Millstream Gardens Conservation Area- October

This is the area we hiked in on Sunday. The St.Francois River flows through this conservation area to create the only whitewater in Missouri. The river is also notorious for large rocky formations, called the Tiemann Shut-Ins. I must say that I thought that there was only one such area of shut-ins in Missouri, which are the Johnson's Shut-Ins. This area is located eight miles west of Fredericktown, on highway 72. We had a beautiful cool sunny day in which to hike, so the woodland trail along the river was very enjoyable. There are still a few wildflowers around, as the white fireweed, yellow goldenrod and purple aster. Unfortunately this area also sustained some wind damage last spring. We saw many trees which were toppled by the storm and I am not talking small trees. There were quite a few tall massive trees on the ground which were pulled out by their roots!