It’s an enormously ambitious undertaking, one that could play a major role in the Lake of the Ozarks’ future as a year-round destination for visitors: The Magic Dragon Trail.
The planned world-class, multi-surface trail system of both hard- and soft-surface trails will be making major strides in 2024, with the construction of a seven-mile trail network in the area of Three Seasons Road and Nichols Road.
Those seven miles are only a tenth of the entire plan: the Magic Dragon Trails non-profit organization has a master plan that includes 70 miles of multi-use trails.
It’s a long-term plan.
When the Magic Dragon Trail system is complete, it will stretch from the Grand Glaize bridge to Harley Davidson and will also incorporate trails from Lake of the Ozarks State Park.
It could ultimately connect with the Rock Island Trail in Eldon, which is planned to link-up with the well-known and popular Katy Trail.
“So people could ride from Kansas City or St. Louis or anywhere on the Katy Trail all the way down to Lake of the Ozarks,” explained Stacy Pyrtle, Director for Magic Dragon Trails.
In 2023, the group opened the Magic Dragon Bicycle Skills Park (behind the Osage Beach YMCA), thanks to help from lots of local donors as well as Branches for the Lake, a group focused on fundraising for projects that make Lake of the Ozarks “a great place to live, visit, work and play.”
“The skills park was basically our kick-off project for the Magic Dragon Trails,” said Amy Hernandez, Director of Project Management at Branches for the Lake. “Kids have been in the skills park every day, the YMCA is telling us that people go out and walk the skills park. It’s definitely getting the traction we had hoped and we are even more excited now about what having more trails is gonna look like.”
The 2024 trail construction will be a major step in the group’s goal, which Pyrtle explains is “to connect businesses, residential developments, area attractions… so people can walk, run, bike to any of those.”
Other communities that have invested in trail systems have seen economic and community benefits from the trails.
A study funded by the Walton Family Foundation found in 2018 that their system of trails, which connect several communities in Northwest Arkansas, generate $51 million annually to their economy with $27 million of that coming from out-of-state visitors.
Trails also increase property values and provide health benefits for the community as a low-cost exercise option.
“We believe the Magic Dragon Trails System will be an economic driver for the community," Hernandez said. "Stacy and Jan Pyrtle have done a significant amount of research on the benefits of trails for communities.”
The trail system will always be open to the public, and as such, its development is a community project. Its progress is largely thanks to contributions from the community. Federal and state grants have helped; but Pyrtle says the Lake community’s support is what will make these trails a reality. The bike skills park was built thanks in part to donated hours by a skid steer operator.
Pyrtle expects the new seven-mile stretch of trail will open by late-2024. And then it’ll be seven miles down, sixty-three to go.
“Experiences are where it’s at for people right now, and we want people to have those outdoor family experiences,” she said.
Want to help make the Magic Dragon Trails go further? Donate online at magicdragontrails.com. Got more time than money? Volunteer to help with maintenance by contacting the group through the website.
