About 1.5 billion years ago, hot magma cooled forming coarsely crystalline red granite, which later weathered into huge, rounded boulders. Standing atop a granite outcrop, one of the largest elephant rocks, Dumbo, tops the scales at a unreal 680 tons.

Visitors to Elephant Rocks State Park can easily view the granite boulders from the one-mile Braille Trail, designed to accommodate people with visual or physical disabilities. The trail passes by a quarry pond, which now supports a variety of animal life. A short spur off of the trail takes visitors to the top of the granite outcrop, where they can explore the maze of giant elephant rocks.

A second spur brings visitors to a point overlooking an old quarry site. This red granite, first commercially quarried in the late 1800s, has been used as building material and as paving blocks for the St. Louis levee and downtown streets. Today, “Missouri Red” granite is cut and polished mainly for use as monuments. Picnic sites allow visitors to rest and have a cool drink among the stone pachyderms.