The next morning after packing up camp, we headed down for a quick geocache at "The Big Spring". We almost didn't even stop to see it... Wow, we were totally amazed!
It was beautiful!
It turns out, Big Spring is one of the largest springs in the United States (depending on rain fall), and with a flow of 470 cubic feet per second, it could fill the Cardinal's baseball stadium in hours!
After exploring some little caves around the spring, we walked a little further down the river to a quaint bridge.
From here, you can just barely see the start of the spring at the far end!
●●● The Drive
Total miles: 157
Hours Driving: 3 hours
State Count: 3 - Texas, Arkansas and Missouri
Around mid-morning, we climbed back in the car for the short 3 hour drive from the Ozarks to St Louis. This was one of our hotel stops on the trip, and we we all looking forward to a hot shower, soft bed and curtains to shut out the morning light!
●●● Saint Louis, Missouri
We arrived in St Louis mid-day and got very excited at our first glimpse through the windshield at the arch. The thing about this town is that the arch is everywhere. Not only do you see it from just about every location, but it is a common motif on every building, sign, design etc. We got very used to the sight over the next two days, but it was still always amazing!
We checked into our hotel, got ourselves cleaned up and headed out to check out this awesome structure!
We had been forewarned that the lines to purchase tickets to go up the arch are fairly long. Fortunately, since we arrived in the early evening, the lines were not as long as we expected.
We purchased our ticket to ride up to the arch, and then took some time to explore the Arch museum - which was truly awesome! It really gave you the feel of this city being the window to the west. We also checked out the Building of the Arch movie.
Anyone visiting the arch would be well served by checking this movie out - it really underlined the amazing engineering marvel of building the structure!
Around 6pm, we got back in line, this time to wait to get on to our little cart up the arch. We climbed through the small steel doorways, climbed into the tiny carts, and ascended up the arch, one stair step at a time! It was a pretty amazing experience!
At the top, there is a small sort of arched hallway, with even smaller windows...
... with an amazing view of the city!!
The boys loved the view, and the feel of being in a slightly swaying building!
All in arch, the arch is truly a masterfully engineered piece of art!
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