Move in St. Lou: Hik­ing

Peace­ful, quiet, and a beau­ti­ful at­mos­phere are all things you will ex­pe­ri­ence when em­bark­ing on Bi­son Loop Trail at Lone Elk Park. The Lone Elk Park is a wildlife man­age­ment area where you can see bi­son, deer, elk, and turkey. You can also hike in the park. They have two dif­fer­ent trails, the Chubb Trail and the White Bi­son Loop Trail. They are most well known for their White Bi­son Loop Trail.

Saint Louis County Gov­ern­ment said, “Lone Elk Park used to be part of the Tyson Val­ley Pow­der Plant used for test­ing and stor­age of am­mu­ni­tion dur­ing WWII. Af­ter the war, the area served as a County Park where heards of elk and bi­son were es­tab­lished.” They go on the men­tion that “the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment took back over dur­ing the Ko­rean War and one elk sur­vived.” Even­tu­ally, St. Louis County took back over the land and the wildlife man­age­ment area was cre­ated.

Em­bark­ing on the White Bi­son Loop, you’ll find your­self in an ad­ven­ture sur­rounded by a va­ri­ety of wildlife as you travel around the scenic Lone Elk Reser­voir Lake. While the bi­son may not ac­com­pany you on the hike, their pres­ence can be wit­nessed as you en­ter the park. This peace­ful jour­ney spans 3.1 miles and takes ap­prox­i­mately an hour and fif­teen min­utes to com­plete. 

Re­bekah Jun, a sopho­more at Maryville Uni­ver­sity, vis­ited the trail with me. She said, “It was a nice es­cape from re­al­ity. I was able to get off cam­pus, and it did­n’t cost me any­thing to com­plete.” 

As Re­bekah pointed out, the park of­fers a con­ve­nient and ac­ces­si­ble way to in­cor­po­rate daily ex­er­cise into your rou­tine. With its free en­try and ex­tended hours from 8 am to sun­down, you can visit at your con­ve­nience, mak­ing it a per­fect fit for any sched­ule. Re­bekah also high­lighted the park’s ac­ces­si­bil­ity, men­tion­ing how “con­ve­nient it is to be able to visit any­time when the sun is up.”

While on the trail, I no­ticed that it was stren­u­ous to com­plete. I was­n’t en­tirely ex­hausted, but I was out of breath at times. It chal­lenged me in a way I had­n’t been in a while. I was able to com­plete my daily ex­er­cise in a new lo­ca­tion us­ing mus­cles that were dif­fer­ent from stan­dard weightlift­ing.

For a unique ex­pe­ri­ence, I highly rec­om­mend the drive-through Bi­son Re­serve. From the com­fort of your car, you can ob­serve these crea­tures in their nat­ural habi­tat, en­gag­ing in their daily ac­tiv­i­ties. Even if hik­ing is­n’t your thing, this ex­pe­ri­ence should not be missed. It’s a chance to im­merse your­self in wildlife with­out step­ping our of your ve­hi­cle.

The White Bi­son Loop at Lone Elk Park is a great change from nor­mal hik­ing trails. You are able to get your daily dose of vi­t­a­min D with­out spend­ing a dol­lar. I en­cour­age every­one to visit the park, which is lo­cated in Val­ley Park, about fif­teen min­utes from Maryville Uni­ver­sity.

Fol­low me this se­mes­ter as I find more unique ex­er­cise lo­ca­tions through­out St. Louis!

More in­for­ma­tion on Lone Elk Park is avail­able at the link be­low.

https://​st­louis­coun­tymo.gov/​st-louis-county-de­part­ments/​parks/​places/​lone-elk-park/