Hiking at Parkville Nature Sanctuary - Parkville, MO
The weather so far this year has been a little, let’s say… unpredictable. Mother Nature hasn’t seemed quite sure whether she wants winter to continue or spring to begin. Therefore, we have tried to take advantage of those times that lean toward the beginning of spring.
One of these times was on March 21st. We made the plan to take the afternoon and visit Parkville Nature Sanctuary. This area is a favorite of area photographers, but for some reason we had never been there. For that matter, we were debating on if we had ever been to Parkville at all. Even though it is somewhat near where we live, it really isn’t on the way to anything, so it requires an intentional trip to get there.
The area was nice. When we were there, the leaves had not yet appeared on the trees, and the grass was just beginning to turn green. I’m sure as spring progresses, it will be even more inviting. The primary attraction of the area are the waterfalls, and being just a short hike from the parking area, that spot was very popular. The further we hiked away from that area, the more seclusion we found. However, I will say that this is not one of those places where you “forget you’re in the city”. The nature sanctuary is bordered by a college on one side, and a city ball field on another. About the time we made it out of earshot of the cheering at the city ball field, we started hearing the announcer for a sporting event at the college. Also, since Parkville is on the north side of the KC metro, and so is the airport, there was a pretty steady stream of low flying planes overhead.
With all of that being said, I would still say that Parkville Nature Sanctuary is still an interesting place to visit, and is a nice place for a day hike. Our recommendation would be, if possible, to visit on a weekday, when there probably won’t be as many people. Also, it appears that the waterfalls are very rainfall dependent, so you may want to keep that in mind as well.