Taking advantage of a long weekend, we took Lanie with us on a three day backpacking trip to Hercules Glades. Our plan was to map some of the western trails with the GPS, try to find the Spring we think Rock Spring Trail is named after, and show Lanie the falls.
so we planned on a very modest three days hiking. It was only Lanie’s second backpacking trip so we didn’t want anything too arduous to put her off. Finally we thought she would have some fun scrambling over the rocks at Long Creek Falls.
Day One – Coy Bald Trailhead to Lower Pilot Knob
A small amount of water running over the ford at the start of the gravel road to the Coy Bald Trailhead gave us some hope that we’d be able to find water. The road itself has been graded since our last visit. After the first couple of steep curves, which used to be very rough going, it climbs fairly evenly. Any vehicle with reasonable ground clearance ought to be able to get to the trailhead.
Checking the temperature on our way in I was startled to find it was 89°F. It was going to be a hot first afternoon’s hike.
We were joined at the trailhead by two more vehicles as a group of six hikers arrived. Their plan was to hike down to the falls and thereabouts. After our trip we received an email from one of the group, Michael, who found this website and recognized us. You can see Michael’s write up of their trip here.
Ginger and Lanie left me to lock the van, and went off to sign in at the trail register. I’d just got my backpack on, which weighed a horrendous 45lbs with 6 liters of water, fleece bag and camera, when my phone started ringing. Note there’s cell phone access on all the ridges in Hercules Glades. By the time I’d got my pack off it’d stopped, and I turned the darned thing off to avoid further interruptions. Distracted by the call
The sign-in sheets at the registration point are in a mess. The rangers are obviously too stretched to come and check / replenish them. Ginger signed us in and we started down the 300 ft. descent to Long Creek.
It didn’t take long to get to the bottom of the hill, and we were very pleased to see running water in Long Creek. That meant there ought to be water at the falls, and we’d be able to stay as long as we wanted. We let Lanie enjoy the view of the bluffs and climb around on the boulders while we prepared for the hard slog up the Devil’s Den West Trail, which climbs the 300 ft up the other side of the valley.
Back on the trail, we crossed Long Creek and followed the trail to the fire ring at the end of Devil’s Den West Trail. This place is a bit special for us, as it’s where we stopped on the first night of our first ever backpacking trip back in December 2010.
The Devil’s Den West Trail drops steeply in from the left of the above photograph. Climbing up the trail We soon found out just how out of condition we are.
Despite the frequent stops, we soon made it to the top of the ridge, where the trail continues along in fairly dense woodland. We knew there was a stock pond here, but after the long hard drought this summer we didn’t think it’d have any water. We were wrong.
After a while the trail emerges from the woodland and enters the glades around the Pilot Knobs and the ridges that join them.
We started noticing tornado debris on the glades. There’s only been one big tornado this year. It trashed near-by Branson’s heavily commercialized strip. So we’re guessing a lot of debris may have arrived in the northwest corner of Hercules Glades. There was nothing identifiable to confirm our suspicions, but there were some fairly heavy shingle chunks and metal siding to be seen.
Arfter crossing the glades there’s a short walk in woodland, and before I was expecting it we met the junction with the Pilots’ Trail which skirts all along the back of the Pilots from the Tower Trailhead on Hwy 125.
We decided we’d pitch camp sooner than later.

Gary uses the ingenious InstaFlator to pump up his NeoAir Pad. Setting up camp off the trail near Lower Pilot Knob, Hercules Glades Wilderness
We had a small campfire to keep off the evening bugs and chill. It was useful to show Lanie how to build a small fire, demonstrate that a fire ring isn’t needed, and show how to keep it small but very hot so that only a very fine ash is left.
Sitting in the dark we could hear some fairly large animals in the woods. Deer.
Once the fire burned right down we turned in for the night. In the early hours of the morning we were awakened by the sound of deer whistling and stomping the ground. I ignored it. But as the noise went on well over an hour, Lanie got up to investigate.
