The 21st Century Matriarch

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.