May 29, 2024 - Licking, Missouri to Farmington, Missouri

We had an early start today on our "springs and falls" tour, which was a good thing. Googlemaps is good, but not always right - especially if the operator puts the wrong information into the map. Yes, that was me. Fortunately, we only went a few miles down a gravel road before we got things sorted out. At least it was a pretty drive and circled back to the road we needed.

Back on the correct route our first stop was Alley Springs and Alley Springs Mill near Eminence, Missouri.

The Spring is now part of the National Park Service and we enjoyed visiting with the ranger about the history of the mill. It originated as a flour mill built in 1894 and eventually they added grinding wheat and corn. Lumber was also abundant in the area and they added milling lumber. Overlogging in the area led to the closure of the mill in 1918 and the site was turned over to the state for a park in 1925. The second level had some of the original equipment and history plaques to read.

It's difficult to tell, but this large pool is the spring. It is the seventh largest spring in Missouri and is know to extend at least 3000 feet underground and is at least 155 feet deep. Eighty-one MILLION gallons of water bubble out of Alley Spring every day and flow into the Jacks Fork River! The water is normally very blue, but there have been heavy thunderstorms in Missouri this last week so the muck from the bottom has been stirred up giving it the greenish/brown cast.

There is a small trail that goes around the spring with a bridge back across the outflow.

With suggestions from the ranger, we crossed one spring and another mill off our list of spots to visit and headed next to Rocky Falls. The large swimming hole known as Rocky Falls was formed from molten rock 1.5 billion years ago. The volcanic rock hardened into reddish-brown rhyolite. The rushing spring-fed waters created a stream that wriggled into little cracks, eroding any of the soft rock and left smooth hard rhyolite "shut-ins." Rocky Falls is unique with a 40-foot tall waterfall that pours into the large swimming pool.


A shut-in is a term for a narrow constriction, or gorge, in a stream. Usually they are confined to a narrow valley or canyon and have lots of rock formations. It was a quiet spot when we first arrived, but soon filled up with folks enjoying the water and bringing their picnic lunches.

Blue Spring was the next stop. Located by the Currant River, at 310 feet, Blue Spring is Missouri's deepest. To give you some perspective, if the Statue of Liberty stood on the bottom, her torch would be underwater! Normally very blue because of minerals being dissolved underwater, the spring is again more green because of all the storms in Missouri. Bummer! It was only a mile roundtrip hike to get to the spring and the rock formations were cool to see.
Blue Spring flows into the Current River at this point. Across the river there were lots of folks camping and swimming in the Current River. It is not allowed to swim or even wade in any of the springs.

We made a short stop in Van Buren for lunch before visiting Big Spring, the largest spring in Missouri. It is also one of the biggest springs in the United States producing an average of 286 MILLION gallons of water every day! It carries over 70 tons of dissolved minerals and it grows larger every day!!! The water is 58 degrees and drains into the Current River.

Big Spring Historic District was designated as Missouri's first state park in 1924. The CCC built roads, trails, bridges, and even a couple dikes during the 1930s in the park. Eventually, the area was given to the federal government to form the protected Ozark Scenic Riverways area. We took a small hike to see where one of the dikes was located, but the trees and growth made it almost impossible to see, let alone try to take a picture. Trust me, we did see it!

That was the last spring in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways that we had on our agenda to visit today so we traveled north and east to the Castor River Shut-ins. We followed the trail then made our way down the rocks to the river. It was about 80 degrees and there were lots of people enjoying the sun and water!

The shut-in found in this section of the Castor River is little more than half a mile long and flows through the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area. The rocks in this area are pink granite and are beautiful!

We just took a break and watched others swim!

We climbed back up to the trail from the river and made our way to Farmington, Missouri for the night. It's a little out of our way, but there are not a lot of choices in these smaller towns for hotels! Dinner was at the Catfish Kettle. Tobey had catfish and I had shrimp. Both were pretty good and we were both impressed with their coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes.

Tomorrow we continue our journey to the east and so far only have one stop planned. I guess we need to do a little research!