The rest of the night passed without incident accompanied by the hoots of the owls and distant howls of the coyotes.
Day Two – Lower Pilot Knob to Long Creek Falls
After the disturbed night it would have been nice to sleep in, but we didn’t. That doesn’t mean we got up and away early either. We like to enjoy a leisurely start to the day.
Our plan was to go east along the Pilots’ Trail and take the Devil’s Den East trail down to Rock Spring Trail, hopefully find Rock Spring and maybe camp there for the night.
Ginger and I were taken to Rock Spring by a guide in 2010. The spring isn’t near the trail, and it was our first long hike so we weren’t paying a lot of attention. We’d never been able to find it since. It’s not marked on the map. I spent a lot of time studying the map and studying Google Earth to see if I could locate it. I remembered there was a dried up stock pond next to the spring building, and that should be easy to spot. The big big break came when realised nearly all the stock ponds were on the same contour line. I soon found the dried up stock pond in the aeriel pictures, and so could take a guess at the spring’s location.
Packing up camp took a while as I had a load of gear photographs I wanted to take. We noticed that it seemed we’d camped in the middle of a very old and disused forest road, so we followed that back up the ridge until it joined the unmarked trail. We then headed east along the fairly level trail up behind the Pilots.
The climb wasn’t too steep, and fairly soon we entered the glades on the southern slopes of Upper Pilot Knob. The trail was quite wet and further down there were some trickles across the trail. This was great, the chances of being able to camp at the Spring were looking good.
The trail seemed to go on for a long, long while. I was just about to get the GPS out to check exactly where we were when we walked out onto Rock Spring Trail.
Now it was just a matter of following Rock Spring Trail east until we hit the right contour line and then look for signs of a trail or just bushwhack west until we found the old stock pond.
Ginger kept wanting to turn off the trail, but I’d been remembering the 2010 hike, and had a reasonable idea where to leave the trail. Once the GPS put us on the contour we turned right, and with very little hunting around I spotted the faint signs of a not very often used trail. A few minutes later we came upon a large fire ring and beyond that the spring box. Just 50 ft. from where I had thought it would be.
There was one more surprise for Lanie. Circling around the spring and
Lanie was tired and wanted to stop at the spring. However the spring had dried up, there was no water dripping from the pipe. The spring box had water in it, but it was thick with algae and I didn’t fancy blocking up our water filter trying to get some clean water from it.
We rested around the fire ring and then decided to continue down Rock Spring Trail and see if we could camp at the Falls.
Rock Spring Trail is rocky and undulates a fair bit. It wasn’t too long before we’d started the long 300 ft. descent down to Long Creek, finally turning right on Long Creek Trail.
There’s a large pool downstream of the falls, and I hoped it would still have water in it. We decided to walk down the creek bed to the Falls, planning as we went to retrace our steps if necessary along Rock Spring Trail, and carry on back to its start at Devil’s Den where we knew there was water.
Fortunately the pool was full of healthy looking water and we could hear a trickle falling behind the rocks of the falls.
After filtering enough water for the night and the next day, we settled down to spend the remainder of the afternoon sitting by the pool watching the light on the trees and the reflections in the pool.

Yellow Jacket – photograph Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
I now know that they are much more venomous. I quickly gained a welt 2″-3″ across, and over the course of the evening my entire arm ached.
After dinner we lit the campfire. We were joined by a walking stick who was very careful to keep out of the full force of the heat. Showing that I had no ill will towards insects despite my aching arm, I eventually relocated him to a bush away from the fire.
Day Three – Long Creek Falls to Coy Bald Trailhead
There were no disturbances in the night and Lanie slept in, leaving us to have a quiet start to the day.
When Lanie finally surfaced we had a second cup of coffee while she climbed over the rocks in the creek.
Before breaking camp we had another explore. First Lanie climbed all over the falls area. Then we followed the trail running westward through our campsite. We debated whether to see if this trail offered an alternate route out – though we’d seen no evidence of it emerging elsewhere.
