St. Louis and its Natural Hinterland (South)

[SuburbanNation]

These photographs were taken at the beginning of this month, which at first held so much promise as a "typical" St. Louis October. Dry, warm with cool nights, explosive orange sunsets, and St. Louis baseball... This thread reflects on this promise (except for the sunsets). All photographs taken by me.

I do a lot of traveling through and backpacking in the "real" and uncluttered eastern Ozarks, and along the way I have found some hidden gems. This is one of those somewhat hidden places, and I had the entire place to myself for an afternoon. These photos highlight the pathways from my South St. Louis neighborhood to an Ozarkian shut-in, where over the millenia water has carved many interesting shapes and cavities into a very hard formation, in this case pink granite. St. Louis has a deep historical connection with these rugged hills of heavy resource extraction, which continues to this day. You can find a similar, darker granite carved from other formations in the St. Francios uplift in various locations in downtown St. Louis, including the cobbled riverfront.

Sorry for the dirty windshield...

I start in my South St. Louis home where I finish up my coffee for another quiet Saturday lunch at "my" river.































(well, theres some clutter)





















(I jumped right in, feet first of course...its deeper than it looks)



(I wasn't ruining anyones time with cheap swill)





(just checking the score)

(I think this is stuff associated with an old fire tower that used to be on the rocks)













Goodbye October, you started out great!

[ColDayMan]

Comfy!

[BG918]

Beautiful, how far is this from St. Louis? I love the Ozarks, the southwestern edge of the plateau is about an hour from where I live in Tulsa. Lots of great hiking and beautiful scenery very similar to the southern Appalachians in the hillier parts like the St. Francois Mtns. south of St. Louis and the Boston Mtns. in northwest Arkansas.

[SuburbanNation]

Originally Posted by BG918

Beautiful, how far is this from St. Louis? I love the Ozarks, the southwestern edge of the plateau is about an hour from where I live in Tulsa. Lots of great hiking and beautiful scenery very similar to the southern Appalachians in the hillier parts like the St. Francois Mtns. south of St. Louis and the Boston Mtns. in northwest Arkansas.

This area is 90 miles due south of my home, inside the contour that contains the St. Francios "Mountains" on the map. If you were to draw a straight line as the crow flies, it would actually pass over Illinois for several miles. The St. Francois "Mtns" are similar to the southern Appalachians, but generally are drier and have much less impressive relief. There are decent backpacking loops that are as remote feeling as anything in Appalachia, and the star gazing is better. The beautiful and abundant waterways are what i'm really interested in.

[Thundertubs]

That's some good country down there. STL is fortunate to have it nearby.

[SuburbanNation]

Originally Posted by Thundertubs

That's some good country down there. STL is fortunate to have it nearby.

I particularly love it in the shoulder seasons...its nearly as abandoned as it has been for 80 years, since those whiskey soaked sawblades from st. louis stole away the yellow soil and hard pines. they were gone by the time my house was built in 1936, i have yellow pine floors from somewhere much further south. A lot of the wilderness areas are named after the families whos farms failed because the land is so poor.


http://www.watersheds.org/farm/images/forest3.jpg

I really love the ozarks, and feel fortunate in how much they are misunderstood.

Heres a nice picture from the top of one of these ancient hills (as much as I travel west, its hard for me to refer to them as mountains, even though they were real mountains at one time, hundreds of millions of years before the appalachians and the rockies).


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...6/HUGHSMT1.JPG

Further south.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Taum_Sauk.jpg

[Wheelingman04]

Another reason why St. Louis is great. It's location.

[edmontonenthusiast]

Definitely don't associate that natural beauty with Missouri. Thanks for setting me straight!

[Lexy]

That's some absolutely breathtaking nature scenes!!!! I am just stunned by it! I've heard that land is pretty Karst in its characteristics. It appears you possibly caught a shot of a "bubbling spring" in one of your pictures. I know I saw some relatively worn sandstorm cap rock with some Ste. Genevieve Limestone outcrops along the stream. Amazing!!! I love that kind of stuff. Hell, I just love St. Louis but that just makes it better. Next time I am up that way, I am going to that area of the state for some exploration.

If you are seriously into this, next time you are in Nashville hit me up! My wife and I could show you some places along the mountains south of here that would blow you away!!!! Great pictures!!

Hey, many believe that if it wasn't for the Ozarks and the New Madrid/Wabash Fault Zone, the Appalachians would be nothing more than mole hills. The Ozarks are unique and their geology is certainly something to spend time studying about. They are very similar to the Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau under the topsoil.

[arbeiter]

the nature pictures are nice, but by god, get out of the car to take pictures!