St Francois State Park

1

Leaving Finger Lakes park and driving to St. Francois State Park:

2

3

[[image:image-20240415210023-1.jpeg]]

4

5

6

It was a fairly uneventful drive and not very long.

7

8

Along the way, we stopped in at [[Mastodon State Historic Site>>https://mostateparks.com/park/mastodon-state-historic-site]], only to find that they're closed on Monday and Tuesday!

9

10

[[image:image-20240415230012-1.jpeg]]

11

12

We parked, put the kitties into the trailer, opened both roof vents, turned on the roof vent fans, and opened some windows on the shade side of the trailer, but since it was 89 outside, it quickly go to 94 inside the trailer! Fortunately, Richard was monitoriung it and his watch notified him on the high temperature. We care about our kitties!

13

14

Returning to the trailer, Richard grabbed the cats and put them into the truck with the AC running. They seemed relieved.

15

16

None-the-less, Kelly got some pictures along the short, 1/4 mile, hike at the park.

17

18

19

[[image:image-20240415230122-2.jpeg]]

20

21

Dwarf Larkspur or Spring Larkspur

22

23

24

[[image:F2DD25DB-8F3B-4CAB-A712-2F8F5C371228.jpeg]]

25

26

Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william

27

28

29

[[image:BA7DA897-8422-4E0F-9DAB-F27FA1A73CD3.jpeg]]

30

31

Glandularia, common name mock vervain or mock verbena

32

33

34

[[image:7D6AFE24-CDAF-410D-A96F-6638DAED1B64.jpeg]]

35

36

Lunaria annua, commonly called honesty or annual honesty

37

38

39

[[image:1F273CB8-DBD7-498C-90DC-4975CC1F46B1.jpeg]]

40

41

Lots of Honesty! We could all do with more Honesty!

42

43

44

[[image:A6B35737-16F9-4FD5-8B6A-DB863CAFD0FA.jpeg]]

Honeysuckle

[[image:4983B796-B45D-45DD-BEA3-77230F046A3F.jpeg]]

Red Oak

[[image:7A2F5AE8-ECD4-4E70-BC4D-2D199FC8E893.jpeg]]

55

56

Stylophorum diphyllum, commonly called the celandine poppy or wood poppy

57

58

59

[[image:image-20240415230424-3.jpeg]]

60

61

Phlox divaricata, the wild blue phlox, woodland phlox, or wild sweet william

62

63

64

We then made our way to St. Francois State Park. When we drove in and told them we were in sire 10, they told us, "You really don't want that site. Let's move you to somewhere else." We took their advice (after all, they know their campground better than we do!) and they moved us to site 4. While we were looking that over, another camp host drove up in a little golf cart, so we discussed the pros and cons of all of the sites. He very kindly drove us over to site 10 and we saw that while it's a drive-through site, it also has a huge mound in the middle! We looked over many other sites and ultimately decided on a totally differnet site. They don't currently have very many people here, so we had many choices.

65

66

[[image:image-20240417233446-1.jpeg]]

67

68

69

Thus, we settled in and went on the usual hike down to the sand bar in the stream next to the campground, where Kelly found many cool rocks of interest!

70

71

[[image:A1A71601-B327-4137-8BBB-A1C28AEB0115.jpeg]]

72

73

[[image:1C9AEC0F-4916-4EB1-A96F-C51D558C9B20.jpeg]]

74

75

76

We had seen this black butterfly in a few places and Kelly kept trying to photograph it, however it never seemed to settle down anywhere! Finally, today, she had her chance and got some pictures of it!

77

78

[[image:B7098798-58BE-4C8B-941B-46CC6C176E2E.jpeg]]

79

80

Battus philenor, the pipevine swallowtail or blue swallowtail

81

82

83

[[image:7A2B48BD-BF93-4598-A6C3-D5F50656BE13.jpeg]]

84

85

Same butterfly as above, showing the underside of the wings

86

87

88

[[image:55516CE3-8AB0-42ED-A0EF-7408F7424E2A.jpeg]]

89

90

Aesculus glabra, commonly known as Ohio buckeye, Texas buckeye, fetid buckeye, and horse chestnut

91

92

93

[[image:1D9CDEF0-9372-427E-8029-EC6C16AD7B52.jpeg]]

94

95

Ornithogalum umbellatum, the garden star-of-Bethlehem, grass lily, nap-at-noon, or eleven-o'clock lady

96

97

98

[[image:46453B56-1CFF-4B13-A48C-048626C7B762.jpeg]]

American Robin

[[image:3498BFE0-7604-469B-A395-5A4140BE676D.jpeg]]

104

105

Phacelia purshii, known by the common names Miami mist, scorpionweed, and purple scorpionweed

106

107

108

[[image:7F93C387-89E9-44E7-8D43-25A1F5B9CCDD.jpeg]]

109

110

Closeup of the same flower as above. Interesting little fingers on the ends of the petals.

111

112

113

Here are some of the rocks found at the streem sand bar. The lighting doesn't really show all of the sparkling in some of them.

114

115

[[image:image-20240415233226-1.jpeg]]

116

117

118

That's all for tonight! Tomorrow, we plan to go on a boat through through a mine! ... Or not!

