Wildwood Trail Hides 300 Painted Bee Rocks, Two Are Ultra-Rare Finds

Families walking Wildwood's Rock Hollow Trail this month have a new reason to look down: somewhere along the paved path, hand-painted rocks depicting native bumblebees are waiting to be found, and two of them are so rare that spotting one counts as a genuine rarity. The rocks are part of the fifth annual Greenway Quest scavenger hunt, a joint effort between Great Rivers Greenway and the Saint Louis Zoo, and Wildwood's Western Greenway is one of the stops on this year's hunt.

According to a post from the City of Wildwood, MO - Government on Facebook, the rocks along Rock Hollow Trail depict four species of native bees found along the region's greenways, including the endangered Rusty Patched Bumblebee. Per Great Rivers Greenway, this year's hunt hides 300 painted rocks across the trail system in total, split among the American Bumblebee, the Brown-Belted Bumblebee, the Two-Spotted Bumblebee, and just two depicting the Rusty Patched Bumblebee. Those two rocks are reportedly numbered 301 and 302, making them an intentional needle-in-a-haystack find for anyone lucky enough to spot one.

Zoo Teens Painted Every Single Rock

All 300 rocks were hand-painted by high school volunteers in the Saint Louis Zoo's ALIVE program, working alongside zoo education staff and community volunteers, the greenway agency notes. Zoo ALIVE, short for Active Leaders in Volunteer Education, is a year-round program for teens ages 15 to 18 built around conservation and leadership development, giving the hunt a distinctly local, youth-driven feel before a single rock ever reaches the trail.

Wildwood's stretch of the hunt runs along the Rock Hollow Trail, also known as the Hamilton-Carr Trail, a 2.2-mile paved route that drops down steep forested bluffs from Ridge Road to connect with the Meramec Greenway and Al Foster Trail. Organizers have set clear boundaries for the hunt: rocks are scattered along more than 140 miles of trail across St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County, but none are hidden on private property or inside the zoo itself, keeping searchers safely on public pathways near trail edges and trailheads.

Why the Rusty Patched Bumblebee Matters

The Rusty Patched Bumblebee's spotlight on the rarest rocks isn't just for novelty. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2017, making it the first bumblebee in the continental United States to receive federal protection, according to the agency. The bee was once common across 31 eastern and midwestern states before habitat loss and pesticide exposure drove steep population crashes, the wildlife service notes.

The American Bumblebee, featured on 100 of the hunt's rocks, has its own troubling story. The species has suffered an estimated 89% to 90% population drop across North America over the past two decades and has disappeared entirely from eight states, according to Earth.Org. Conservation groups petitioned the federal government in 2021 to add the American Bumblebee to the endangered species list as well.

Great Rivers Greenway participants can log their rock finds on the Bee Log on the organization's website. Bee Log participants are eligible to win zoo adventure passes and other greenway goodies. Organizers are also encouraging trail visitors who spot live Rusty Patched Bumblebees in the wild to photograph them and upload the sightings to Bumble Bee Watch, a community science database researchers use to track surviving wild colonies, according to St. Louis Mom.

A Rotating Ecological Theme Each Year

This isn't the first time Great Rivers Greenway and the zoo have used the scavenger hunt to spotlight local wildlife. In April 2025, the pair partnered with the zoo's FrogWatch chapter to hide hand-painted frog and toad rocks across 135 miles of trails, teaching participants about local amphibian calls and habitats, per the Saint Louis Zoo. Earlier quests have also highlighted native Missouri birds like the Summer Tanager, showing how the event rotates ecological themes from year to year.

The trail network hosting this year's hunt exists because regional voters approved Proposition C back in November 2000, creating the Great Rivers Greenway District and a dedicated 1/10th-of-one-cent sales tax spanning St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County, according to NextSTL. Voters expanded that funding in 2013 through Proposition P, helping finance the more than 140 miles of trails now in place. Wildwood's own trail ambitions are still growing, too: earlier in 2026, Great Rivers Greenway, the City of Wildwood, and Missouri State Parks reopened public evaluations to extend the Western Greenway through Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park, reviving alignment plans that had stalled in late 2014.