Take a hike!

Ancient caves, icy springs and tall, stately conifers are among the features that can be seen along the Devil’s Kitchen Trail in Roaring River State Park.

There’s no devil, of course, although the middle of the trail offers a devil of a haul uphill, but, it’s over quickly. The trail is easy, climbing only a few hundred feet above the valley floor.

The 1.5-mile trail begins not far from the old lodge and winds along a bench that ought to be filled with flowering dogwood soon. The trail parallels a stream that, on a recent Spring afternoon, slipped underground. one side of the footbridge, the tiny creek bubbled along, but there was nothing on the other side of the bridge, the spring having disappeared into the porous Ozarks.

There’s an ancient cave along the trail and, on the back side, a trickle of a spring that would offer a cool place to dip overheated feet on a hot summer day. The trail then arrives at its namesake: the devil’s kitchen itself, which is actually a jumble of rocks created by the collapse of a nearby bluff, which tumbled down, creating a large room. There are reports of guerrillas hiding out in the area during the Civil War, but a more recent shift in the rocks (1985) partially sealed the entrance to the kitchen.

The trail winds out of the forest near Highway 112. A spur takes hikers back to their access point, or they can wander the stream back to the lodge for a dip of another kind after a hot hike: ice cream.

Photos and map to come...