Elephant Rocks State Park

February 7, 2022 / doubledacres / 11 Comments

I awoke the morning of February 4 and looked out the window to find Mother Earth blanketed with around 5 inches of fluffy snow. I had no idea what the roads were like, but I immediately thought of the Elephant Rocks located near me in Iron County in Missouri. I knew there were some great photographs waiting to be made.

The elephant rocks consist of geological formations that were formed some 1.5 billion years ago during the Precambrian Era. Many were formed within 7 acres of the natural area located within the park. A formation that is 27 feet tall, 34 feet long, and 17 feet tall has been named Dumbo. Giant boulders formed from granite stand end- to- end and reminds one of a train of elephants.

The name for this formation is “tor”, a stack or pile of weathered residual granite rock boulders. We had freezing rain, sleet, and snow the night before and it was virtually impossible for me to climb up the boulders to get some good shots of these formations.

Granite has been quarried in the area since 1869. This granite has been used for buildings from Massachusetts to California and was used in the St. Louis City Hall, and even the piers of the Eads Bridge were made from this granite. The mining left behind a small pond.

Inside the park you will find the Braille Trail that was created for people with visual and physical disabilities. Picnic tables can be found scattered throughout the park where folks can picnic and enjoy the geological formations within the park.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the prints, please contact me at dwwhite1954@gmail.com. I sell just prints or framed and matted.

All photos are the property of Double D Aes LLC and cannot be used without my consent.

Dillard Mill State Historic Site

February 6, 2022 / doubledacres / 6 Comments

Saturday, February 5, I journeyed to the Dillard Mill State Site located in Davisville, MO. The area was snow covered and the roads going to the mill weren’t in very good shape. There were a couple of times I got a little nervous.

The mill is located along the banks of the Huzzah Creek and is one of the state’s best-preserved gristmills. The mill was completed in 1908 and most of the machinery is still in intact and original to the building. The 132-acre site, even though privately owned, has been operated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 2015. The park is under a lease agreement with the L-A-D Foundation.

The first mill was built in 1853 and was known as the Wisdom Mill but unfortunately was destroyed by fire in 1895. A new mill was constructed in 1908 and was named the Mische Mill. The owners altered the course of the stream and used an underwater turbine in place of an old waterwheel. It operated until 1956. Then in 1975, when the state took over management of the site and it was given the name Dillard Mill. Restoration wasn’t completed until 1980.

The site offers its visitors opportunities to fish, hike, picnic or to revisit the past.

If you would like to purchase a print contact me at dwwhite1954@gmail.com. I offer prints as well as framed and matted.

Mother Earth’s Beauty

January 29, 2022 / doubledacres / 7 Comments

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.

Thich Nhat Hanh

True Friendship; a Gift

December 16, 2021December 17, 2021 / doubledacres / 13 Comments

“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
Thomas Aquinas

There are those friends who only are around when things are good. I refer to them as fair weather friends. Then there are those who are there to share in our windfalls and when that is gone so are they.

Then there are those that are there during the rough times to help you through. I refer to them as the roughneck friends.

A true friend is one that accepts you for who you are even if you have a difference of opinions on some things. It’s hard to find two people who agree with each other 100% of the time. That shouldn’t have an affect on a friendship. True friends inspire one another. They help you find the light at the end of the tunnel when you thought all was lost. They are the ones on the other end of the phone at 3 a.m. who you called just because you needed to talk to someone. They instill confidence within us. They are good listeners and they are there to support us. They overlook our failures and share in our successes. They rekindle our inner spirit. True friendship is the greatest gift of life.

Photography; an Art

December 13, 2021 / doubledacres / 9 Comments

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever…It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
Aaron Siskind

I remember the first time I saw Ansel Adams work. I was mesmerized by it. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. How could black and white pictures look so amazing? That’s when the photography bug bit me.

In today’s high-tech world, anyone can point and shoot. Novices use photography to record memories. Photography is an art from and a form of nonverbal communication. Good photographers are artists who tell a story through their photographs.

Historical St Joe Mine in Park Hills, MO.

Photography is more complex than just point and shoot. A good photographer is creative and understands composition and its elements. They are 1) light 2) color 3) contrast and tone, 4) line 5) form 6) pattern 7) balance 8) movement 9) positive and negative space 10) texture 11) camera position 12) focal length 13) shutter speed.

A good photographer has to be able to do more than point and shoot. For instance, lighting and color can completely change the mood of a photograph. Many photos are printed dark and brooding in an effort to impart dramatic or mysterious effects when it is better to match the tonalities and contrast level to match the desired mood rather than to a standard formula.

For those photographers who want to improve their photography skills I highly recommend reading, “The Art of Photography” (A Personal Approach to Artistic Expression) written by Bruce Branbaum. He is an internationally recognized fine art photographer. His photographs are held in public and private collections worldwide and represented by photography galleries in the USA and Europe. He is an ardent environmentalist and in 1974 was awarded the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams award for photography.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
Ansel Adams

Words of the River

November 7, 2021 / doubledacres / 5 Comments

St Francis River in the millstream Gardens Conservation Area near Arcadia, MO.

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was just not water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.” – Hermann Hesse
I love sitting along the river and closing my eyes and getting lost in the sounds of the river. Sometimes I wish the river could talk to me. Tell me where it came from, where it has been and what it has seen. It has such a calming effect on the spirit and it soothes the soul. It is my safe place and where I become one with Mother Earth. It is a mystical place and a place of love.

