Wed, May 14, 2014

Wednesday, May 14

Woke to overcast skies and 49 degrees.  The other side of the park didn't open till 8:00, so  we had steak and egg tortillas for breakfast and stopped by the park store which was closed but had wi-fi.

Saw some interesting birds this morning - indigo painted bunting (beautiful blue) and a bright yellow and black something.  Last night I heard the whip-poor-will calling as though his life depended on it - haven't heard that call in a long time!

Stopped at the visitor center a little after 8:00 and spoke with Ranger Liz about the Shut-Ins.  She also gave us a map of how to get to Mina Sauk Falls trail.  They had a nice display on local birds which is how I recognized the indigo painted bunting.  Very nice visitor center and campgrounds and Liz explained that a dam upstream broke in 2005 and wiped the park facilities off the map, so everything is relatively new and I suppose disaster funding helped.  The ranger's house and his wife and three kids were washed downstream too, but they all survived.

First we walked to the Shut-Ins , which are chutes carved into the rocks.  Lots of water with the recent rains.  This is supposedly a popular place for swimming and tubing in the area before the rocks, and there were two school buses of kids arriving as we left... Liz wasn't sure if they'd swim since it was only in the high 40's!  NOT ME!

More rain as we walked the trail and took a few pictures.

Next we followed Liz's map (a 20 mile drive) to Taum Sauk Mountain, the highest point in Missouri (not that high). We climbed a fire tower to get the blood flowing and then drove a short distance to the trail head.

view from fire tower

We had been told the trail is rough, so wore our hiking boots.  Good thing!  For much of the 1.5 miles the trail was doing double duty as a stream today!

looking back up the trail

  We balanced on rocks and created paths around the worst water...quite possibly the longest 1.5 miles we've ever walked!  The falls were a collection of small falls, nice, with a wealth of water! Sparkling clean water and a cacophony of sound.

 The hike back, even though mostly uphill, seemed to go faster but we were both pretty soaked by the time we reached the trek. The wind had picked up and temperature had fallen to 44. Heated up the trek,  changed clothes and had some lunch while we warmed up! We'd make miserable, wimpy pioneers!

Enough with the rain!  We headed to the town of Farmington and their library.  Greg read newspapers and magazines while I caught up on emails and blog.

We stopped by Sandy Creek Covered Bridge, one of four in the state.  It was built in 1872 but had recently been re-furbished, so looked good.

From here we went to a town called DeSoto and stayed at their local Walmart. Bushed!