Sunday, June 29, 2014

Mamoth Spring And Grand Gulf State Parks

My family and I decided to take a day off from everything and go for a ride to a couple of nearby state parks.  Both are enjoyable and beautiful.  One is in Arkansas and the other is a few miles away in Missouri.  A nice day trip for us that took a couple of hours to get there.

Mammoth Spring state park is in Arkansas just across the state line from Thayer, Missouri.  This picture is of a little outlet located next to the spring.  Mammoth Spring boasts the 10th largest natural spring in the world.
 This is another view of an outlet from the spring.  There are two such outlets.  The spring is indicated by the "pond" from which the water flows.  Over 9 million gallons of water is produced from the spring every hour.
 The town of Mammoth spring was a hub of freight and passenger trains in the late 1800's.  This picture is of the depot from 1888 which is now a museum.  The train tracks are just on the other side of the building which carry several trains a day even now, although they no longer stop at the depot!
Grand Gulf state park is near Thayer, Missouri and is often called the "little grand canyon of Missouri".  It was formed by the collapse of an underground water way, forming a rather large crater.  This is a view from one of the platforms along the rim.
The picture above is while we were down in the hole.  There are 119 steps that take you down there.
There are several hiking trails that take you around the gulf with plenty of God's natural beauty around.  A very enjoyable day together and it was all free.

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