The day before the Woodland Management Field Trip, we dove toward Jefferson City and stopped at Ha Ha Tonka State Park along the way. It was before lunch and was already a hot day. The air was very humid too. It was the first time my husband had visited; I was there last October on the way to and from a conference in Jefferson City. We started at the ruins – lucked out that there was an available opening in the closer parking area. I took different perspectives of the ruins than I did previously….noticing the way light came through openings, some deterioration in one of walls, and the undermining of the low wall around the ruins.

Of course, the vantage point from the castle is spectacular - high over the spring; you can hear the water below. There was a tree trunk that looked ‘wrinkled’ at the base that I noticed…among some stumps of other trees inside the wall around the ruins.

We hiked along the paved path and boardwalk toward the spring. I used my phone for some insects on fall wildflowers and

My bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) for some ‘intimate landscapes’ and a wood-nymph.

The highlights of the walk toward the spring were birds:

A green heron looking for lunch,

A female wood duck in the water and then in the grasses along the bank,

A pileated woodpecker that we heard before we saw (and was never well positioned for a photograph),

And a blue heron that was flushed by some kayakers and landed just across the water from where I was on the path!

It was a great stop….we kept it short because of the heat and humidity but were both glad we made the visit.

After lunch we opted to make a short walk about the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary before we headed to our hotel. We didn’t make the full loop because of the heat – but realized that if we lived in the area, it would be a place we would visit frequently through all 4 seasons (in the early morning rather than the afternoon in the summer/early fall)!

I made a second visit to Ha Ha Tonka State Park last week – on my way from the Missouri Department of Conservation Partners Roundtable and took a short hike to the Castle Ruins. The ruins are on the bluff above the spring area, so I had views of the spring area where I had hiked a few days before.

I got to the park early enough that there was a parking space in the small lot between the water tower and castle ruins…beside the carriage house ruins. The castle ruins were visible over the treetops from the parking lot.

I took a few pictures of the carriage house ruins and continued as I made my way up the hill: fall wildflowers, a part of Lake of the Ozarks, the spring area below (and the paved path I had been on a few days before).

It was early enough that the light was good for viewing the ruins. Some of the stone walls were still black from the fire that destroyed the house in the 1940s. The fire must have been hot. I wondered if there was not enough water high on the bluff to deter it all…that the fire simply burned until there was nothing left to burn. The ruins are fenced…and there are signs saying the ruins are unstable.

There was a family group with a photographer taking pictures with the ruins in the background – perhaps as part of the buildup to a wedding.

I took a few more pictures as I walked back to my car – more foliage and another view of the lake. There were some twisted eastern redcedars on the steep slope of the bluff.