A Return to Don Robinson State Park

 The blog post of July third mentioned this park located in Jefferson County Missouri.  The original owner had claimed that it was a " wild and woody area with lots of canyons" which John and I were most desirous to find- but not the first day we were there because of having our young grandchildren along.  We came back towards the end of August and started out on the Sandstone Canyon Trail.

Immediately coming onto that trail I detected a very foul odor.  I blamed it on the masses of mushrooms along our path, and they very much looked like excrement.  Upon closer examination, I deduced they were mushrooms, of the type which I had not seen before, and at home later I was not able to identify.

 

 The canyon trail was assessed as "moderate" and it was a bit of a challenge.  We traversed up and down ravines on rocky paths. Fortunately we thought to bring along our walking sticks.  Pictured above is one of several rock walls we saw.  And we kept thinking that soon we would see a canyon, with no luck.  It was a warm and humid day, after about 2 miles on the trail we took a connector tail off the canyon trail and headed back to our car.  But before we did that we met up with a gentleman who pointed us to another part of the same trail and encouraged us to take that path to view some awesome canyon sightings. Sounded tempting, but that would have entailed us walking two more miles on another rough part of the trail.  We were too hot and tired to consider it.

 

 

We returned to the park a  couple of week later on a much cooler day.  I took the above picture by turning around and getting the shot upward on the path.  Should give you an idea of the rocky paths we encountered hiking alone the ridge line of a box canyon- pretty much the type of trail we had also encountered on our last trip there.  The challenge of the trail did not bother us this time, we knew now we were going to see a canyon.  And so we kept trudging along yet still no sight of a canyon.  John made the comment that some people who had not been to the Grand Canyon just had nothing to compare the canyons here with the sights out west.

                                         

Looking down off our path we started to see the box canyon. Still hard to determine whether that is what we were looking for.

Sorry, that is the best I can give you of what we saw, between all the brush and trees and the presence of bright sunlight I just could not get the awesome picture I was looking for.  I would imagine in winter it probably could be more impressive.  I will end here with another natural wonder which John noticed as we finished the trail.  It is a natural stone bridge which we crossed on our path.

 

 

Klondike Park, Augusta, Missouri

The corona virus, as all of you know, is continuing to affect our lives; and mostly not for the good.  However, it is certainly forcing John and I to make frequent road trips around Missouri to keep us pleasantly occupied.   And that is not all that bad as we have discover some very scenic parks, one of which is Klondike park located in St .Charles County, near Augusta, Missouri.  

 First thing we noticed upon entering the park was the visitor's center, which is currently closed because of the pandemic.  The center sits in front of a towering river bluff.  We found a path nearby and climbed to its top.  From that vantage point we were able to see over the Missouri River.  In the distance is the Labadie Power Plant.

 Interpretive signs in the park mentioned that the Lewis and Clark expedition camped across the river not far from this area, and met up with an Native American tribe.   All total Lewis and Clark met up with 50 Native American tribes during the time of their travels west in the early 1800s.  Lewis and Clark developed a ritual with all the Indian chiefs during which they informed them that their land belonged to the United States and a new “great white Father”, Thomas Jefferson.  They then would present the Indian chief with a medal which had the face of Jefferson and one side and two hands clasping on the other. 

  The quarry was first mined for silica sand taken from the St.Peterson limestone in 1898. After being blasted out of the rock it was crushed and shipped to an off- site location to be manufactured into glass and other industrial products.  In 1945 232,420 tons of sandstone was shipped out to meet war demands.  The quarry was shut down in 1983.
                                         

The park has a campground and a lake for fishing.  With the river bluffs and quarry lake it is a very scenic area.  There are many signs indicating that swimming is not allowed, but apparently the people swimming in the lake did not see them.

 

July Car Trips

It was on a hot humid Sunday afternoon when we took a drive to Graham State Park.  My sister Julia and her husband had camped in a park near Graham that week-end and a picture on Facebook of Cal standing by a beautiful cool river bank (the Loutre River flows through the park) prompted me to suggest a road trip there.  The park is 2 miles west of Danville, Mo on state highway TT, just off of Highway 70,  about one hour drive west of St.Louis.  John thought he had visited the park in the past, I was sure that I had not. 

The cave has an enormous entrance which is 120 feet and 16 feet high.  It extends into the hillside behind it for about 100 feet.  Walking into it is forbidden as more research is needed for the cave as deciphering and recording.  Graham Cave is listed on the National Registration of Historic Places and considered a National Landmark.  There are many interpretive signs in front of the cave explaining why it is so historically important.  It is a Pre-Columbian archeological site dating back as early as 10,000 years, this was proven by the artifacts of bone, stone and clay excavated in the cave.  It is thought that the people living here were hunters and gatherers; hunting game, and gathering fruits and nuts.  There were streams in the area for fishing also.  Speaking of streams, as we walked away from the cave, setting out on a trail nearby, we found ourselves in a beautiful forest glen with a small stream.  Other features of the park include sandstone cliffs, bottom land forest and open rocky glades, none of which we had the time to explore that day.

The other interesting piece of history regarding this park is that Daniel Boone’s two sons Nathaniel and Daniel took out claims in an area south of the park about 1800.   Dr. Graham bought land from Daniel in 1829 and built a home, also later expanding his holdings to include the cave.  In 1964 a Graham great-granddaughter donated 237 acres around Graham cave to Missouri. 