Tuesday, April 16:

Well, it turns out that the mine is still on winter hourx, so is only running tours on Friday-Sunday. On well...

124

125

First, Kelly went to look at rocks again on the same stream where she was yesterday.

126

127

[[image:image-20240416230115-5.jpeg]]

[[image:image-20240416230155-6.jpeg]]

132

133

Zebra Swallow Tail Buterfly (a turquoise morph)

134

135

136

[[image:image-20240416230610-8.jpeg]]

137

138

139

Instead, we decided to visit "[[Devil's Honeycomb>>https://shepherdmtninn.com/hughes-mountain-devils-honeycomb/]]", which is a trail going up Mount Hughes. We had some exciting weather! On the way up, it was beginning to look like rain and we had notifications of possible thundershowers and even tornadoes, but really it didn't look that bad to us, so we continued, figuring we would turn back if it started getting really bad. It never did and we made it to the top, with some fantastic views.

140

141

[[image:image-20240416222600-1.jpeg]]

142

143

[[image:image-20240416230442-7.jpeg]]

Prickly Pear Cactus

[[image:image-20240416231000-9.jpeg]]

149

150

Camassia scilloides is a perennial herb known commonly as Atlantic camas, wild hyacinth, and eastern camas

151

152

153

[[image:image-20240416231224-10.jpeg]]

154

155

156

[[image:image-20240416232447-12.jpeg]]

157

158

159

[[image:image-20240416232540-13.jpeg]]

160

161

halictrum thalictroides, the rue-anemone or windflower

162

163

164

[[image:image-20240416231349-11.jpeg]]

165

166

Viola pedata, the birdsfoot violet, bird's-foot violet, or mountain pansy,

167

168

169

[[image:image-20240416232646-14.jpeg]]

170

171

Juniper struggling to grow in rock

172

173

174

[[image:image-20240416233142-17.jpeg]]

mosses and lichens

[[image:image-20240416233240-18.jpeg]]

179

180

more mosses and lichens

181

182

183

[[image:image-20240416233922-22.jpeg]]

184

185

186

[[image:5255D26C-FDDE-43B5-8E02-07215E4B2DEF.jpeg]]

187

188

189

[[image:53090258-72AC-4178-A421-CBBC6E2D0A9F.jpeg]]

190

191

Understory plants were previously destroyed by fire, so the forest floor is very spare.

192

193

194

[[image:image-20240416235121-24.jpeg]]

195

196

197

[[image:image-20240416222722-3.jpeg]]

198

199

[[image:image-20240416222738-4.jpeg]]

200

201

[[image:image-20240416235735-29.jpeg]]

202

203

[[image:image-20240416222624-2.jpeg]]

204

205

206

[[image:image-20240416235211-25.jpeg]]

207

208

Moss after the rain which we received on the way back down.

209

210

211

[[image:image-20240416235317-26.jpeg]]

212

213

Pacific Hound's Tongue

214

215

216

Afterward, we went to Wallmart on the way back to the trailer, but then, as we entered our park, we suddenly decided to follow this "[[Mooner's Hollow Trai>>https://campingmissouri.org/2013/05/14/this-trail-deserves-an-award-mooners-hollow-trail-st-francois-state-park-5112013/]]l" which actually starts from within our St. Francois State park. It was very late in the day, but we just wanted to see the supposed waterfall, which is at the point in the trail where it turns back in a loop. As we returned to the truck in the parking lot, it was about 30 minutes after sunset and was rather dark.

217

218

[[image:image-20240416232827-15.jpeg]]

219

220

221

[[image:image-20240416235424-27.jpeg]]

222

223

Zizia aurea ("golden alexander") is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant of the carrot family Apiaceae

224

225

226

[[image:image-20240416235006-23.jpeg]]

227

228

229

[[image:image-20240416232921-16.jpeg]]

230

231

232

[[image:image-20240416233520-19.jpeg]]

233

234

[[image:image-20240416233612-20.jpeg]]

235

236

Erigeron pulchellus, the Robin's plantain, blue spring daisy or hairy fleabane

237

238

[[image:image-20240416233729-21.jpeg]]

Rose Mock Vervain

[[image:image-20240416235643-28.jpeg]]

244

245

Castilleja coccinea, commonly known as scarlet Indian paintbrush or scarlet painted-cup

246

247

248

So, here's the waterfall at the turn-aound point of the trail. Nice, but worth a 1-1/2 hour round trip endng after sunset?

249

250

[[image:image-20240416235954-30.jpeg]]

251

252

253

Returning home to the kitties, we feed them, watched the fireflies outside the trailer for a while, and finally retired to update the blog and get some sleep.

254

255

Tomorrow is "moving day", something the kitties don't really like much. We're going into the Eastern Time Zone, to [[Taylorsville Lake State Park,>>https://parks.ky.gov/explore/taylorsville-lake-state-park-7827]] in Kentucky.

256

257

[[image:image-20240417000526-31.jpeg]]

Roughly 350 miles.

[[Taylorsville Lake State Park>>Taylorsville-Lake-State-Park]]

Wiki source code of St Francois State Park

Applications

Navigation

My Recent Modifications

Need help?