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Lon Sanders Canyon Conservation Area

 

Lon Sanders Canyon Conservation Area is one I would visit again. It is not far from Sam A. Baker State Park and I wonder how many people camp there and never venture out to Piedmont. I love Missouri Shut-ins and although smaller scale, this is much similar to Johnson Shut-ins and Castor River Shut-ins. These shut-ins are located on McKenzie Creek.

 

To get to Lon Sanders, drive to Piedmont, which is a small town along Highway 34. Across from the high school is Canyon Road, which is also County Road 341. The destination is only a half mile down the road. This place is very easy to get to.

When you begin, the trail quickly gives an option to go straight or to turn left over a bridge. We went over the bridge first. The trail is easy, but then again it depends on your abilities because it is rather rocky and care should be taken to walk slowly so as to not trip or step on a rock wrong and twist an ankle. There are amazing boulders everywhere.

 

A man from St. Louis named Lon Sanders originally had a goal of turning this area into a private resort. His plans failed and the conservation area is named after him. There are many awesome feature remaining from his plans, including some hand-cut stone steps. As you walk around, you can imagine what his imagination for the place. There are also stone pillars with thick wire running through them as handrails or a safety guard.

There are three dams in the shut-ins. Two concrete dams are next to each other (with one shown in this photo) at the base of the steps.

This is the second concrete dam at the base of the steps. Being the adventure types, we did walk all the way up the canyon. I would not recommend it for most people as the black rocks under the water were rather slippery, but I will not deny we had a grand time doing it. Just a warning though, not to do as I do because I can be dangerously stupid sometimes and this might fall under that category. Stay near the trails for safety.

There is a legend that Jesse James and gang hid in this canyon after the Gads Hill train robbery in 1874. In addition, stone was quarried in 1883 for cobblestones on the streets of St. Louis.

As older folks, we repeated said, "this is that other kind of rock climbing."

We finally made it to the other end of the canyon. At the beginning of the trail if you would choose to go straight, you would arrive at this area. This is the third and largest hand-made dam.

We walked across the wall and up the end to find another trail to the left. This is where we decided to try to hike it another time. At the base of the wall on the other side from this photo is where the beginning of the trail comes in, and where we left to return to the parking lot.

Being older, we were so spent by the time we hiked up the canyon that we had no energy left for the trail. The trail did not look long and we saw a portion of it which looked rather interesting, so maybe next time we will hit the trail before we wallow in the waters. The map on the website is easier to follow than the map for printing. The blue area is where we traveled, first down the the creek and then turning upwards to the wall dam and then back to the parking lot. In the above video, you can see where we come off the wall dam and begin down a trail and turn back. This area can be seen on the above map which I have added text.

 

 

 

Wayne County Conservation Area (without a name)

While in Wayne County, since we were driving by, we took a trip to a Conservation Area, without a name, which ended up being an epic failure of a waste of time. We found it based on a local blogger who has great suggestions for places to go, but this one did not pane out. We did not understand that we were to go off the trail and down the ravine to find the shut-ins. Also, it may be better found in wet weather months.

It totally did not deserve it's own page, so I share it here.