Elephant Rocks State Park
Distance: 1.19 miles round trip
Overall elevation gain: 120 feet
Location: north of Pilot Knob, Missouri
Date: July 4, 2013
Elephant Rocks State Park is a small park north of Pilot Knob, Missouri that I stopped at after visiting Fort Davidson and before going to Buford Mountain. The park is the location of a granite outcropping with many large boulders scattered throughout the area, the most prominent of which are a string that is said to resemble a train of elephants.
The park has a one-mile long loop trail that is paved and ADA accessible. The trail is marked for counterclockwise travel and has informative signs along it. Primarily traveling through boulder fields in the forest, the trail has two side trails, one of which goes to an overlook on the outcrop, while the other goes to the highest point on the outcrop where the namesake elephant rocks are located.
Another side trail goes to the ruins of a train engine house that had been built and used when there was an active quarry in what is now the park. The main loop trail goes through two interesting points, one is called the squeeze where the trail narrows and goes between two large boulders. Shortly after this point the trail reaches a pond that is down a 30-foot cliff in what used to be a quarry.
For more information see my track on AllTrails.
Overall elevation gain: 120 feet
Location: north of Pilot Knob, Missouri
Date: July 4, 2013
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| Elephant Rocks |
Elephant Rocks State Park is a small park north of Pilot Knob, Missouri that I stopped at after visiting Fort Davidson and before going to Buford Mountain. The park is the location of a granite outcropping with many large boulders scattered throughout the area, the most prominent of which are a string that is said to resemble a train of elephants.
The park has a one-mile long loop trail that is paved and ADA accessible. The trail is marked for counterclockwise travel and has informative signs along it. Primarily traveling through boulder fields in the forest, the trail has two side trails, one of which goes to an overlook on the outcrop, while the other goes to the highest point on the outcrop where the namesake elephant rocks are located.
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| Panorama on top of the outcropping with the Elephant Rocks at right |
Another side trail goes to the ruins of a train engine house that had been built and used when there was an active quarry in what is now the park. The main loop trail goes through two interesting points, one is called the squeeze where the trail narrows and goes between two large boulders. Shortly after this point the trail reaches a pond that is down a 30-foot cliff in what used to be a quarry.
For more information see my track on AllTrails.
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| Rocks at the overlook |
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| The squeeze |
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| Elephant Rocks |
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| Pond at the quarry |
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2017 Matthew Pintar. All rights reserved.
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