Hickory Canyons Natural Area, Ste. Genevieve County, 280 acres

Description. Cool, moist sandstone box canyons include cliff faces, overhangs, waterfalls, and streambank communities. In 1987 Dr. Robert Mohlenbrock of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale reported 612 taxa of ferns and flowering plants at Hickory Canyons Natural Area.

Growing in this environment are plants which were once more widespread but now relicts in these shaded moist hollows. Some of the plants include partridge berry, club mosses, and ferns. Along the bottoms grows a mesic sandstone forest of northern red oak and white oak, and including spicebush, pawpaw, deciduous holly and numerous sedges. Further up the drier slopes are shortleaf pine, white oak, black oak, and blackjack oak with flowering dogwood, farkleberry, ironwood, and the occasional azalea underneath.

The public parking area along Sprott Road provides access to two short hiking trails. The shortest is an easy one-quarter mile walk leading to a steep-walled box canyon and returning the same way. Opposite the parking area is a more strenuous one-mile loop trail following more rugged terrain through the sandstone forest, down the hillside and along the scenic upper reaches of Hickory Creek before returning to the parking area.

Recognition. This was designated a Missouri Natural Area in 1974. The site is owned by the L-A-D Foundation which donates its lease of the land to the Missouri Department of Conservation for management.

Directions. Hickory Canyons Natural Area is between Farmington and Ste. Genevieve. From Farmington go east on Highway 32 to Route C, turn left (north), then go about 3 miles to Sprott Road and turn left (west). Continue down Sprott Road about 1.5 miles to the parking area on the left.

For more information:  

https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/natural-areas/hickory-canyons