SierraScape April - August 2017
Back to Table of Contents

by Doug Melville
Outings Chair

Our Hiking Group, the Wednesday Hikers, has a theme for 2017. We are planning to visit all 88 Missouri State Parks and State Historic Sites before October 31, 2017. This goal is what the Missouri State Parks-Centennial Passport Program has put forward for those that like the outdoors and want to see what our state really has to offer. At each of the 88 locations, a special rubber stamp was fabricated and a Passport Book was put together by the Department of Natural Resources. The Passport book is available for sale at some of the State Parks and State Historic Sites or by ordering from the Missouri State Parks, Passport Program ( https://mostateparks.com/shop/passport.html ). For other information about this program, visit the State Parks website at ( https://mostateparks.com/passport ).

Since September 2016, our group has visited some 32 of the 88 State Parks and State Historic Sites. Being from St. Louis, we were able to obtain most all of the St. Louis Region, over half of the Northeast Region and some of the Central Region and Southeast Region. We have done a daily trip to an area to visit and hike some of the trails in the State Park. When we visit a State Historic Site, we go on guided tours when available to learn the background of the area, what was happening at that time and why this was important to preserve this site. By visiting and observing these locations, you get a real feel about why Missouri is such a great place to visit and learn. Our plan is to do a daily hike for the remaining sites in the St. Louis Region, the Northeast Region and the Central Region.

To visit the Southeast Region, we are setting up a four day, three night Outing to cover the 18 locations (13 State Parks and 5 State Historic Sites). By not having to return home after each day of travel, we hope to get the area visited as well as is important in the Southeast Region of Missouri. By carpooling and staying in local motels we are keeping the costs down so that more people can attend. We have found that to date, only about half of the people that attend our Passport Hunts collect the stamps while the rest like to go and visit an area that they may have not seen before. If the Southeast Region Passport Hunt turns out to be a success, we will be doing the Kansas City Region and the Lakes Region in the same manner later this year. If all goes well, we should have completed the 88 stops across Missouri by the end of August. This will leave September and October to revisit some spots if someone needs a particular stamp.

A second article will follow in the next edition of SierraScape that will let you know how we did.