Valley View Glades Natural Area

On Highway B near Morse Mill, in Jefferson County, is a conservation area called Valley View Glades. I hiked its trail late last year and vowed to return when spring came, because a glade in bloom is a marvelous thing to see.

Come on out soon. You needn't walk the 2.6 mile trail loop. The most amazing vistas in Valley View Glades are at the beginning of the trail, whether you choose to walk left or right. There really is a valley view. Here's more info and a map.

What's a glade? It's not that stuff in cans: It's an outcropping of rock and thin soil, just enough to support echinaceas, coreopsis and other wildflowers, on a south-facing hillside--a unique kind of ecosystem. Missouri's natural glades get clogged up by invasive red cedars, so conservationists cut down the cedars to preserve the glades' sunny openness and protect the habitat of special creatures such as salamanders who live in glades.

Should you want to hike the complete trail, it's very rocky most of its 2.6 miles. Bring water. I found my walking poles to be most helpful. You will stepping-stone across at least two pretty brooks.

Phases of the Coneflower

If you can plant one perennial, plant coneflowers (Echinacea). Missouri coneflowers do beautiful things every day in June. Like fireworks in very very slow motion. Plant them once and they will do the rest. These are the most popular flowers around, visited by bees, sipped by hummers, and finally – when the seedheads are dry– swung on by goldfinches. All photos were taken June 1: the best, most promising day of the entire year.

Beautiful and Rare

Highways here in Ozark foothills used to be lined with native coneflowers, the flowers in the photo. Then somebody decided they were a commodity called echinacea, and lowlifes went around ripping up every single one by the roots, even on County Highway F where the road is perched on a steep and treacherous ridge. They even stole them from patrolled, private land -- coming up the river by boat and sneaking onto the property. Rip, rip. To them, Missouri is worth $6 a pound.

The word from the naturalists is that the bee population, nationwide, is way down. To my own eyes it's obvious only that the coneflower population is way down, so I planted my own, and they attract plenty of beautiful bees.