Another badly needed day off, another rainy day. The beautiful Mrs K helped us out today, though. I was in no mood to do anything except bitch about the rain, yet she planned a little getaway for us. Pickle Springs Natural Area. Never heard of it? I have, but only in passing. My daughter is a big fan of this place, but I've never been. So we loaded up and drove in a rain storm down south a little ways. Terrible driving conditions, but we were determined. We got out of the car and were greeted with huge mud puddles. UG!
Mrs K was determined that we were going to have fun, come hell or VERY high water. This place is pretty remote, just adjacent to Hawn State Park. And pretty rugged, it seemed, too.
I started to get really jazzed when we saw the sign and read a little about the geography of the area. Perhaps it was going to be MORE than pretty rugged??
Still pouring rain, we ventured in and got our feet wet. Quite wet. But it was interesting from the word go. What was this crazy terrain?? It made the local mountain bike trails look like the Katy Trail. Super rugged!
The very first feature was only a few yards from the entrance was this crazy rock wall. This was not going to be a nature walk. It was some serious hiking!
A few yards later, this deep crevice came into view. We had to hold on to roots and other rocks to get down into it. This...was my kind of hike.
Still raining, water was running down the crevice along with us. It got deeper and the features became even more interesting. The running water and rain was actually an enhancement of the hike...it showed the wild rock formations and there were waterfalls everywhere, along with some of the natural creeks and water flows.
There were too may rock hollows to count. Everywhere we looked, there was another waterfall, another hollow, more trees growing straight out of the sandstone formations. It was a lot to take in. Suddenly, the rainy day gave way to the most interesting hike we've ever been on.
At times it seemed like we had exited plane old fly-over Missouri and were in a crazy wilderness. Sort of a Jurassic Park without the Velociraptors.
We were speechless when we saw the huge shelves and holes through the rock. This stuff became reminiscent of Elephant Rocks, which isn't too awful far away. There were a few other families at this spot, but were probably two of maybe eight people we saw the whole time.
Waterfalls everywhere. Everywhere the sound of rushing water. If it were any warmer, we would have totally taken soapless showers here, and at a few other spots.
Peepholes in so many odd places. Tiny caves. Odd rock formations. Rock overhangs. Many times we had to use our hands to help us climb up or down a section. Truly a delight for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.
This appeared to be the highest spot, very close to some of the views at Elephant Rocks. This tree was growing between enormous boulders, with no dirt in sight, high up on this cliff.
And this was the underside of that cliff. The trail wound around the ridge and down under. The camera does not do this justice, but if you right-click it and see it at full size, it gives you a better view.
I kept getting so excited at the variety of waterfalls. This one was at the bottom of Rockpile Canyon...literally, upstream there were boulders the size of bulldozers piled upon one another at the bottom of a huge series of cliffs.
And those cliffs looked a lot like Flintstones apartment buildings. Really, those little caves were pretty deep in the rock. Looks like a great place to hide from a storm.
Last waterfall, I promise. This one was at the top of Rockpile Canyon. It was so loud, and that hollow was so deep.
I have a lot more photos, but really, they just don't show the dramatic features of this place. Absolutely a place worth visiting. And don't be afraid to visit in the rain. The soil was hard as it can be. We never once had to shake mud off of our shoes. We could walk straight through the puddles without worry.
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