Tuesday, May 13

Across the river and into Missouri about 7:15 this morning.  Still rainy, but we decided we will hike anyway.  First stop Pickle Springs Natural Area near Farmington.  Several miles down a gravel road to a 2 mile trail.  Designed by : Ed Brown
                            Featuring: Mother Nature
                            Photos by Beth

Don't know what these flowers are, but we've been seeing them all along the trip.  These, however, are bigger and brighter!

beautiful wild azaleas

raindrops keep fallin'...

one of many small water falls

awesome moss

 Back to rolling hills, cattle, farms.  We are heading to Elephant Rocks State Park.  Interesting note that here in Missouri many of the non-major roads are designated by letters, rather than names or numbers.  We travelled on U, N, J, MM, etc.

Elephant Rocks is mostly granite that was formed 1.5 billion years ago.  Most of the rocks we see were originally blocks, but have been shaped by wind, rain, etc.  Very nice paved trail with wheelchair access.  There was a quarry here that was mined in the 1800's, and a railroad was layed to transport the rock. The old quarry is 30 feet high with water 40' deep.

 

Old engine room where train tracks began.

 When we left Elephant Rocks we began to get into some mountains and the Mark Twain National Forest.  Fog covered some of the mountain tops.

 Big bird at Iron Mountain.

Next stop was Dillard Mill State Historical Site.  Beautiful old mill built around 1900.  At the time there were over 500 mills in Missouri.  Larry, the manager we talked with later, said that Mr. Pillsbury spelled the demise of the mills.

Dillard Mill once ground wheat and corn

 Though not officially open for tours, Larry, the manager met us and opened the mill and turned on the machinery to show us how it worked.  If this rain stops we may come back tomorrow for the long "official" tour.

Interestingly, the mill is covered in galvanized tin

Larry suggested we go to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.  I wondered for a brief second if we are really THAT old, but he quickly explained that in Missouri, Shut-Ins are another name for Canyons.
So we back-tracked a bit to this park and decided to camp there for the night and sight see in the morning.