In our first post about our first completed section of the Ozark Trail that Caroline and I finished together, (Ketcherside Mountain to Taum Sauk), we originally thought that we would try to complete all the sections as a duo. Up to that point we’d both completed other sections separately. However, that may have not been the most realistic idea. We are just both too busy with different schedules! So we’ve decided anytime we’ve both completed a section of the Ozark Trail, together or separate, we’d consider it complete!
Saturday, my work as Athletic Director sent me to Eminence, Missouri to supervise our school’s baseball team in a tournament. I’d always heard about the floating and hiking in the area, but I was most intrigued about the prospect of seeing the “Wild Horses of Shannon County” while hiking! So I left early to get a hike in before the games.
Caroline suggested the Rocky Falls to Klepzig Mill section of the Ozark Trail as a good possibility to see the horses. Her and Aaron had completed it in the fall. They didn’t see any horses but plenty of signs of them. So sounded like my best bet.
I arrived at Rocky Falls not really knowing what to expect. To my shock, just below the parking lot was one of the most gorgeous rock and water formations I’ve seen in Missouri in recent memory. Last weekend I was at Johnson Shut-Ins, but the sheer size of this waterfall/shut-in was so much higher than those at JSI. I read that it is 40 feet of cascading water!
Since I was on a bit of a time crunch, I didn’t spend too much time exploring the falls at first. I quickly found the trailhead and went on my way. One thing, I was extremely glad that I took a picture of the trail map with “look fors” while hiking.
This came in handy more than once!
There’s more than one trailhead at the Rocky Falls parking lot. For this particular trail, you are looking for the trailhead to the left if you are facing the falls. Immediately, once I got on the trail, I had to cross Rocky Creek. Believe it or not I’m pretty sure-footed on the rocks at creek crossings. But the water was high enough that I didn’t have too many rocks to choose from. And the first one I stepped on was pretty wobbly. So for the first time ever, I didn’t feel very comfortable crossing with my phone, so I gave it a toss to the other side.
Left to Klepzig Mill and Right to Peck Ranch
I made it across safely, picked up my phone and carried on. The Rocky Falls trail follows Rocky Creek for a half mile before one comes to the intersection of the Ozark Trail. If you go right, you hike to Peck Ranch. Left takes you to Klepzig Mill three miles away. Left it was! This meant I had to cross Rocky Creek again! The creek was higher at this crossing and there weren’t any rocks to cross over with. I would venture to say that it would have been up to my knees if I’d crossed at that point. So I ventured off the trail just a little bit until I found some rocks. Still not feeling very certain of this crossing, I got out my trekking poles to help me keep my balance. Once again, made it across safely.
From here it was a “walk in the woods” up and down the only major mountain on the trail. They had just conducted a controlled burn in this area so I was basically walking on scorched Earth. But it was pretty neat to see the trail zig zagging up and down the mountainside untouched by the fires.
Not long after descending the mountain, one comes to the first large open pasture. This is where I saw my first sign of wild horses….horse poop! Or more eloquently put, droppings or manure. This is also the first place I lost the trail. According to the little map I had, I circled the pasture to the right, looking for the trail. I ended up in a connecting field before I circled back around to a gravel road at the far end of the pasture from where I entered. Then I didn’t know if I should travel up or down that road to find a low water bridge. I decided to go towards a nearby highway and there was the bridge I assumed, on the main road.
The open field that Katie found tricky. We saw evidence of the horses here.
So for future reference, if you’re hiking this trail starting at Rocky Falls, when you get to the first pasture, you actually want to follow the treeline to the left of the field until you get to the gravel road. Make a left on the gravel road towards the main paved road. Cross the bridge and then look for the OT trail marker on the left side of the road to continue the trail towards the mill. It only took me like an extra half mile to figure that out.
From there you go through some more woods to a logging road. Follow the logging road for a bit until you see the trail veer off. At this point your going to have a small climb up then down a small rocky incline. Be careful, those rocks are slick!! I found that out the hard way going down when I slipped and went down part of the way on my backside!
Katie had a little fall in this rocky section.
Hopefully once you safely reach the bottom you will be at another creek (or the same creek again, I’m not sure). Not much farther down the trail you will come across some pretty nice shut-ins. This is a great photo opportunity and nice place to take a break if needed. I still had a ways to go and not a lot of time to get it done so I pushed on.
