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Kress Farm Garden Preserve

We visited Kress Farm Garden Preserve on May 17, 2025. It is located in Hillsboro, Jefferson County, Missouri, so it is not too far south of St. Louis. People call it a "hidden gem." It is managed by a garden club and protected by the Ozark Regional Land Trust. Anyone can join the garden club. They have speakers and classes which anyone can join, as well as educational hikes. They have plant sales as well. We came to hike the trails and they have some wonderful hiking trails that are well marked with a map.

This was the view when we got out of the truck at the parking lot.

There were lots of gardens and buildings near the parking area to walk around and explore. We found a meeting going on in one of the buildings and tried to be quiet and leave quickly after using the restroom. When done exploring, we did go back in and buy some jam.

This is the map we finally found posted at the pavilion. It was the only map we found, so we took a photo of it and tried to navigate that way. We had trouble finding some of the paths. It was simple, and then again it wasn't! There are so many walking trails on this place, if you live nearby, do come and visit them all. Once you figure out the map, it is not so hard.

One of the highlights down one of the trails is Cliff Caves. It is awesome that they have this on private property.

Here is the beginning of cliff cave! It is like many bluffs around Missouri and Southern Illinois, but I can never see enough of them it seems. It shouts out Missouri to me!

Here we turned around to go back the way we came.

The trail we picked continued up on the edge of this field.

We ended back at the pavilion and picked another path to take.

We turned down this edge of this field. They have made paths everywhere and the views are great.

We looked for the other waterfalls and found this one, but it was only flowing a little bit. It was down a spur off the trail.

We found another waterfall, Kress Falls, which was on a spur as well.

This is a few of Kress Falls. It might flow much better earlier in the spring rain season.