Hercules Glades: Lookout Tower to Long Creek Falls to Pilot Knob and Back

Just finished a 7.5 mile hike in beautiful Hercules Glades. Starting from the lookout tower off of Missouri Highway 125 to the Long Creek Falls and across to Pilot Knob before returning to the lookout tower. Today my travelling companions were former Congressional candidate Michael Wardell and my seven year old Labrador Retriever, Kayleigh.

This was part of the hike I took when I was a 12 year old Boy Scout in Troop 1 out of Springfield shortly after I joined the Scouts. I believe back then we camped in the Devil's Den area and hiked up Pilot Knob back to the lookout tower. I remember struggling with my buddy Jason Fenton to get up the climbs with tired legs and a frame pack on my back, but there was a great sense of accomplishment when we were done. At age 39, minus the backpack, today's hike was enjoyable but didn't have the steep, unstable climbs required at Busiek, which is north of Hercules Glades about half an hour.

Before we even got on the trail, we spotted an eagle outside of Bradleyville chowing on some road kill. It was an impressive bird. A few minutes later we began our hike, which started on a long ridge before heading down into the Long Creek valley. We hiked the falls, which some people have claimed have had problems finding, but were fairly easy to get to. There was just one problem, there was no water--just beautiful rock formations.

After we hiked to the falls we headed a few hundred yards west before heading north to Pilot Knob, which was a slow climb without a challenging grade. Once we got to the top of Pilot Knob the vista views across the Ozarks are just beautiful. It was along this trail that I recalled hiking many years ago as a Boy Scout.

Hercules Glades is a beautiful area, and is really a relatively easy hike considering the grades aren't nearly impossible. Here are some pictures from today's hike.