Shows / Backroad Weekly
Backroad Weekly
Every Friday at 6:42 & 8:42 a.m and 4:18 p.m., Backroad Weekly founder Caitlan Hester joins KRCU to share day trips, outdoor adventures, and upcoming events within easy driving distance of Southeast Missouri. From hiking trails and historic sites to festivals, museums, restaurants, and small-town attractions, these segments help local listeners find their next nearby outing.
Episodes
- Backroad Weekly
Backroad Weekly: Blue Spring
Did you know the first national park area to protect a river system is in Missouri?
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Rocky Falls
If you're in the Cape Girardeau area of Southeast Missouri like me, this week's day trip is a long haul, at about a 2.5-hour drive. But holy Ozarks, is it…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Hughes Mountain Natural Area
Suddenly, the forest opens into a clearing of ancient volcanic rock that has formed in a cluster of short, blocky columns. The locals call it the Devil's…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Castor River Shut-Ins
Tiptoe away to an ancient place where a cool, clear river spills around giant pink boulders. Then, idle down into the canyon to soak in the shallow…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Kimmswick
Founded in the 1850s, with a current population of only about 130 people, Kimmswick, Missouri, was revived and restored by the 7-UP heiress in the 70s, when…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Snake Road
There's one road in the world that has closed every year, twice a year, for over 50 years, all in the name of snakes.
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Iron Mountain Railway
Ride the rails in 100-year-old passenger cars while you take in a show.
- Backroad Weekly
Backroad Weekly: Peck Ranch Conservation Area
Hey, local day trippers! Obviously, I'm a travel writer and not a singer. But you know who is singing this time of year? Wild elk.
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Lon Sanders Canyon
The phrase, "hidden gem" gets thrown around too often in travel writing. It's kind of a pet peeve. But this time, I'll begrudgingly admit that "hidden gem" is…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Marble Hill
What I thought was a quick lunch stop in Marble Hill, Missouri, turned into an antiquing vortex. I emerged three hours later with disheveled hair and home…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Tunnel Hill State Trail
Sorry to have to call them out like this, but your cycling friends are holding out on you. Southern Illinois' Tunnel Hill State Trail is famously a cyclist's…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Dorena-Hickman Ferry
If you have some kind of weird places-to-use-an-outhouse bucket list, I have great news for you.
- Backroad Weekly
Backroad Weekly: Otter Slough Conservation Area
Before agriculture became King of the Missouri Bootheel, it was a tangled world of cypress trees and wetlands. Today, only fragments of that wild past remain…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Big Spring
Tourists spend thousands traveling to Arizona's Havisu Falls and Costa Rica's Rio Celeste in pursuit of water that's a cerulean shade of blue. Meanwhile, we're…
Backroad WeeklyBackroad Weekly: Mingo National Wildlife Refuge
Some days you want a grand, sweat-through-your-shirt adventure. Other days you want to spot wildlife from the comfort of your car's air conditioning. This Semo…