Hiking the Ozarks

So I finally got a chance to take some leave for the first time in almost two years. After a few hours in Portland I was off to Texas for Desert Survival Instructor school, where we spent a week in the desert out side of El Paso. The photos from that adventure are yet to come.

Then from Texas I was off to hike the Ozarks. I Met up with Tiffanie in St Louis, from there we headed south.

The tree of adventure in the heart of Portland

Past the second arch on the right

straight on till morning

The photo above is the view of the arch we had from our hotel lobby. Although the views from the lobby and the room were great that is about where I stopped being impressed by the Millennium Hotel of St Louis. I have stayed on others in this chain and found them very nice but this one needed a few improvements

Arising from bed well rested after spending the last four nights before it in the desert. Tiffanie and I headed to the St Louis Zoo.

Near the entrance of the zoo there was a really neat sculpture of all the different animals, some were really fun looking. Here are a few of the best.

NO! Don't eat me!

Making friends

Lots of friends, on our way to Columbia, MO were Tiffanie resides. We stopped off at Daniel Boone Conservation Area and took a short hike to a small pond. In a ring around the pond there were small pitfall traps for collecting and studying salamanders. Seen in her hands are a cluster of Ringed salamanders.

Off to the mountains! Hills rather.

The Ozarks are more like rolling hills than actual mountains, but lots of fun none the less. One of our first stops was at Elephant Rocks park. Here we hiked for a few hours in awe at the enormous rock formations. Their sizes ranged from that of a Jeep to that of a high school. In one section of the park called the maze, we must have spent an hour playing hide and go seek from each other. All the while finding smaller and smaller crevices to hide in.

Atop one of the biggest formations these pools of water had collected. Some of which being several inches deep and looking very inviting on this hot day after chasing a beautiful woman around the park.

The beauty beneath the trees is Tiffanie

Along one of our hikes we came to this beautiful spring. Stopping to rest Miss Tiffanie hiked up and down the bank to get the best angle for her picture of the small rapids leading away from this spring. At one point you could tell by the look on her face she wanted to swim across it to get a better angle. Remembering back to a few days earlier and the cooold plunge we took into one of the other springs she thought better of it and stayed on the bank. To see her photos and entries of our trip check out http://t1f.blogspot.com/2008_10_05_archive.html or click on the link to Field Days on the right side of my page and surf back through to early September.

A shot of the trail map