Missouri Fall Magic! Beautiful Vibrant Blue Water in the Ozarks!

The Blue Water of the Ozarks

This part of our Missouri trip has been on my bucket list for years. The area around Eminence, MO popped up on my Pinterest feed several years ago, and I was fascinated by the deep blue water of the springs in that area. It looked like the waters of the Carribean, except I didn’t have to get on a plane and fly to get there. So, when we were planning this trip, this area was one that I didn’t want to miss. In fact, when Danny started to “help” plan the trip to make the travel days fewer, I stuck to my guns and refused to let him cut this part of the trip out. After seeing the area, he understands why I was so adamant about going there, but at the time he really didn’t get it.

Alley Mill and Spring

The above picture is one of our favorites from this trip. We like it so much that I commissioned a local artist to paint it for Danny for Christmas last year. In it, you can see the vibrant blue water that makes up most of the springs in this area. The water of this spring, along with the others we visited, pass through giant tunnels deep underground. During this process, they dissolve the dolomite or limestone and deposit it as they break through the earth and come above ground. These limestone deposits mixed with other environmental factors (depth of the spring and the sky color) cause the vibrant blue water that we see.

These springs aren’t just pretty, however. They dump billions of water daily into the rivers that flow through the Ozarks and are an important part of life in this area. Alley Mill, which sits on Alley Spring, was once part of the town of Alley. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, having a mill was an important part of any thriving community and the Alley Mill ground the locally grown wheat into flour.

Today visitors can explore the restored mill and learn more about the various parts and machinery used in the making of flour. There is also a great hike that takes visitors around Alley Spring for more fantastic views of the blue water. The nearby one room schoolhouse has also been remodeled and now serves as the park’s gift shop and welcome center.

Blue Water of Blue Spring

Our next stop, Blue Spring, is one of the deepest springs in the United States. Coming in at a depth of over 310 feet, if you put the Statue of Liberty in it, the top of her torch would still be 5 feet under water! While it’s depth is part of what makes Blue Spring famous, it is also absolutely beautiful. The blue water here is even more vibrant than the blue water of Alley Spring. It was definitely quite an amazing place and one Danny and I could have stayed and enjoyed for hours.

The parking lot for Blue Spring is down a pretty rough dirt road – it is not recommended to take RVs down it. Once you reach the parking lot, the spring is a short easy walk away.

Rocky Falls

Our last stop of the day was Rocky Falls. By this time it was starting to rain, but the falls were still really cool to see. We even had time to do a couple of quick snaps of family pictures there. Rocky Falls is considered by geologists to be a great example of how the earth has pushed lava from its volcanic past upwards through the earth’s crust so it can be viewed today. This rock is what creates the structure of Rocky Falls. Since the volcanic rock is harder than the typical limestone found in this area, water is not able to easily create a channel to flow through. So, it finds whatever cracks and crevices it can and flows through those. This is what has made the small channel through which the water of Rocky Falls flows, and it is a fantastic sight to see!

You can find the full video of our adventure below. Please don’t forget to check out our other Travel-a-Long, Drive-a-Long, Hike-a-Long, and Top 5 Tips and Tricks videos, as well as our other Behind-the Scenes Blogs and Merch store featuring TWT swag and our newly released book!

Until next time, happy traveling!