The Season of Spring in Missouri

It has been a busy and eventful time since we drove into Missouri a week ago. While in Texas, which has been in a drought, I was quite anxious to feel some rain on my face. Now I regret ever thinking that. Our first stop was in Columbia, Missouri to visit my sister Linda. Shortly after arriving we rushed out to see the many different redbuds in bloom in a park there before a storm hit later that day.  We saw a dazzling array of blooming trees; white redbud, weeping redbud and red leaf redbud (pictured below).

Despite a cool, rainy day Saturday, we were able to get out and hike on the Katy trail on Sunday. Monday we parked our rig in St. Charles and drove to Farmington on Tuesday. Unfortunately we needed to place our cat in a boarding kennel, again.  Tuesday night in Farmington there were storms and tornado sirens. Thursday there was a break in the storms and we hiked at Taum Sauk State Park. Blooming dogwood trees are all over this area, more that I have ever seen in previous years here in Missouri.

We saw many patches of those blooming trees while hiking. With all the rain Missouri has had recently, Mina Sauk Falls had large volumes of water crashing over its boulders.It was a muddy, slippery hike, but well worth the time and effort. Many wildflowers are now blooming, and, besides the main falls, there were many smaller ones and running streams of water along our path. Our return trail took us over the Ozark Trail.