World United States Missouri Ironton

Wandering America

Johnson Shut Ins State Park May 15, 2012

We eventually left at 1.45pm the journey took just under 4 hours in the end due to narrow winding roads up & down like being on a roller coaster. We were also concerned as we could not book the campground & had to just turn up & hope they had a spare site, we were lucky we had a choice of 4 thank goodness.

Sunday parked on a lovely campground peaceful except for what we think is a Whip-Poor-Will the noise it makes through the night is incredible.

We have had a lazy day today catching up with cleaning as well, Wal washed the RV it was much needed.

Later in the day we went to Johnson’s Shut In’s State Park and I paddled in the river there, it reached 96 today although the humidity was not as bad as it has been. Saw a different Tortoise today with red on its head & limbs. Lots of birds to sit & watch here, it gets busy here at weekends but now there are only a few of us left on the campground.

Monday we drove to Taum Sauk State Park where we hiked a 3 mile round trip to the Mina Sauk Falls they are what you call wet weather falls and although it rained nearly all last night they were not that much to look at, the hike done us good though, saw another different snake as we walked. Last night a storm started about 1.30am went on till about 7.00am the thunder seemed to shake the RV and the noise of the rain on the roof all night, kept us a wake most of the night. Very overcast day and was only in the late 60’s but at least it stayed dry during the day. We also drove to a lake near the park & saw the dam that holds the water back from Johnson Shut Ins, they have sirens there to warn you to get to higher ground should the dam break like it did in 2005. We also stood at the highest point in Missouri all of 1772ft above sea level!!!

Tuesday

Drove to Fort Davidson Historic Site where we wandered around what was left of it after it had all been blown up many years ago, watched a video all about it, then we drove on to Elephant Rock State Park.

Where we see giant boulders of 1.5 billion year old granite stand end to end like a train of circus elephants. Many of the elephant rocks lie within the seven acre Elephant Rocks Natural Area this is recognized for its outstanding geologic value.

The nearby town of Graniteville in its day ( 1890) boasted a population of more than 700 people making it the largest town in the area. Most of the town was owned and built by the quarry company. Roughly the size of a shoebox, granite paving blocks sold for eight cents each at that rate a good block maker producing 50 blocks a day could earn a whopping $4 a day!! The quarry opened in 1869 you could see where some of the rocks had drill holes in them, also the men used to engrave their names in the rocks & date them.

The rocks were so big they were amazing we were walking over them through very narrow passages to get to others we were there for ages so much to see, loads of butterflies, lizards, frogs etc.

Wednesday we walked from the campsite to Johnson Shut Ins State Park about a mile, then walked the 2 mile loop trail along the Black River to Johnson Shut Ins although we had been there the other day it was nice to see without all the weekend people there, from there we hiked another loop trail of nearly 3 miles, then walked back again to the campsite some of the walk had been on rugged terrain. As we walked we saw a lizard with a bright blue tail, another frog & an Eastern Yellow Bellied Runner snake about 3ft, it shot out across the path we were walking on made us jump.

After a late lunch we went back to Elephant Rock State Park as I wanted to take some more photos, the day we had gone there it was overcast & we had blue skies today.

We spent the evening with new friends ( Connie & Linda) in their RV drinking their homemade cranberry wine.

Thursday a lazy day not going too far catching up with things on the RV, spent the evening with Connie & Linda again.

Every night while here I have been constantly woken up by the Whip-Poor-Will bird it just makes this horrendous noise sometimes it seemed it was under the RV it was so loud. Feel shattered so hopefully at the next campground we can get some good sleep.