Burden Falls and Bell Smith Springs

The days were starting to settle into a routine. Up before 8:00 a.m to walk over and feed the animals. Then home for breakfast. The news out of Maine was that the storm had hit and it was not good. White out conditions so bad that for a while, they even pulled the plow trucks off the road. By the end of today, there would be 2+ feet of snow in Bowdoin. In some places in Maine there would be 3+ feet on the ground. And they were saying there was another significant storm coming on Wednesday to Thursday. We were still not sure what we wanted to do about heading back to Maine. If we left my truck and came home in the Ranger, we'd have to put a set of tires on it. If we came home in the Focus, we had to get it registered (as it was due this month) and it did not have winter tires on it. My studded tires on it were in Maine. Amy's husband was now saying to not even try coming home until the weekend.
So, for now we would just continue to enjoy the lovely weather we were "stuck" in. So, we voted to go for another hike. JoJo had mentioned a spot that sounded like it would be a great hike. We called her to get directions to the trail head. She asked if she could come with us and we were delighted to have her company. We even badgered Fred into joining us. So, the 4 of us and Bubba crammed into the Focus and we headed out.

Our first stop was Burden Falls. This is one of the highest falls in Southern Illinois. It is a series of falls totaling about 100 feet with the largest single drop being about 20 to 25 feet or so. It's near the road so only a short hike to see the falls. There was not much water going over the falls today but lovely to see anyway. I have included a picture of the falls after a rain with a lot of water going over it.

Then it was on to Bell Smith Springs. This is a lovely place to hike with 8 miles of trails along a canyon with a stream running through the middle. JoJo directed us to the parking lot. From the parking lot, there is a set of stone stairs leading to the bottom of the canyon. We wandered along the bottom for a while, then caught a trail that took us up along the top and we came to the most amazing natural bridge. There was a ladder set into the rocks to climb down near the bridge but we couldn't take that way having Bubba with us.

The natural bridge

The natural bridge from the bottom

Natural Bridge, hard to tell the bottom of it the photo. 

An American Sycamore Tree

We followed the yellow trail and then got onto the white trail. We lost the markers at one point and and climbed down into the canyon to the trail below. They did some searching for a way to cross the river. Fred, Amy and I hopped rocks across. Me ending up with wet feet. JoJo chose to cross over on a large fallen tree. Once across, we still had quite a time finding the stairway to the parking area. It is not well marked and blends right into the rock formations so you can't see it until you are nearly right on it. It was a beautiful hike!

Prickly Pear Cactus in winter.