Maste

My girlfriend and I are going to start doing our favourite hobby again soon now our pup is old enough and has built up her stamina with 5k runs, hikes!

I thought we could have a thread to recommend good hiking spots, and state whether they're pet friendly, day hikes or weekend hiking expeditions, etc.

I don't know much about good hiking spots. My girlfriend and I live in St Louis, but we are wiling to drive an hour or so to a hiking spot if the scenery and time spent hiking makes it worth it.

Any recommendations for around that area?

fakey

I have no recomendations local to St Louis - but in NJ I would recomend a place called Schoolies Mountain on the edge of Morris County.
You walk round a small lake, then down into a forest alongside a set of waterfalls for about a mile, then up the side of the mountain for maybe half a mile, to quite a spectacular overlook that's pretty high up over Long Valley.
Then about 2 miles back to the start point.
Just watch out for bears ...

fakey

For a place thats so derided by a lot of Americans, NJ is actually full of really good places to hike & cycle. Its one of the things I like most about it.