Missouri Vacation, 2016
Day 2
(created April 4, 2016, updated April 16, 2016)
Day 2: Eminence to Greer Springs and Grand Gulf State Park
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-Venice... Missouri!
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-Round Spring Retreat, where we made dinner and played games
We slept in a bit and made breakfast together... something we don’t do enough of at home.
Venice, MO
As we departed we decided we could (as we drove right past it), and should visit Venice... Venice, MO!
It's a small town that looks to primarily be a company that has many trucks and needs a mailing address and/or zip code.
But we can all now say we have visited Venice!
Greer Spring
We then continued on to Greer Spring, which is the second largest spring in Missouri - ~220 million gallons per day (almost a gallon per citizen, and enough to fill a football stadium... each day!)
see also
https://www.visitmo.com/greer-spring-and-trail.aspx
&
It is located just into Oregon County, at the top of the hill after you cross the Jack's Fork River.
You make a .9 mile walk from the parking lot (has a restroom, but no trash service) atop the hill to the spring in the valley.
We could hear the water before we could see it.
The trail ends about 20-30 feet above the water... or so we thought until Abby walked over and found steps down to the water!
As you walk down the steps it’s amazing to see how green everything is... almost like an image from the Pacific Northwest.
We had fun walking in the cold water!
Matt’s GoPro videos
“Greer Spring, Video 1 - Under Water”
“Greer Spring, Video 2 - Under Water”
Abby’s GoPro videos
“Greer Spring, Video 3 - Under Water”
“Greer Spring, Video 4 - Under Water”
“Greer Spring, Video 5 - Walking Tour Showing Both Outflows”
And one additional video of the flowing water
“Greer Spring, Video 6 - Flowing Water”
Abby and Dad played baseball catch by the water's edge and on the trail walking back up to the car. While the walk up takes more energy than the walk down, we were cool from both feel cooled by the water and by the fact that the cool water chills the air at the bottom of the valley... so we were not overheated by time we got the ~ 250 vertical feet back up to the car.
Greer Spring has two outflows, the upper one to the far left, and the other in the center of this photo:
These are two matching still photos capturing the upper outlet.
ProCamera app, exposure ~ 1/1000 second:
Slow Shutter Cam, exposure 1 second:
(see bottom of Day 4 page for links)
These are two matching still photos capturing the lower outlet.
ProCamera app, exposure ~ 1/1000 second:
Slow Shutter Cam, exposure 1 second:
This is a bing Bird’s Eye satellite map, showing how Greer Springs feeds into the Eleven Point River.
For good information about our state’s springs, please see:
Grand Gulf State Park
We then continued on to Grand Gulf State Park, in Thayer, MO, which was created when the top of a cave collapsed and fell in, leaving the water exposed.
(Thank you, MissouriLife for sharing this with us; I did not know this existed until I read your magazine!)
We stayed at the top, though we could see that you could walk down some steps to the water.
We walked over the natural bridge and read that the water dives back underground and flows 8-9 miles to Mammoth Springs in Arkansas!
Missouri Highway 19 (from Hannibal to the Arkansas border)
We all agreed that Hw 19 is a lot like a roller coaster, and that we all had some head and tummy troubles from its twists and turns.
Mom and Dad took a walk on the Round Spring Retreat's trail - the sunset was awesome
We watched a little of 'Forrest Gump' and played Stratego
Abby and Dad went out to gaze at all the stars we could see in the dark Shannon County / Eminence sky!
Abby claimed Arcturus for herself!
Follow the Big Dipper's handle to see the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere, and the fourth brightest overall
Abby, Matt and Dad were pleasantly surprised that we 1) had 1-2 bar cell service at the cabin and 2) that this somehow provided enough bandwidth for us to watch the Tesla Model 3 launch before going to bed.
Links to the rest of this travel journal:
Ozark Fun - Day 1 Ozark Fun - Day 3 Ozark Fun - Day 4
