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Free: Maple Sugar Festival at Rockwoods Reservation

(There is no festival planned for 2019, this is a post from the archive)

Every year park rangers show kids where maple sugar comes from by tapping trees in Rockwoods Reservations. The trees are tapped in sometime in January when weather conditions are just right.

The 2018 Maple Sugar Festival takes place Saturday, Feb. 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is open to the whole family at no cost.

Rockwoods Reservation is a state park in Wildwood and is run by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“The Rockwoods Maple Sugar Festival is an excellent opportunity for families to break free of cabin fever and experience nature at its finest,” said MDC Interpretive Center Manager Kevin McCarthy. “They’ll learn skills to collect, boil and create their own maple syrup or sugar, and still have several weeks of the season to try it out.”

Visitors will see firsthand how Native Americans and early settlers harvested the sap—and boiled it down over an open fire to create sugar and syrup. Guided hikes will demonstrate how to identify and tap sugar maple trees.

Tasting the sugar and syrup is one of the most popular attractions. Kids will also delight in trying a pioneer favorite—sugar on snow, a toffee-like treat created when warm maple sap mixes with the cold snow.

Rockwoods Reservation is located in Wildwood at 2751 Glencoe Road, off Highway 109 between I-44 and Highway 100. For additional information on the Maple Sugar Festival call 636-458-2236.