Length/Rating: 0.2 Mile/Moderate

Other Recreation Activities: Fishing, canoeing, backpacking, wilderness use, birdwatching, sightseeing, photography, picnicking, camping, primitive camping, mushroom/berry picking.

Nearby Facilities: North Fork Recreation Area, Noblett Lake Recreation Area, Ozark Trail.

Also nearby: Grand Gulf State Park, Bull Shoals Lake, Jacks Fork River.

This very short walk takes you from North Fork Campground to the beautiful Blue Spring. It starts in a wooded area at the end of the paved road. The stone steps, wooden bridges, and guard rails are well designed to assist hikers in walking through the uneven terrain. The trail parallels the North Fork of White River, yet most of the time the river is not readily visible. The forest consists of white oak, sugar and red maples, and Eastern red cedar. There are also elm, Northern red oak, and rusty blackhaw. Layer upon layer, their leaves offer pleasant shade on a hot summer day. Among the trees, cardinals and other birds sweep from one branch to another. Flowering dogwood and redbud catch sunshine from the gaps between branches and leaves. On the way to the spring, you can see wild rye growing on thin soils between rocks. Some of these stone blocks lean back on the hillside, but the others stick out. Along the damp footpath you can also find blackberry and abortive buttercup. This particular buttercup species is not showy. The presence of wild hydrangea increases as spring approaches. They hold on to the bedrock; some are perhaps less well-nurtured, such that the bigger outer flowers are lacking. In the same environment, white mountain mint is delicate and subdued. Also relatively humble are the white avens and wild sage.

Missouri is home to nine Blue Springs. Blue Spring on North Fork River is in an oval shape, about a hundred feet in diameter, located adjacent to the river. Silver blue water comes from the bottom of a cavernous opening and mildly leaps to the surface, all in slow motion. It averages 7 million gallons per day, and has been known to yield a flow of 19 million gallons per day at its peak. (Big Spring, Missouri's largest, has an average of 276 million gallons a day.) The pool is colorful and the setting dramatic - on three sides a stone wall made of cherty Gasconade dolomite surrounds the spring. These giant rocks are lushly ornamented by hydrangeas and prairie roses in white and pink. The hydrangeas are much healthier than those found earlier on the trail, some having five or six outer flowers instead of the usual three or four. On the river front, huge sycamores form a canopy over nature's amphitheater - the water's play never stops. Some stone steps lead visitors to the top of the rock formation, where you gain a bird's-eye view of the show. The 15-minute trip is a rewarding experience and is appropriate for families with small children.

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