Ozarks part 1

We’re back, safe, sound, tired, and yes it was a great time! We left Thursday morning on a 6 hour trip down to the southern end of Missouri. It’s so pretty out there in the Ozark Mountains. They aren’t quite the mountains I’m used to….more like giant hills or baby mountains. But they are covered in trees and with the sun shining through them are very beautiful. This year we camped on a different river, this year we were on the Current River. Turns out to be a bit bigger, deeper, faster, and with less people on it, which worked out well for us. Thursday night was spent getting the campsite organized, exploring the area, and catching up with friends.
Friday morning Chris and I separated from the group and went hiking at the nearby Big Spring state park. There are several springs in the area and Big Spring is the largest natural spring in the world. It was really cool to see the water coming out from the rock. Apparently rain water absorbed in the mountains trickles down through the rock and absorbs different minerals. Then when it comes out of the rock it looks bright blue. All the water in the area was very clear so that you could see bright green moss growing on the rocks under water. It was really awesome to watch the green flowing back and forth in the bright blue water. In the picture you can kinda see the blue, the bright green is the moss growing on the rocks under the water. There was a small cave area just above where the water comes out of the mountain. We thought it was a spectacular view looking out of the cave at the blue water and green forest behind.
We hiked for several hours straight. We followed all the marked trails and then ran into a ranger who was nice enough to fill up our water bottles (it’s really hot and humid down there) and she suggested a few trails that were no longer marked but still were cleared enough to walk. These were awesome trails b/c no one was really around, and we climbed at least two of those mountains. After 3 hours I was exhausted and by the time we made it back to the spring we devoured our lunch and headed back for the campground. We had one goal in mind that afternoon… ice cold beers and the river.
We brought our chairs out and sat in the river while drinking our beers and watching the fish. We saw tons of wildlife, some turtles, lots and lots of spiders, a water snake swam by us while we were in the river, lots of fish, some huge birds. Chris saw a salamander but I missed that.
That night it stormed and stormed hard. There was a down pour that seemed to last forever. Much of our campsite had small rivers through it or decent sized puddles. Luckily our tent didn’t flood. We did get a little damp but nothing like we thought it would be like. If we hadn’t been camping it would have been an amazing storm to watch. The lighting was gorgeous and lit up the sky for over an hour.

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