Katy Trail and Jefferson City

Covered in kudzu

October 16, 2012

Staying in Montgomery City, we decided to look around for hiking opportunities in this area and ended up on the Katy Trail near McKittrick, Missouri. The Katy Trail is built on old railroad beds, just like the trail we traveled in South Dakota. (See Wind Cave National Park and Mikelson Trail) This one stretches 240 miles across Missouri and is quite beautiful.

McKittrick "station" on the trail

Years ago on a visit to St. Charles, Missouri, we hiked a section of the Katy Trail as well  Today we didn't go far, maybe about 1/2 mile.  The weather was really hot and neither of us were really into hiking today.  But I did snap a few pictures.  We saw quite a few birds on the trail, one of which was some kind of owl shadowing us as we walked.

Beautiful Katy Trail

We left the trail and decided to take a big loop and drove through the capital city, Jefferson City.  The state capital building is magnificent, built along the lines of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's famous home.

The Dome

We didn't get there until after hours so we couldn't go inside.  The grounds are nicely laid out and the dome looked beautiful in the afternoon light.

Jefferson

I had a terrible time getting a good photo of the statue of Thomas Jefferson because he was in partial shade.  This one is the best I could do. 

The grounds

The afternoon light was gorgeous

All in all, a nice day.  We got to see some of the scenic Missouri countryside, ate dinner in an "authentic" Mexican restaurant and saw the beautiful capital building.