Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

It’s a beautiful place, lots of different trails. My only hiccup is there is a real possibility to get turned around on at least one of the trails as the marking becomes foggy. I will be back for sure thou. Lots to explore.

Rock Bridge SP is a huge, open expanse of forest that ranges from ridgelines and steep valleys leading to the Devil’s Icebox to bottomland/​old growth forest full of woodpeckers and squirrels to evergreens masking hawks, owls, and deer to hillside grasslands and savannas. Each area comes with its own interesting discoveries and marked by the creeks that run throughout the park.
Aside from the mainstay Devil’s Icebox trail, there are a number of hiking/​biking trails that thread for miles through the backcountry. If you head off on one of these, make sure to take water and a communication device … then just wander around through the switchbacks. Just make sure you stay on the same color and you’ll end up back at the parking lot … somehow …
Some of the trails, especially nearest the parking area, are wheelchair accessible … many more are not. There are some pretty steep inclines just beyond the parking area that just can’t be traversed except on foot or mountain bike. The Karst Trail could probably be done in a wheelchair as the inclines are much gentler and don’t include the craggy rock of the Devil’s Icebox area.
The only thing I have against this park is that it’s treacherous when wet. Anything more than a light drizzle turns the pulverized clay hiking/​biking trails into a sloppy mess capable of removing a shoe and the steepness of the boardwalk in some places makes it slippery when wet.
Still, if you’re only going to visit one park in Columbia, this is probably it. Truly, an amazing experience.

I have been to Rock Bridge many times, and typically go for longer hikes. I’ve got two words for you: thumbs up. This review is specific to the longer trail hiking, not to Devil’s Icebox.
Best thing about this park: it is a very decent size and only a few miles from downtown Columbia. It makes it so easy to spend a morning or afternoon hiking. On our most recent trip, we hiked the Gans Creek Trail, which is about 8 miles. This is one of my favorite trails in the area. It has a variety of views, lots of elevation changes (which could be a negative for some, but I love it), and it is clearly marked. There are a few creek crossings that can get tricky in higher water, but we were able to navigate them just fine. TIP: Do not go hiking on this trail without a park map. There are lots of loops connected to other loops, but everything is blazed in brown. You could get turned around without a map to guide you.
The other trails in Rock Bridge offer different experiences, from hikes through the woods to hikes through grasslands. Do some research before you go so you understand the type of trail you will be hiking. For example, the grassland trails expose you to the sun for most of the hike, so sunscreen is a must.
TL;DR — Overall, Rock Bridge is a well-​maintained park with lots of information online or on their maps (at each trailhead). This, plus some great views, make it an excellent place to hike.

I’ve been to Rock Bridge a few times and I think it’s a really beautiful park. I haven’t been on the trails, I have walked on the wooden pathways. I liked the wooden bridges, stairs, and informative displays along the path. The stairs provide a good workout. The downside with the wooden pathway walk is that some of the pathway is destroyed and the path just goes in a circle so the walk doesn’t really last that long. The pathway that got destroyed really needs to be rebuilt. I’m not sure what happened, but many kids and parents went off the path to go inside the cave and play around in the rocks and the water. It’s kind of dangerous for people to hop over the fences to do this and I really wish they would rebuild it.
After the Winter when the snow melts, there is a lot of mud. If you go around that time, make sure you don’t wear your fancy shoes. The last time I went I saw little bats flying around which was really cute because I’ve never seen a bat in person before. If you go in the Summer or Spring months, it’s really pretty and green. I haven’t been in the Winter, but I would assume it might get a little slippery.

Really pretty hike, large boardwalk trail and opportunities to get close up to caves! The Devil’s Icebox was closed for bat hibernation when I went. :(

Coming back with some spelunking gear next time! We walked to the Devil’s Icebox entrance with our dogs. There are no dog poop bags so bring your own!

We haven’t been to Devil’s Ice box yet, but instead went on a short hike on Karst trail. The trail was clearly marked and well maintained, although a bit narrow in some of the woodland sections. About half the trail is in the sunlight through meadows, and the other half in the woodland. There are two small lakes you pass by. I think this is the norm for Missouri in the summer, but we picked off 10+ ticks. We took along our 10-​month old and he had a blast.

I first went to Rock Bridge for a geology field trip. Want to hear about Karst topography anyone? No? Yeah, me neither. All I know is that it makes some really cool things to look at – sink holes, caves, … rock bridges. This is a great place to walk around, and it’s so close to campus. There are wooden walkways and in some places steep stairs. It’s not the typical state park because of the land formations.

I spent 8 hours in this park, granted it was an enjoyable 8 hours but a bit frustrating.
The trail map was misleading because the trail blazes, markings to identify the trail, were blazed by color but the map had no mention of the colors. The map also was not up to scale; the trails were a lot longer than what the scale of the map made them to be.
The trails were rugged but not too bad in some areas. We ended up on the deer run trail, which did have deer on it, then to the sinkhole trail, high ridge trail, spring brook trail, the devil’s ice box trail, and then back to the deer run trail.
I didn’t see any sink holes on the sinkhole trail which was disappointing. On the Spring Brook trail the stream cut some of trail off and we had to wade through to get to other side, talk about rugged.
My favorite part was the cave, devil’s icebox. I didn’t venture in for the seven-​mile trek but did go to the entrance and walked in a little’s ways. I had no flashlights so we could not go any further.
There also was a natural rock bridge but it was closed off due to trail damage.
It was a nice park and I look forward to return for a cave hike, maybe.

This was an awesome place to take the kiddos yesterday to break up a day of shopping and eating! We walked around and ended up at the Devil’s Icebox which was amazingly cool! The Rock Bridge was just beautiful. We were sad we couldn’t venture closer to it since there had been so much flooding in the area lately though.
We had so much fun that the kids can’t wait to come out here again! And hopefully next time we can get closer to the Rock Bridge!
We go to Columbia about once a month and I had no idea that this park even existed. The kids loved it! Beautiful park!

When I’m away at school (like right now), I dream about Rock Bridge Park. Half the park consists of 15 miles of well marked trails that range through forest, grassland, and creek, and the other half is much wilder with chances to look at the view from a blufftop or to feel like civilization is about 100 miles away. The cave is worth a visit with the kids, and if you’re into mountian biking, there’s terrain for all here. Definitely give this place a look (or two or five or lots)!

This is a fantastic state park. It has a great walking tour where you can see local caves, and a lot of local wildlife. There are also areas for picnicing if you want to make a day of it!