Mark Twain National Forest · Missouri

Hercules Glade Tower

6.3 mi of trail, end to end · native material surface · trail No. 21-6122-B · trail class 2 · typical grade 10-12% · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse

Trailhead Hercules Tower Trailhead Drive there

Hercules Tower Trailhead the Forest Service's write-up

No fees. · season January to December

Hercules Tower Trailhead is on the east side of the wilderness and connects you with Pees Hollow (loop trail), the Tower Trail and Long Creek.

Wilderness Trails

The first part of the Tower Trail is mostly level, then it descends a slope to Long Creek.

Lower Pilot, Middle Trail, Pete Hollow and Upper Pilot are connecting trails between Long Creek and Tower Trail, located at intervals along those two trails. From these trails you can hike loops of varying lengths throughout the wilderness.

Camping

This is a loop with three places to camp. If you go down five stairs there are two sites set back from the road.

Parking

The three parking sites that hold four cars each. The campsites are near those parking areas. At one of the parking lots you will find the stairs to get to the other two sites, if you stay on the right side it’s the last parking area.

History

The Hercules Tower is an active fire tower that the Forest uses for fire spotting. It is closed off to the public with a fence. The tower was built in 1936 and is over 100 feet tall.

Restrictions <em><strong>In the Wilderness</strong></em> <ul><li>No camping within 100 feet of an established trail, stream, body of water, cave, rock, shelter, other occupied campsites or other restricted camping areas. &nbsp;</li><li>No building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, or stove fire within 100 feet of an established trail.</li><li>Group size is limited to 10 people</li><li>No possessing or using mechanized or motorized vehicle.</li><li>No riding, hitching, tethering, or hobbling a horse or other saddle or pack animal in violation of posted instructions.</li><li>No hitching or tethering saddle or pack animals directly to live trees.</li><li>No picketing horses or mules within 100 feet of water or trail.</li></ul><em><strong>Trailhead</strong></em> <ul><li>No trash containers; please pack out all your trash.</li><li>Dogs must be on a 6 foot leash in the trailheads.</li><li>Fireworks are prohibited</li></ul>

Accessibility <p>Restroom and picnic table are accessible.</p>

This trailhead on fs.usda.gov

Every trail in Mark Twain National Forest

Other trails from the Hercules Tower Trailhead

All 294 trails in Mark Twain National ForestFind a trailForest on fs.usda.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the US Forest Service's National Forest System trails layer (public domain), read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end, and the class, surface, grade and tread width are the forest's own entries where it publishes them - a forest that publishes the centreline alone has none. The trailheads and the points along the way are the Service's recreation points, and the write-ups its own recarea text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the forest's own site before you go.