Van Buren, MO May 19-26

One the way to our next stop, Van Buren, MO, we stopped at Mammoth Springs, AR, and Grand Gulf State Park, MO.

 

Here is Mammoth Springs. The reason you don't see the normal fast water or bubbles like most natural springs is because this spring is 70 feet below the surface. This spring is one of the top 10 producing springs in the world, producing 9 million gallons of water per hour.

Here is the dam, built in the early 1900s. It powered an hydroelectric plant until 1972 when the cost to repair or replace a broken turbine became too costly. At one time there was also a mill which was also powered by the dam.

Next to the spring was this train depot. No longer in service it is now a museum, but the museum was closed so we didn't get to go in.

 This is one area in Grand Gulf State Park which now is only a sink hole, but was once covered and part of the cave.

Grand Gulf State Park is part of the water source for Mammoth Springs. It is located about 9 miles north of Mammoth Springs. They have put dye in the water and they have watched the dyed water show up in the spring downstream. Most of the water is part of the underground water table and is not above ground. Grand Gulf is called by Missouri 'the grand canyon of Missouri'. It is actually a collapsed cave system. There are trails and one trail goes out along a bluff which is actually now a natural bridge where some of the cave ceiling still stands.

 

But finally we arrived at Big Springs Campground, Van Buren, MO. Both the Current River and the Jack Forks River are part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. These rivers were the first rivers in the U.S. to be so dedicated.

At Big Spring we kayaked first by going upriver.

The Current River doesn't have the bluffs like the Buffalo, but is still pretty in its own way. The river was not as high as we saw on the Buffalo either.

Here we are at the end of our second kayak trip. We floated about 9 miles from the campground downriver where we had shuttled our pickup vehicles.

Cory gets the kayak hat.

 

Each year a special hat is made to be given to those who dump their kayaks on the river. I mean, we are supposed to keep the open side up, right! She took off on what looked like a faster, narrower river split, but actually it narrowed down to almost nothing and she had to portage (drag) her kayak back to the beginning of the split. In the process she fell in the water and with this group, anytime anyone goes in the water while kayaking, even if it is getting in and out of their kayak, we give them the award. But you only get to keep the hat until the next person dumps.

 

Over Memorial Day there were festivals in Van Buren and also Fremont. We stopped in Van Buren first, but went to the parade in Fremont. One of the rangers at the park was carrying the flag in the parade and she invited us to the festival.

It was more of an old time festival. Here are a group of ladies dressed as they would have been in pioneer days, attending a gospel sing.

This tent reminded me of a Mountain Man exposition. There was clothing of all kinds in the style of the 1800s. Also available were accessories such as travel bags, old pipes, dishes, etc.

There was music.

Even a candy cannon. When it fired it sent candy all over the field for the kids to collect.

Some ladies were weaving and spinning.

I couldn't wait to eat this onion flower.

Appropriately this float led the parade for Memorial Day.

They had all sizes of vehicles and all ages in the parade.

Here is the ranger riding her horse and carrying the flag.

And here we are waving our flags.

We were camped at Big Spring Campground and here is where it gets its name. This spring is also one of the top producing springs in the world. It produces an average 152 million gallons per day but has produced as much as 840 million gallons per day (that would be over 20 million gallons per hour).

We hiked to the spring, over the hill and to the lodge. About a 4 mile round trip. On the return trip we took a route over the top of the hill which had a 400 foot elevation gain in less than 1/2 mile. Not the steepest I've climbed by far, but steeper than most of my hikes.

The lodge. It is now a restaurant and the office for all the cabin rentals in the park.

Just outside was this little fawn hiding in the tall grass next to the tree. It finally realized we had seen it and it fled.

Buffalo Point, AR May 12-19

I just love this sign.

We had a grill your own potluck over at Cory's site. She was located on the bluff overlooking the river. We also celebrated several birthdays.

Just north a ways down the road is Rush. It is a fun place to hike and look at the old buildings and machinery. Rush was settled in 1880 as a zinc mining town. It peaked 1914-1917 with over 5000 people living here. After WW1 the zinc market dropped and the mines started closing. Now all that is left is some buildings and an old smelter.

See the mosquito nets? The bugs were terrible. All the rain had the gnats and bugs out in force. They were so bold they would fly right into your mouth and eyes.

Along the hike are several of the old mine openings. And of course, boys will be boys. Even though the sign says to stay out, as Max puts it, "The sign doesn't say 'Max stay out'." The bars across the old mine shaft does keep people from venturing into dangerous areas though.

This was once the general store. It was actually used until the 1960s as a post office and store.

The smelter here was built for silver. Some of the founders thought they had silver, not zinc. It was used only once and after they discovered they did not have silver, it was abandoned and never used again.

There was even a large hotel. This is the foundation of one part of the hotel which burned in the 1940s. Part of the building was actually used as a ranger residence until a few years ago when it was finally destroyed by a flood.

On the way home from the hike we stopped here for lunch. Last year this was a dry county, but since then they elected to allow beer and wine sales. In addition to Buffalo burgers, then also sold Elk burgers, so of course I had to try one. I thought it was good. Some thought the elk to be a little dry because it was so lean.

On Friday and Saturday nights they have live entertainment. Several guys from Yellville played. It started out bluegrass, then turned to country. We stopped by both evenings to hear them play.

Mark hauled our kayaks to the river access.

Buffalo River is known for its wonderful bluffs all up and down the river.

There are even places where you can kayak into and hide, waiting to surprise those coming behind you.

Friday night we went to the Front Porch Restaurant in Yellville. They feature a seafood and frog leg buffet. Some of our group had never had frog legs before.

Saturday we headed to Harrison for a festival.

Of course, if you are at a crawdad festival, you have to have some.

These young musicians ranged in age from 13-15. They were selling CDs to raise money so they could go to some National Bluegrass Music competition in Orlando, FL. Last year in Nashville at a Christian music festival they won 9th. We thought they were pretty good and even bought one of the their CDs.

 

One of the events was the 'burnout'. We wandered over to see what was going on. They would pull a vehicle up, block the front tires, then proceed to burn rubber until a whistle was blown. We don't know why, whether anyone won this event, or how it was judged, but it was loud, smokey and smelled terrible. This truck blew a tire and pieces of rubber went everywhere. It sounded like a gun went off and when it did, I ducked. Good thing too since a piece flew right over my head.

The blown out tire.

One of the pieces picked up near me afterwards.

The big event, at least according to the radio and papers.

Sadly, there were only 2 entries. The entire boat had to be made of cardboard and they had lots of rules about what you could or could not do. The boys in the blue boat had a lot of trouble.

Kayaking again on the Buffalo. Pictures just don't do the bluff justice.

Here I am looking behind me at some turtles on a log. There were turtles perched on the banks and every log we passed.

Our last day had us traveling down to Buffalo City. That is the confluence of the Buffalo River and the White River. At one time it was quite a logging town since logs were floated down the Buffalo so they could be transported further down the White River. Now there is nothing there except this resort and a river access.

Here is where the two rivers actually come together.

On the way back we stopped at this park along the White River.

We have a fellow RVer whose last name is Cotter, so we had to take pictures of these signs for him.

This is the bridge spanning the White River.