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Brickyard Hill Conservation Area & Charity Lake

It was SO cold that there was no reason to hang around camp on December 20, 2024, so we left very early in the morning before sunrise and headed to the next destination. We found a great gas stop with food and sat down for breakfast on our way to Brickyard Hill Conservation Area in Atchison County, Missouri. Charity Lake was also at the same location and appeared to be a separate conservation area within Brickyard.

There were several camping areas that looked nice, as well as the lake with a dock to put in for fisherman. There was a trail around the lake that we would have taken had it not been so bitterly cold that morning. As in the above video, we did walk down it a short distance.

Then we drove over the edge of the lake and there was a fantastic view of the sunrise. To the right of this photo is where the trail around the lake ends and another parking area.

Although the sunrise view included the highway, it was still a lovely peek of a view.

This is the beginning of the trail around the lake.

We went back out to the main road and had a little difficulty following the maps to the other areas of the conservation area.

We passed by mounds like this and thought they must be "loess" bluffs as we learned about at Loess Bluff Conservation Area.

Our new Wolfbox gave us this view at 7:55 a.m., so we were out really early!

The sun was coming up and we were in for a treat.

We found another parking area. Other than the house across the street, we thought it would be a great place to camp for the night to watch the sunset and especially the sunrise in the morning.

We passed some cows that caused us to stop and then found the wide open view to be a real treat! It was beautiful! Especially with the sunrise.

Here is that beautiful wide open view!

There are windmills in the distance and we did not see them at first. But once we saw them, we kept seeing them all day everywhere we went.

I think this is another view of "loess" soil type in the rolling hills.

We continued on down the road and thought it was a beautiful ride.

We wondered if this straight up hill was the actually Brickyard Hill. We did read about the name "Brickyard" in that the soil in this area used to be used to make bricks.

We arrived at the larger camping area and drove around the loop. There is a vault toilet here and many primitive camping spots. It seemed like a really nice place to camp.

This is the beginning and end of the loop to the camping areas. Brickyard was a much larger place than we first got the impression of and we really enjoyed and remembered this drive.