on the trail and
there are signs along the way that have braille writing on them.
.
We continued on the paved trail enjoying the beautiful forest
and huge boulders and of course stopping to take pictures.
.
Eventually we made it to the boulders that give this park
it’s name! Do you see the elephants? Lol
.
We spent a good amount of time exploring and climbing
around, on top, and below the boulders. It honestly was
a lot of fun! (I highly recommend if you do go here and
want to do some climbing on the boulders just be sure to have
good climbing shoes! My tennies were certainly not
the best choice for this activity. Lol)
Someone clearly had a rough go here….lol
.
After our rock scrambling we decided to take a side
trail (Engine House Ruins Trail; 0.4 miles) out to see some old engine
house ruins. This engine house was used to repair train engines
and cars from the Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad in the 1890s
and service Sheehan Quarry operations.
.
After that we continued back on the Braille trail where
we came to this quarry now filled with water. It was absolutely
gorgeous and we stopped here to rest and enjoy the view for a little while.
As I mentioned I was here in mid September, but I wish I would have been here later in the year. This would have been a gorgeous place to see all the fall leaves!
.
The trail circles the entirety of the park so we ended back at the
start and decided, since it was around lunchtime, to grab some
food at Mae’s Snack Shack, a little food truck that was set up in
the park. I don’t remember what we ate (maybe pulled pork nachos
and a hot dog lol) but it definitely was delicious.
.
Elephant Rocks State Park in Belleview, MO definitely provided
us with a unique and fun half day. A couple of things I do want to note if you go:
.
The roads to Elephant Rocks State Park are extremely curvy
so if you are like me and get motion sick then I highly recommend
you medicate up before hitting the road. Even driving I was struggling.
.
Also, there is no cell service out at the park so if you are needing
directions be sure to download them before you go. We learned
this the hard way and ended up driving the wrong way
for little while and had to turn around.
.
.
I think this would be an amazing place to take your kids (we even saw a birthday party
happening in the park). Not only will you get to enjoy the great
outdoors as a family, but also hopefully wear out your kids so
they sleep peacefully the whole way home. Lol I probably won't
be going out of my way to return to this park even though it is
absolutely gorgeous just because I feel like it is more of a family park, but
I am glad that we went and got to live like kids again for a little while.
.
.
.