Looking back along Whites Creek Trail – This is fairly typical of the trail conditions I encountered. Note the recently cut deadfalls. At this point, it started to rain, and it carried on raining for the next four hours.
Missouri
Words and pictures featuring Missouri
Looking into Whites Creek Cave – No I didn’t go in. I took this picture through the grill using my headlamp at full brightness to light up the cave. There’s nothing to give the picture any feeling of scale. Let’s just say, “Pretty big.”
May 2, 2021 10:54
Whites Creek Cave. +1
May 2, 2021 10:46
Looking back down the trail – the trail turns up the hill here (you can just about make it out in this picture). Most people (including me) appear to miss this. The trail marker is not particularly helpful either.
May 2, 2021 10:43
Heading up towards Whites Creek Cave – the trail is narrow and the drop-off steep. It appears that most people miss where the trail turns left up the hill to the cave.
May 2, 2021 10:37
Back on the Whites Creek Trail – Whites Creek Float Camp spur trail (branching right in the foreground). Time to head back to the trailhead, seven and-a-half miles of hiking and lots of rain in my future.
May 2, 2021 10:27
‘eek Float Camp – signs that there has not been a lot of trail maintenance for a while.
May 2, 2021 10:26
Crossing Whites Creek – You have to cross Whites Creek to get back to the main Whites Creek Trail. It’s not very obvious in this picture (or in reality), but the trail climbs up the bank just to the right of the tree on the left side of the frame.
May 2, 2021 10:24
Change of Plan (And an unloved wilderness registration point) – My original plan for today was to hike part of the southern loop of the Whites Creek Trail and stop for the night near one of the big pools that form on Whites Creek. Instead I’m heading home. One-minute read
May 2, 2021 10:20
Time for a nice cup of hot chocolate – Cadbury’s Hot Chocolate, of course. +1
May 1, 2021 19:50
I have a picnic table and a grill – When I found this empty float campsite with a picnic table I knew I’d found my spot for the night. +1
May 1, 2021 17:14
Path from the put-in to the float camp.
May 1, 2021 17:00
Whites Creek at the Whites Creek Float Camp – Whites Creek Float Camp looks to be abandoned, but I’m guessing it is just showing a lack of TLC brought on by a year of neglect because of COVID-19. +2
May 1, 2021 16:58
Caves on Whites Creek.
May 1, 2021 13:41
Eleven Point (Wild and Scenic) River – This is pretty much the only overlook in the entire 20-mile Whites Creek Trail. The trail here is very narrow and rough with a 100+ft. drop-off on one side. 2
May 1, 2021 11:32
This is not the trail you are looking for… You would think (and I and apparently, many, many others have), that the trail goes straight on here. Not so. Look carefully and there’s the trail, two feet in front of the sign on the left going up the hill. +1
May 1, 2021 11:24
Campsite by the Eleven Point River. I followed the trail, that I thought was the Whites Creek Trail to this campsite. I took a couple of pictures and then went back to Bliss Spring to work out where I went wrong.
May 1, 2021 11:15
Old homestead chimney
May 1, 2021 11:14
Camped at Bliss Spring. +2
May 1, 2021 10:02
Bliss Spring (Second spring). +1
May 1, 2021 10:01
Bliss Spring. 2
May 1, 2021 9:55
Bliss Spring has to be seen and heard, so I recorded a short video. Video: 2 minutes
May 1, 2021 9:30
Bliss Spring – Panorama
April 30, 2021 22:26
The two springs at Bliss Spring, Irish Wilderness, Missouri.