Hercules Glades is a 12,315 acre wilderness area located about half an hour east of Branson, Missouri in Taney County. It is part of the Mark Twain National forest and features open grassland, waterfalls, forested knobs, and rocky hill sides. It has as much as 600 foot elevation gains within the area, from the top of Upper Pilot Knob and Coy Knob to the bottom of Long Creek. It's a beautiful area that I first visited as a young Tenderfoot in the Boy Scouts.
The National Forest Service warns you of rattlesnakes and bears in Hercules Glades. In fact, this is one of the signs you see before you enter the trails.
Today's hike went to the northeast to Devil's Den, and the climbs were much tougher than the day before when I started from the lookout tower off MO-125 and headed west into the Long Creek valley.
The scenery starts almost immediately and you drop into the Long Creek valley just before climbing Devils Den. While most of Long Creek is dry right now, the trail required a water crossing just prior to getting to a nice camping area and the base of Devils Den.
Fortunately, there is a shallow area that won't beat a good set of Gortex boots. The rest of the hike was dry, but Kayleigh, my Labrador Retriever, didn't seem to matter the cold water--now if it was as easy getting her to take a bath or fetch a dog toy thrown into Table Rock Lake.
Once you get to the top of Devils Dent you go through a combination of forest and grassland. Once you get to the grassland, there is a great view of the Lower Pilot Knob, which is on the northwest corner of Hercules Glades and has a trail to the top which you can get to easily from the the Coy Bald access or the Lookout Tower access. We will hike to the top sometime next week, providing the weather allows us.
A few of the knobs have little ponds on the top. They were iced over thanks to the extreme cold that blew in on Saturday night.
I heard a ghost in my head when I crossed Long Creek to head up to Coy Bald. "My dishes, my dishes." As one of the newer Boy Scouts in Troop 1, the older Scouts had a little bit of fun with me who took my mess kit down to the creek, which has water in it 27 years ago, to soak. They threw rocks at them to dislodge them, and I never heard the end of mess kit sinking the rest of the time I was in Scouts. I am pretty sure this was the spot we camped, and it was weird when I crossed the creek and looked over as the voices in my head were turned on.
Coy Bald is a long, challenging climb, but it's well worth it. The trail is a 4.4 mile loop that starts/ends down in the Long Creek Valley and begins at the Western most parking area. At the top is a long ridge grassland area similar to the north side, and like the north side, there is a great view of Lower Pilot Knob. Notice how it shrinks after five or six miles of hiking.
The views from the southern section of the Coy Bald trail are spectacular. Fortunately, the final stretch from after climbing out of the creek bed, which is about the last two miles is an easy trip down into a final ridge, making it the perfect end to a long hike.
I think Kayleigh could have gone a lot longer, but my dawgs were tired--9.23 miles total and it was worth the trip.