We also considered walking the creek out. By the time we’d got to the top of some bluffs we could see that Long Creek was quite full in places, and we decided that we’d stick with the original plan of taking the Coy Bald Trail back to the Trailhead.
The climb up the Coy bald Trail onto the ridge was hot but not too arduous even though it totals some 600 ft. We must have got a bit fitter. Once up on the ridge the trail is fairly level and wooded with just a few climbs and descents. There was water in the stock pond on the ridge, which is useful to know.
We stopped for a while on the glades to enjoy the view of the Pilots to the north. Looking to the East it took us some time to spot the watch tower at the Tower Trailhead on the top of the ridge.

The watch tower at the Tower trail head can just be seen as a speck on the top of the ridge east from the glades on the Coy Bald Trail
In one of the glades I took this picture of the Black Eyed Susan, Ginger and Lanie.
I’m not sure why we’re not looking very happy in this picture, I’m going to blame feeling tired after the hike.
And here’s Lanie with her second backpacking trip all finished. A very modest 11 miles in three days with 1,300 ft. climbed. Our planning had worked out, and we’d found the spring.
Lanie and Ginger collected a load of persimmons before we left and I’m told persimmon fudge will be on the menu some day soon.
On the way out we stopped to take pictures of a Survey Marker complete with Witness Tree – we’ll write more about these in another post.
Notes on our preparations
Water was a concern, there had been some rain in the Glades area, but we didn’t know what the conditions were likely to be. We made a back-up plan to only stay one night if we couldn’t find any filterable water. The weather was also set to be a little variable. Dry, but with temperatures varying from 85°F in the day to 45°F at night. We are also in the middle of the Missouri bow hunting season, we packed two hunting orange vests. One for Lanie, and one for me. I need it as all my gear and clothes tend to be camo green. Ginger with her white shirts and bright blue backpack has a lot less to be concerned about.
We don’t go out into the wilderness during rifle hunting season, we don’t consider it worth the risk. Bow hunting, and to an extent muzzleloading season is different. They have to be much closer to their prey, be even more certain of their target, and the ammo doesn’t carry anywhere near as far. They probably hear us a mile off.
We decided to pack as much water in as possible, and to also carry our fleece bags for use around the campfire at night. As I’d be carrying 15lbs of water I decided to forego my trusty Coleman Exponent Stove in favor of the lighter and more compact MSR Pocket Rocket (Which in terms of the noise it makes certainly lives up to its name). I was going to also take my hobo stove, but opted not to save on space. I packed my big camera – 2.5 lbs. For sleeping I opted for my Go-Lite 1+ season quilt, Ginger her 0°F MontBell bag, and she loaned Lanie her MontBell 30° bag. I decided the weather was stable enough to leave the weather radio at home.
Clothing. All I carried was a fleece and base layer. The fleece is something I always pack – if only to act as a pillow. The base layer was just in case the temperatures dipped unexpectedly. They didn’t. My base layer, our emergency kit and spare batteries for the GPS were the only things I took that I didn’t use.
Finally, just before we left I emailed a copy of our plans to Ginger’s mother and a friend. Something we always try to remember to do.
Love this. I’ve hiked that area maybe 20+ times since 1978 – not to brag but to show how much I love it. I saw that spring sometime about then. I was there last month and tried to find it but gave up fighting the cedars where there used to be a beautiful open meadow (no doubt cleared). Keep up the good work.
I’ve also noticed that a lot of the glades have become less open over the past ten years. I’ve visited Rock Spring in the last couple of years, and it was still flowing.
I first found it (without a guide) by realizing that most of the springs are on the same contour level, just around 1,000ft — that insight has helped me find more springs! If you have a GPS, here are the coordinates: 36.68924, -92.94113, and here’s a map: https://www.gaiagps.com/public/cQVA2sg5jJXR5JU1SJaKPCTt/