On another hot day in July Melissa and her three children joined us for a trip to Columbia Bottoms to see a field of sunflowers in bloom.  Sadly, we were about a week too late, and no blooming flowers could be seen from the road.  But then we saw some people walking out of a field of sunflowers onto a very muddy path.  We were informed that there were sunflowers in bloom, and walking on that muddy path was necessary to see them.  I was about ready to head out on that path, except for the fact that I encountered a woman who had slipped and fallen.  Her white capris were now a very muddy brown.  She declared that it was worth it.  I lost my courage to embark on that path into the field, but our daughter Melissa offered to go.  She removed her shoes and I handed her my camera.  She was successful with no muddy mishaps and we all got to see the flowers on my camera, which miraculously did not meet up with a muddy bath either. 

Henry Lay Sculpture Park

We are still exploring Missouri!  In the past we have traveled up state highway 79, either taking one of our children or another to a college in Iowa or Minnesota.  We have also driven the road for fun times in Hannibal, home of the author Samuel Clemons.  Over the years we never paid much attention to the small town of  Louisiana located along that highway.  It is just south of Hannibal, and has a population 3,300.  Driving through the town I got a feeling that I had been there before, but no it just looked like another river town- Herman, Missouri.  Both towns have a few large Victorian homes around still, possibly owned by local river captains back at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Lay Sculpture park is located in Louisiana, and is set on approximately 20 acres, surrounded by 350 acres of natural meadows, rolling hills and lakes.  Part of this area includes the McElwee Artists Residences, a retreat center for St.Louis University.  Henry Lay (April,1941-Oct. 2000),an alumnus of the university's law school, purchased the property in 1996.  His dream was to establish a place where art and literature are paired with the beauty of nature.  John McElwee, a Revolutionary hero first owned the farm property in 1832.

There are many sculptures located in this park.  A rather amusing one, pictured above, is of a man pulling a horse sitting rather comfortably in a wagon.

Walking around one of the lakes we came upon the Three Sisters,a sculpture done by artist Bing Cheng from Beijing.  In front of them is a rather broken down bridge- the whole park looks in need of some repairs, probably no thanks to the Corona virus.

The artist of the sculpture Infinity Revisited, pictured above, came back in 2016 to repair it.  It is an art work comprised of rocks and wood - a large infinity symbol which "erodes back into the landscape", the quote is from signage at the site.  The signage gives a very good explanation for the art work and raises the question of what is our relationship to nature, are we a part of it, or separate from it?   That is easily answered by John and I, because by embracing nature we have been keeping our sanity during the covid crisis which requires distancing from other humans!

I will end this with Westward Journey, art work done by sculptor Reynaldo Rivera in 2018.

Exploring Missouri

The corona virus is still around and very active.  For John and I it  means that we need to continue to
take precautions.  We are not sheltering in place, but we do not congregate in large crowds and certainly wear masks when we are around people outside of our family.  We are continuing to explore the parks and other tourist sites around Missouri, which is helping to keep down our restlessness.

 The latest state park we visited was the Don Robinson State Park.  It is considered part of the St.Louis area, located southwest of the city near Cedar Hill, Mo.  Upon arrival we immediately  looked for a picnic area and found the shelter pictured above, complete with rocking chairs!  Quite a nice place to sit and hold our fussing grandson.  And from the shelter we could look off over the verdant rolling hills.  Behind the shelter is a house under repair.  Part of it is an old stone cottage which had additions added to it.  In the foreground of the picture below the older part of the building can be seen with its chimney.

This park was established in 2012.  In the mid 1960s Don Robinson began a personal quest to "return to the land" and began buying up the rugged countryside of Jefferson County.  He described the land as "wild and woody with lots of canyons".  He amassed 800 acres.  The stone cottage was built in 1928, Robinson added to it with some upper floors and siding using recycled materials.  He spent 4 decades renovating it.   According to the park ranger we met, that building is being turned into a visitor's center.  John and I hope to return to this park, we are anxious to see more details of the home as well as the park's box canyons, shelter caves, cliffs and glades.  Because of the little ones we had with us the day we were there, we could not hike into the more interesting and rugged parts of the state park.

Several weeks after that trip we drove to a blueberry farm near Marthasville, Mo.  After picking the berries we took a side trip to Peers Prairie, to see the 4 acres of prairie flowers located along the Katy Trail.  I had happened to see an ad on television encouraging people to come to Peers Prairie to check out the abundance of colorful flowers.  And on the last two weekends in June there is a blue grass festival celebrating the prairie.  Something else to see there is an old historic store built for the Katy Railroad in 1896.  Unfortunately it is only open on weekends.

 

While we were in the Marthasville area we also had planned to see the Daniel Boone's memorial.  In the last years of his life he and his wife Rebecca lived in what became later the state of Missouri.  His wife's family lived in the Marthasville area, and because Rebecca died before Daniel, the Boone family cemetery is located near that town. Supposedly Daniel Boone's remains were later removed to Kentucky, but that claim is disputed as apparently the body moved was not that of Daniel Boone.  His daughter Jemima Boone Calloway's grave is located near that of her parents.  It is an interesting peaceful site with a creek running past it, farm fields off in the distance.  Some of the people buried here were born during the early years of our country.