After record breaking rainfalls in southeastern Missouri, Casey and I headed down to visit some favorite waters in the St. Francois Mountains a couple days later. We expected a little more flow but this area drains so quickly, if you aren’t there immediately after the rains stop you won’t get to see the shut-ins and waterfalls at their peek. We were also unfortunate to have a mostly cloud-free day. Not the skies you want for shooting waters like these. But, we made the most of it – focusing our efforts near sunrise and sunset.
First up is a few from Leatherwood Creek Shut-ins.
We then headed over to the St. Francois River to see how high the water was flowing at the Einstein Dam. This dam, built in 1879, was used to provide power to a mill and other facilities surrounding a nearby quartz mine. I have seen the water rolling higher over the dam, but we still had some impressive flow.
Our final stop of the day was the cascades of Black Mountain. With light running out, we climbed a little and made the following images.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 