Rock Bridge Park – 8/5/2012

We left the kids at my parents house for a week in Kansas City. While my parents were busy spoiling their grand kids, Danelle and I were catching up on cleaning and sleep. Yep, that’s what parents do when their kids are not around. We even got new tires on our van together. Nothing super romantic, but it is time with Danelle.

We were never worried about the kids, but we often wondered what they were doing without us. So it was our delight that we were going to meet in Columbia, Missouri to get the kids. I heard about Rock Bridge Memorial Park more than six months earlier and wanted to visit. It never worked out that we could see the park, so I kept it in the back of my head. We left early for Columbia so we would have time to sight see and area of the state that we are normally rushing by to get to the other side of the state.

I wanted to stop at a car museum in Fulton, Missouri, but Danelle didn’t think we had enough time. She decided to pass on it and she was right. We went straight to the park to hike and relax together. It took a few tries to get to the correct entrance of the park, but we did find it! The rock bridge is hard to explain. There is a creek that tunneled its way under the rock creating a bit of an arch. Its big enough that you can walk under the rock bridge without having to duck your head.

The park is situated in a very rocky area. Because of that, there are a large number of steps and walkways to make it assessable to most people.


Inside the park is an extremely large cave system. One section in particular is called “Devil’s Icebox”. It doesn’t seem that special until you start taking the stairs down to the entrance. It was approximately 90 degrees outside and we were quite sweaty. As we went down the steps, it had to drop closer to 60 degrees. And the temperature change was nearly instant. It was quite refreshing after a hot summer walk!

If you go to this park, bring a good flashlight. There are a few places to climb up in the rock bridge and the cave is nice to look at. Technically you’re not supposed to go too far into the cave without a guide, but its fun to explore a bit… Too bad I only had my phone and the light from my pocket knife flashlight!

Before we knew it, we got a phone call that dad was close. We had to stop our hike early and meet. I say had to, but we were both missing our little ones more than we wanted to admit. The hugs in the parking lot made the whole trip worthwhile.

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