Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / Missouri / Mark Twain National Forest

Piney Creek Wilderness

Mark Twain National Forest, Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District (near Shell Knob)

Piney Creek Wilderness covers 8,178 acres on the west side of Table Rock Lake, near Shell Knob, and contains all five miles of the Piney Creek watershed. Congress designated it in 1980. The Forest Service says logging railroads worked the area in the late 1800s and the last permanent households left in the early 1950s.

It’s a small network of about 12 miles of trail that drops from ridgetops to Piney Creek and the lakeshore.

The hike

The Forest Service lists 12.1 miles of trail, rated moderate, with average grades of 10 to 12 percent. The main east-west trail follows Piney Creek for 4.6 miles. From the Pine View Tower trailhead on the north side, two paths of about 1.5 miles each lead south to the creek, and from the South Piney trailhead a 3.7-mile loop heads north toward it. Trail markings are limited and parts follow old roads, so the Forest Service recommends a map and compass.

Compulsive Hiker scouted the roughly 4-mile Tower loop in 2012, going south to the creek and returning north on a different trail that climbs about 350 feet up the steep end of a ridge on switchbacks, then runs more than a mile fairly level. Along the creek, the writer saw two used sites with fire rings “where one could probably cram 4 tents,” and thought the ridge could hold many more.

Ozarks Walkabout’s June 2012 trip covered 11.69 miles in three days. The route went down the Tower Trail, along Piney Creek to Siloam Spring (a pipe “barely” dripping into a concrete spring box), past the remains of an old building above the spring, out to Forest Road 2185, and up the Tar Kiln Trail to a ridge camp. Day two passed a 1958 Forest Service survey marker and dropped to Table Rock Lake, where the group camped on the south shore east of Buck Hollow. The writer saw a timber rattlesnake and feral hog sign, and found the Tower Trail steep with large rock steps.

The same blog’s July 2018 solo trip took the Lake Trail from the tower trailhead to the north shore of Table Rock Lake. Piney Creek was dry, so the lake was the only water. The writer reports scrub over his head, a steep descent on loose gravel, many ticks from bushwhacking, and plentiful poison ivy around camp, and found the dry creek bed easier to follow on the way out.

The Forest Service lists copperheads, eastern timber rattlesnakes, and western pygmy rattlesnakes in the area, and recommends spring and fall.

For a bigger wilderness network east of Branson, see Hercules Glades.

Tips

Camping

Dispersed camping is allowed. The Forest Service asks you to camp at least 100 feet from trails, water sources, and other camps, out of sight and sound of others. The forest’s wilderness order also bans fires and stoves within 100 feet of an established trail and limits groups to 10 people. No permit or fee is needed. Bury human waste at least 6 inches deep and pack out all trash. Horses are allowed; dogs must be leashed. The Pine View Tower trailhead has a restroom and three primitive campsites with fire rings.

Inside Intel: Ozarks Walkabout’s 2012 group liked their ridge-top camp on the Tar Kiln Trail, which “gave us a much needed breeze,” and camped the next night on the lake’s south shore east of Buck Hollow, where “there was plenty of loose wood around.” On the 2018 trip, the writer found an old fire ring on the north shore “well back from the lake, but with good views through the trees.”

Trail facts

The Lowdown

Steep rock steps on Piney Creek's Tower Trail:

Ozarks Walkabout found the Tower Trail steep with large rock steps, and a later trip hit a steep descent on loose gravel to Table Rock Lake. Our pole tips cover placement, choking down, and easing knee load.

Read the pole tips →

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.