“So don’t you sit upon the shoreline and say you’re satisfied. Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide. – Garth Brooks “The River

Millstream Gardens on an Autumn Day

November 5, 2021 / doubledacres / 2 Comments

I headed to Millstream Gardens in Madison County about half way between Fredericktown and Arcadia, Missouri. It is connected to Silver Mines Conservation Area via a trail that runs along the St. Francis River. It’s part of the Mark Twain National Forest. I was to meet a friend and his daughter. We met up around noon. They have a paved trail accessible by wheelchair that goes a mile down the trail to a scenic overlook.

We had a perfect day for a hike. We headed out down the trail. It is an easy hike to the overlook named Cats Paw. Not sure how it got its name but it didn’t disappoint as you an see by the photo below.

We decided to take a trail down to the river. Now this part would be considered hard. Steep and rocky and we had to climb over rocks but it was certainly worth the effort. The scenery was breathtaking. Mother Nature’s beauty at her finest. When they have the kayak races here in the spring the water is usually up quite a bit from the spring rains. I stood there trying to envision the kayakers trying to maneuver their yaks through this swift water around the big boulders that littered the river bed. I think I will lave that up to the professionals.

We didn’t want to leave. It was so peaceful sitting there on the rocks listening to the water rushing past the boulders. We reluctantly started our way back to the parking lot and our vehicles. It is a damn good day when you can share an experience like this with friends. It was a grand day.

Following are a few of the 127 pictures I took. I hope you enjoy them and can feel what we felt being there beside the river. We will definitely be going back for sure. Dogs are allowed but must be kept on a leash.

The Changing of the Leaves

October 28, 2021 / doubledacres / 11 Comments

St Francis River in Silver Mines Conservation Area near Fredericktown, MO.

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked to the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.” – Dodinsky
The temp today was supposed to be in the 60s today and if it wasn’t it was close. I was to meet a high school friend and we were going to kick back and enjoy an autumn day. We met up around 10 a.m. both of us needing a “do nothing” day. Silver Mines is the kind of place where one can do that. It offers so much in the way of nature that it is impossible for someone who loves nature to leave without their spirit fully charged.

We had just camped here the week before. We got a lot of rain Sunday night and the river level had came up. The water is usually very clear but today it was stained. The leaves were starting to change to their autumn colors. By this weekend I think they are going to be in their full autumn colors.

There are so many things you can do. Kayaking, fishing, hiking and camping. Daily picnic sites are available. The trails on both sides of the river are rocky and rough. I would rate them as hard. You can make a loop but you have to cross the damn to do so. It can get pretty crowded on the weekends so I limit my visits to the week days where you are pretty much by yourself. Flash floods can be a problem in the spring.

We headed home around 3:30. On the way out I saw the camp ground hosts. They told me the powers that may be notified them that they were going to close the gates November 7 for winter. They have already turned the water off so if you camp in this last week be sure to bring some water with you.

Camping at Silver Mines

October 21, 2021October 21, 2021 / doubledacres / 6 Comments

On October 18, a good friend of mine met me at the Silver Mines Conservation Area. This area is named for the abandoned “Einstein Mine” where in 1870 was used to mine silver, tungsten and lead up until 1946 when the mine was closed. The area is known for its Precambrian granite and felsite rocks.

After a brief visit we began setting up camp. I had brought my Bushnell one man tent and Clarry opted for a hammock and tarp. I was amazed with the hammock setup. Clarry had it down to a science. When he was done setting up it looked very inviting. It was only his third time at setting it up. The temps got down into the upper 30s and he discovered some things he would do differently the next time.

After breakfast we decided down the dam on the St Francis river. It was built when they were mining the area. The trail actually goes across the dam to get to the other side of the trail and we thought about trying it but we were going to have to wade to do it and we decided against it.

We talked to another camper who had done it and he told us about two graves on the other side marked by two wooden crosses and the mine entrance was on the other side too but it had been closed off. The trail was pretty rocky and in places you had to climb over big rocks and because of my ankle not being fully healed we didn’t walk the entire trail and headed back to camp. When back at camp we sat around the campfire talking and we had a surprise visitor.

It was a great time. Trees were just starting to color and in another week should be in full color. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. We did meet a gentleman there who came all the way from Chicago to a camp a couple of days. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. It would be hard not to feel at peace with yourself while you were here. If you are looking for a place to camp where you can enjoy nature I highly recommend Silver Mines. It is located near Fredericktown, MO off highway D. In the spring when the river level is up they have kayak races.

Beauty of Nature

September 14, 2021 / doubledacres / 3 Comments

It was another hot day in Southeast Missouri. I had the evening off so I decided to head out to the Bismark Conservation area.

The area is made up of 1,188 acres that surrounds the 220 acre lake, DiSalvo. It is the headwaters of the St Francis River. There are good numbers of bass, bluegill, channel catfish and crappie.

This particular day I went chasing channel catfish. It is hot and the humidity was punishing, two ingredients of pop up thunderstorms. It sprinkled on me a couple of times. There was a thunderstorm skirting to the south. Lightning and thunder.

Mother Nature was presenting me with one spectacular show. I watched intently. The wind picked up and I enjoyed feeling it upon my face. So relaxing.

The fish weren’t cooperating. They had very little interest in the bait I was using, shrimp, hotdogs and night crawlers. At dark the bullhead catfish started to show interest in the shrimp. I ended up catching 3 bullheads before I had to give in and call it a night.