Fort Parker features 7 hiking trails ranging from easy to moderate difficulty throughout the park with most of these trails nestled along the edge of the river and lake.  We found ourselves taking the Springfield Trail. It was a 1.8-mile loop that shared an entrance with the Bur Oak Trail before it branched off to a more mild half-mile loop.  The Springfield trail took us past a cemetery and I was nervous about the questions my nearly 6-year-olds would have.  However, the signage really spoke about the town and why the town died after its citizens decided to be greedy when the railroad was coming to town.  You can read more about this in our full Fort Parker State Park Guide.

After we passed the cemetery you enter a decently thick forested trail before you come across a clearing where the group cabins are located.  While it was a small clearing, there it is always a surprise how much bigger it seems when you come out of the shady forest and suddenly have the sun beating down on you!  However, we pressed on and found ourselves back in the forest as the trail meandered along the edge of the lake and eventually down to the damn impounding Fort Parker State Park. However, when we got there, we were surprised to find a much smaller, but significantly more importantly lake known as Lake Springfield.  This spring-fed lake was originally created by the people who founded the former town of Springfield and provided the essential water source this town needed to survive.  Right at the base of the damn the spring-fed Lake Springfield spills under the trail and down a rock spillway that has created a really picturesque waterfall that the kids enjoyed playing in for 30+ minutes. Despite the trail being a simple loop we simply made the trek back down towards the day-use area the same way we came in. It was interesting to see how little traffic the trail saw with us even being able to identify our own footsteps on the way back in.

Springfield Trail Statistics

Images from our Adventure