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Thousand Hills State Park

Thousand Hills State Park is located near Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri, in Northern middle Missouri.

On April 29, 2023, I visited friends in La Plata, Missouri and we drove up through Kirksville to Thousand Hills to explore. I have not explored much in Northern Missouri and had never been to this park. There are not as many lovely river-wallowing clean rivers in Northern Missouri and it is more of a lake part of the State. I am not so much a lake person, but I suppose if I came on a warmer day I could rent a kayak or canoe and enjoy the river. Maybe I need to learn how to operate a boat and rent one.

It is a really lovely park though with great lake views. I am sure if I came to camp I might get to see fabulous sunsets and sunrises on the lake. A chair and a book would provide some relaxing time in the absence of a love for fishing.

There are several places to hike and we did enjoy hiking.

The road into the park is very pretty lined with trees.

As you drop down with the lake in front of you, it is a beautiful site that cannot be seen in a camera lens because it is so wide.

This is the first view of the lake with the Redbud trail to the right. The Redbud trail has two access points. The first is on the road coming in and then the second is when you reach the lake right here.

We did not see many Redbud trees along the Redbud trail! There is one blooming here to the left of the sign, but we did not walk this part of the trail. We walked the upper loop part and I do not think I saw one Redbud and they were blooming everywhere else in the park. How funny is that?

Here you see some Redbud's blooming on the lake. They really did dot the area beautifully. I was a bit puzzled because Redbuds are trees and some of them looked like this photo as in a bush. I think this is just a baby Redbud that will grow into a tree.

More beautiful blooming Redbuds that look like bushes.

This is the marina which is next to the restaurant. Even in the huge wind the day we were there the water felt calm, at least at this part of the lake.

I loved the lines of the canopy over the deck on the back side of the restaurant. It was a bit nippy when we ate outside, but I just wanted to be outside bad enough.

The food was good and the service was great.

On down the road, as the road through the park is one way and if you want to go backwards you have to go all the way around, is the petroglyph site. It is covered by this building for protection from the elements.

There was some graffiti that had been carved into the rocks, so I can see why they are protected by the cage. I have seen these before and they are really cool. They were made over 200 years ago by the Indians. The park system has done a great job in clearly marking them on signs so you can find them on the rocks. They seem to be the same symbols as I learned about at other locations.

We drove back around to the beginning and to the first Red Bud Trail and took that hike around the loop.

I loved these steps because of the wildflowers that were gracing them between the steps. There were a lot of different kinds of wildflowers blooming.

We came to a place where water was running through a ravine, although there was just enough to make some trickling sound. We sat down for a little while and my friend spied this moss on a rock that brought her delight.

We took the side trail that leads to the lake and down to the other entrance to this trail for only a short bit, but then we went back to finish the loop.

I think a lot of people go down these steps and up the other way (making a left when hitting the loop, but we made a right). So we went up these steps. It was not too difficult although I did take a very short rest in the middle of the climb.

These steps in the middle of the forest do make for a great place for photos.

Directly across the street from the Red Bud trail is a very short .2 mile in and .2 mile out Oak Trail.

There is not much to the trail.

At the end of the trail you can see the lake peaking through the trees and the road that follows around the lake.

This is the view from the end of the trail and you would think it would be a spectacular view for them to make a trail to it, but it really needs to have some foliage cut back so that you can see the view.