Oct 29th PM - Blue Spring & Alley Mill/Spring

We drove about 75 miles today looking at two springs in the area, and enjoying the beautiful day. We had thought about going to at least one more but it would have been another 70 miles. Since both of us were tired we decided to come back home and take a nap instead. The nap was great.

We went to Blue Spring first. The name comes from its color. The spring is 310' deep and flows about 90 million gallons a day. Below is the parking lot the road that takes you to Blue Spring. We only slightly drug the bottom of the CR-V at one place getting down the 2.5 mile road to the parking lot.

Kathy is checking out the information sheet at the trail head that leads to the 0.4 mile path that takes you to the spring.

Here she is stepping on the stones that lead across a little stream that you have to cross to get to the spring.

  

 Below is the right side of the spring area. I'm sorry for the lousy photography. The place is just beautiful.  I don't know what makes the holes in the rock face on the other side of the spring.

This is the left side of the spring.

This is the outflow of the spring.

The photo below doesn't come close to showing the beautiful blue water. The other thing that we have seen at all the springs is an amazing amount of vividly green plant life in the fast flowing spring water. Kathy said that some of it is watercress(?). The green that you see is actually under the water, as much as 4' below the surface. The water is incredibly clear.

Below is where the spring water, on the left, flows into the Current River.

I am on the bridge that leads to Alley Mill. The sycamore tree in the background was huge.

Alley Mill was used to grind wheat, and later corn, for local farmers. At one time there was a blacksmith shop, a post office and two houses at the site.

The mill race.

Another photo of the mill race. The water here was more of a turquoise color. Note the green vegetation again, it is mostly under the surface of the water.

This is Alley Spring. It flows over 80 million gallons a day. The path is you see at the top of the photo is along the face of a rock bluff. I should have gotten more height in the photo. The water is pretty much the color in the photo, but it is VERY clear.

The water that does not go through the mill race flows out here.

I have this out of order but.... This is where the water flows into the mill race area. There are wooden gates that can be opened and closed. They either block all water from going through the race area, or they let the water just flow straight through the area, or they divert it over a turbine that provides power to run the mill. The mill is open between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It is a place I would like to see some time.

The high today was near 60. I don't think it is going to get below freezing tonight, but everything is buttoned up so that even if it does we should not have a problem. Current temperature is 41, at 7:45 CDT.

During our travels we stopped in Eminence, MO for lunch, while traveling between the two springs. Lunch was OK but nothing spectacular. On the way back we stopped at another place in Eminence and had hot fudge sundaes. They were quite good <grin>.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.