As you continue along the trail you will come to your second group of pastures. Once again plenty of horse signs but no horses. And I also came across some other find of animal dung! This may be a little TMI, but it looked like deer poo on steroids! And even though I knew this wasn’t what it was, my first thought was…BEAR!! And then it immediately came to my mind for the first time that day that I was alone. A few moments of panic ensued while looking at the large wooded area surrounding me, and then I told myself to pull myself together because you knew it didn’t belong to a bear. After I got a grip, and my mind started acting right, I figured that it had to be elk droppings. I knew that there’d been elk turned loose in the general area. So that’s what I went with and trekked the last little bit to Klepzig Mill.
Check out the size of that poop! I used my hand for reference.
According to signage outside of the main mill building, “The Klepzig Mill was built before 1912 by a farmer seeking to augment the living earned from his agricultural endeavors. It was used to grind corn, saw logs into lumber, and in the 1940’s to generate electricity….” I found it to be nothing more than a little shack sitting peacefully on the banks of good sized river with some impressive shut-ins. If you walk inside of it you will find the rusted remains of some of the mechanical parts of the mill.
After taking a few minutes to catch my breath and talk to a couple there taking some pictures, it was time to make my way back to the Jeep. I was hopeful that the trek back would be much shorter since I knew the way and wouldn’t make any more wrong turns hopefully. Which I was right about that. However, I did something that I don’t too often. Fell….TWICE!! HARD!! While trying to cross another creek, right before crossing, I got my foot tangled in some roots and bit it right on a rock bed! Then, when I was to climb up another creek bed I slipped and fell again!
I took in Rocky Falls one more time and got a little closer look before heading to my ball games.
At the ball game I met up with friends Val and Norm who had planned to hike with me that morning originally but couldn’t get in the area in time. I will tell you just like I told them, if for whatever reason you aren’t able to actually make the hike that I did that day, it is well worth the trip to walk the tenth of a mile from the parking lot to see Rocky Falls.
Convinced, after the ball games I went with Val and Norm to explore Rocky Falls some more. We climbed the falls from bottom to top, checking out different formations and getting different views.
Word of caution….the rocks are slippery!! I unfortunately learned that the hard way. After getting all the way to the top of the falls, I was feeling pretty confident and decided to skip across some smaller rocks to large rock on top center of the falls for some pictures. I messed up when I thought I could just hop and skip my way back across. I panicked in the middle of my very first step and before I knew it, I was sitting in the water!!! Norman was no help because he was too busy laughing and taking pictures of me crawling across the falls to dry ground. Fortunately Val was there to get my phone and give me a hand. She was worried about me going all the way down the falls I’m pretty sure.
All in all it was a great day, minus the cuts and bruises from falling and getting lost a few times. Oh, and not seeing any HORSES! I got to thinking about all the trouble I’d had on this hike and then later on I realized that this was my 13th hike of the year. So maybe “13” really is an unlucky number.
Caroline here – I was suppose to be hiking with Katie on this one, but Hunter’s ACL surgery changed those plans. As Katie stated, Aaron and I did this trail the day after Christmas, so it had that winter feel, which I love. This was to be Aaron’s longest hike so far. I had told him it would be between 5 – 6 miles but it ended up being closer to seven. There was also a bit of an elevation gain to deal with but he did great. Even though he didn’t speak to me the last two miles.
Aaron’s longest hike yet. He did fine but was mute that last few miles.
I had my Ozark Trail book with me, but I also took a picture of the landmark descriptions on the board at the trailhead. We didn’t have trouble with the open field, but not he trip back there is one tricky part if you don’t follow along will take you back to the road instead of the trail. Not a huge deal but you then have to walk along the road for about 200 yards.
We found our poles handy for the creek crossing
We also didn’t get to see the horses, but saw the evidence of them, deer, coyote, beaver, and hogs. We did hear some rustlings amongst the brush and found an armadillo who didn’t even take notice of us.
I would have liked to have spent more time at the mill just taking it all in, but the hike was a little longer than expected and it was a short winter day. Aaron was afraid we wouldn’t make it out by sunset. We did but it was close.
The falls were beautiful and are worth stopping for even if you don’t plan on hiking. I plan on returning to hike towards Peck Ranch and to catch of glimpse of those wild horses.
If you have any experience with finding wild horses while hiking or pointers, I would love for you to share with us!
