Stegall Mountain Fire Tower

The trail starts as doubletrack just past the gate on the access road to the Stegall Mountain fire tower. It then meets the Ozark Trail (OT) after 1 mile. This hike turns north on the OT for 0.5 mile for a 3 mile out and back. You could modify the hike to go as far as you want, either north or south. The OT is technical singletrack that is well built and maintained by the Ozark Trail Association (THANKS OTA!!!). The connector trail is less travelled and less well maintained, and there can be tall grass, but is a good way to get to this section of the OT.

With return of prescribed burning on the glades, collared lizard population has done well. The red rocks of the glade and trail are ancient 1.2 billion year old rhyolite from lava flows when this part of Missouri was part of the ancient supercontinent of Rodinia.