Essentially the Only    One

A warm, very summerish day - perfect for catching the autumn colors in Pere Marquette State Park, Illinois this afternoon.

These views are all taken from a lookout point just off the scenic drive that takes you to the top of the Illinois River bluffs. I didn't move from this spot - there really wasn't any point!

Another glorious weekend with warm temperatures and clear blue skies.

Enough incentive for me to take a trip into the deep Missouri countryside. A trip it was too, 70-odd miles south of St. Louis into Ste. Genevieve county to visit the Hickory Canyons Natural Area off Highway C slightly west of Interstate 55.

My wife had already been there on a day out earlier in the summer and came back enthusiastic about the place. She - and I - found it through Steve Henry's excellent 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: St. Louis guide book.

A guide book was needed too. This natural area is impossible to find without unless you know the area already. There are no road signs or directions anywhere. You have to follow the map, ending up with a 1-1/2 mile drive down a gray gravel road to the trailhead.

So I was not altogether surpised to find myself the only person there on this wonderful Saturday afternoon. There are two trails, and I took the shorter one into a close-by box canyon. As is always the case with a natural area hike (as opposed to a state park or recreation area) paths are minimal and frequently steep and rocky. No easy paved trails here. The wood was dense, still very green but with the first flush of autumnal coloring appearing.

The path led down to the base of the small canyon and a small blackwater pool.
With the sun lowering in the sky, the pool and the lower rock formations were in deep shadow. A stillness hung over the area, and the water looked as if it had not been disturbed for ages. Not a silence, though, for the scratching of insects and bird song made an unceasing background.

The canyon was not high, maybe 30 meters at most, but the rocks were old, undisturbed and undecorated except by moss and ferns.Ferns are not common in Missouri - you do not find bracken here at all. So it is a pleasure to find a microclimate in these remote box canyons that supports these beautiful plants.

The filtered sunlight cast yellow dapples on the higher rocks, adding very much to the beauty of the scene.
Looking up, I could see a long tree trunk spanning one of the canyon's corners and the brightly lit canopy above. A very peaceful and refreshing sight that was good for my soul. I felt cares and worries lift from me.

I spent a long time there, not moving much at all from this particular spot. Everywhere I looked was just so pretty.

But eventually, as I could tell by the ever higher creeping sunlight, it would be getting dark and, even though I was not that far from the trailhead and my car, the path was not well marked and a little tricky in places. Not perhaps the best road to take in low light.

So I headed back, past these striking rock formations.
I found the car still in bright sunlight, so decided to head back towards Ste. Genevieve to catch that old and well-preserved village in the reddening light, and then north back on Highway 61 to St. Louis.

Travelling back on that highway, I caught sight of this very different view. Beautiful in its own way, but not the beauty of nature.

Obviously some kind of waterfall - but what is it really?

Before the vote.



















After the vote.
Tomorrow...?

My wife and I went for an early evening walk in the Weldon Springs Conservation Area following a trail through the woods.

Masses of mushrooms of all kinds, some of which I may post here when I've identified them, but the highlight of the walk is a view of the Missouri River from very high on the bluffs. A bit too high and sheer for me; I felt a bit queasy as I took this overview. Worth it though.

The water is very high. You can see Howell Island on the far side, the river flows behind it and out of view.

There's a single story house two doors down the street from us that has been for sale for years - or so it seems.

Normally I pay no heed to it, but walking home yesterday I saw these white mushrooms growing out the front lawn. The largest I have seen for a long while.
This was how the largest looked today, whereas yesterday it was still dome-shaped.
Looking underneath another one revealed the exquisite gills.
They look delicious, but they are Chlorophyllum molybdites mushrooms. These do not agree with you. Not fatal, but they will give you a very unhappy stomach. Beautiful, though.

It's very difficult to reproduce the flavor of a deep wood photographically. Firstly, it's very dark and secondly it's very green. In this case, I decided to push up the exposure level and make the picture monochrome. I liked the clear but leafy effect.

And below is a wide shot of the same view that generated the sunset silhouette below. Here you can clearly see the expanse of the Missouri River valley below the bluff. There was no escaping the sun from this shot, so there is plenty of flare. Here I applied a specialised picture style setting that Canon supply for their RAW photo editor called 'Emerald'. It enhanced the reds, giving pretty highlights to the vegetation.

I spent much of the day sorting through old image files pulled off the hard drive that became corrupted a few weeks ago.

Mostly just checking to see that I had not missed anything that I might not have backed up elsewhere.

Everything seemed to be in order, I'm glad to say. But it's funny going through old photographs. Things that you did not see before appear and things that seemed to stand out in the past recede. I found this shot of my son standing on the beach at Baie-Comeau, Quebec, in 2005. A picture I had not paid much attention to in the past.

Some of it displeased me, mostly the sharpness and color balance. It was taken with the very cheap and low-grade lens that came with the Canon Digital Rebel XT kit; I knew no better at the time. Also, I barely knew how to operate the camera so I was not taking optimal photographs. Blown highlights, poor use of focus and depth of field - all the usual goofs.

Never mind. It served at the time, and it serves now to remind me of my son when he was quite a bit smaller than he is today and when he was in some ways a different person.

Watching a child grow is like getting to know and then losing somebody over and over again; each stage has its joys but sometimes I can find myself looking back wistfully. Just as I did when I found this photograph.

You can't stop growth and you can't stop life and better it is that way. So, imperfect as this shot is, it is a window into a happy past. Fortunately, the present is just as good.