Pickle Springs Natural Area

After hiking Elephant rocks and eating our lunch in Farmington, we were ready for Pickle Springs.  A park brochure describes it as "a trail approximately 2 miles long and will take you several hours to hike at a leisurely pace...moderately difficult with some short segments of steep grades".  It is important to take it slow, if for no other reason then to appreciate the beauty of its canyons, ravines, waterfalls and tall sandstone bluffs.

First natural area which we came to is called The Slot.  It began forming when shifts in the earth's crust caused vertical fractures in the limestone. 

The walls of this ravine are peppered with strange holes, pockets and ridges, and is constantly being eroded by freezing and thawing.

Amanda, our son Dan's wife is showing the double arch in the picture above.  It is one of the more fascinating features of the park.The buttress arch supports three huge rocks, two of which form another smaller arch.

Pictured above is the Keyhole, another type of arch, formed by two very large rocks leaning against each other.

And above we have the Terrapin Rock.  Surely you can see what looks like a turtle head in the picture above?  From here the trail slopes downward into the Pickle Creek area.

 

It was a bright sunny day, but some how my camera did a poor job in picking up the colors around the creek and small waterfalls of Pickle Creek.  In this area the vegetation was quite lush with moss and ferns, shades of green strikingly beautiful against the rock walls of Spirit and Rockpile Canyon.

Some of our hiking group (nieces Rebecca and Elizabeth) joined us for this hike on Tuesday afternoon. They are pictured standing on Dome Rock Overlook, one of the largest hoodoo complex in this natural area.  I certainly hope by now I have piqued your interest to visit what we consider one of the more beautiful parks in Missouri!

Elephant Rocks State Park

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in St.Louis!  Our son Daniel and his wife Amanda flew into St.Louis Monday evening, and our oldest son Mike flew in from San Diego on Wednesday.  It pays to have roots when we want to host family!  Our last home on wheels never could fit in that many people comfortably.  Or even serve a Thanksgiving meal for a dozen people.

Our son Dan requested that we take a trip to Farmington to visit extended family, and while there to do some hiking.  His wife Amanda had not seen southeastern Missouri and he was desirous to show it to her.  We chose Elephant Rocks and Pickle Springs.  The picture above gives you an idea of Elephant Rocks- big boulders of granite lying around.  It was a cool overcast day- perfect for hiking.

The landform is called a "tor", described by the park's brochure as a pile of weathered residual granite rock boulders sitting atop bedrock mass of the same rock.  And, as you may notice in the picture above, those giant boulders in the park are standing end-to-end like a giant train of circus elephants.

I am not sure that the biggest one is pictured above, but the largest one is 27 feet tall,has a length of 34 feet and weights 680 tons.

This park not only attracts geologists, but also history buffs interested in the quarry activity in the area.  Pictured above are the ruins of a 1890s engine house which serviced trains for the Sheahan Quarries private railroad.  By 1902 railroad cars were being operated regularly, shipping red Missouri granite throughout the country.  Other nearby quarries furnished finished facing stone for the Eads Bridge piers in St.Louis as well as stone for Anheuser Busch brewery, and the turned columns on the front porch of the Governor's mansion in Jefferson City.

And the giant boulders are just plain fun to walk around, between, and under and over- for children and adults.  It may just happen too, if you get to wandering a lot and not paying attention to where you are, that the only way to return to the main trail is through what is known as "fat man's squeeze"!

My next posting will be regarding our hike in Pickle Springs- another beautiful park in southeastern Missouri.

Autumn in the Midwest

As I write this we are recovering from our first snowfall for the season- about 6 inches this past Thursday.  What a shock for us two snowbirds trying to adjust to settling down here in the Midwest!  Fortunately  I had just bought the grandchildren their boots the day before, but Nathan still lacked waterproof snow pants, as you can see in the picture below.

It took a few big safety pins to keep his mom's pants on him!   The snowfall was certainly a novel experience for the two children.  Nathan loved sledding down the hill behind our apartment, Clarissa kept squishing the snow between her mittens as if it were some strange substance.  Nathan scooped up some of the cold stuff to taste it (I did warn him not to put yellow snow in his mouth).

We were treated to some spectacular autumn color when the leaves turned, it was a bit late in coming and seemed to last only two weeks- but we were grateful for that as we had missed seeing the leaves turning during our traveling years. 
Our daughter Melissa was determined that her children get to experience all the events of fall; as apple picking, and visiting a pumpkin patch.  We even managed to get in a hay ride, complete with a bonfire and smores in local county park.  That was a very cold evening!  My wardrobe is still not ready for a Midwest winter.

Halloween was a cool damp day.  Our daughter Melissa had to switch Clarissa's fairy dress to a fish costume so she could be dressed warmer.  In the picture above Melissa is putting the finishing touches on Nathan's Captain Barnacle's outfit.  For those of you without preschoolers, Captain Barnacles is part of the Octonaut crew.  The Octonauts "explore, rescue and protect"  our seas.
For Christmas John and I are planning on fleeing the Midwest for Florida, after that first snowfall we suddenly got the urge to drive south, at least for a little while.