Wilson’s Creek: Complete!

This weekend Lydia and I walked on the last two trails we needed to say we have walked every trail at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield!

The last section we needed to complete was the northern-most part of the Manley Uplands Trail, renamed by us as the Womanly Uplands Trail.

We ran into a problem, however. We couldn’t find the beginning of the trail. The path that seemed to go in the correct direction had a sign up that said “Area Closed.”

So, we went back down to where we had planned to exit the trail (stop 3) and started there instead. We were on our way!

The evening was getting along due to our confused start, but we enjoyed ourselves and noticed the scenery along the way.

We followed the trail back to where we had tried to begin. We had been close! The trail came out onto the paved road which was “closed.”

Actually, the trail crossed this closed road. We decided to keep following it. We came to a sign facing the other direction marking the name of the trail.

At first we wondered why in the world a sign would be way up there where very few people would see it. But then we kept following the trail and arrived at a parking lot for horse trailers. We had no idea this parking lot existed. Now the sign placement made total sense, considering the Manley Uplands trail allows horseback riding. People could ride their horses out of the parking lot and know which trail they are on.

We feel quite accomplished! Too bad there aren’t any other National Parks within a fifteen minute drive of our house!