Confluence

I am so behind with writing posts... not sure why...

Anyway... a few weekends ago my mom and I decided to go on a little day adventure to some places we've never been.

Here in St. Louis the bald eagles will come down this way in the winter time.  Well, it hasn't been that cold this year so the eagles haven't come as far south... however they still do eagle days and have places where you can view bald eagles.  So we started off our day at the Old Chain of Rocks bridge.

Here I am walking toward the river from the Illinois side... it felt very wintery with the snow still on the bridge.

Here I am looking out of some binoculars... just pretend this is when we saw the three bald eagles - two in a tree and one flying around... this is not when we saw them,  but what kind of story would that be?  Those little buildings in the river are old water intakes for drinking water.

After we walked the full length of the bridge we left and headed to our next destination - the Lewis and Clark Historical Site at Camp Dubois.  This is where the Lewis and Clark exhibition gathered before they started.  They got to know all the members and waited until it was time to start the Journey.  Some might call this the official starting place... but most people think it's St. Charles...

After that, we went to the Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower.  This is a brand new tower that have some observation decks to view the river, including the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.  It was SUPER windy up on the tower... which in January makes for a pretty cold day!  But it was nice getting this view.

After this, we went to The National Great Rivers Museum.  This museum talks about the rivers and things about the river.  It was a nice museum, but we didn't spend a lot of time at it.  They also have the Locks and Dams nearby, but it was windy and cold so we didn't head out there... by this time we had seen a lot of the the river and bare trees and wind and no eagles, haha.  It was a nice museum though, totally free, and lots of hands on activities for the kids, including getting to park a barge (I would have liked to try but all those dang kids were hogging it, haha)

Then we finally headed the actual confluence point at Edward 'Ted' and Pat Jones Confluence Point State Park.  I have been wanting to go to this park for a long time, but I always remember when it's smack in the middle of flood season.  And when it's flood season, the park is closed.  I can totally see why after visiting.  First you turn down this gravel road and drive for what seems like quite awhile in farm land area.  Finally you get to the park and have to walk the quarter mile trail to get to the actual point.  It was truly amazing.

The trail takes you along side the Missouri river.  It was incredible to imagine the Lewis and Clark expedition going up stream on the Missouri river... the current is pretty strong and the river is quite wide.  Both rivers are really pretty up that way.  Then we get to the clearing and can see where the rivers meet.  There are some points were you can stand - kind of like what I've seen at 4-corners, although I've never been there.

Here's the Missouri river on the right side of the picture and the Mississippi on the left.

In this picture above you can kinda notice that the rivers are two different colors.  Here's a fun fact: The Mississippi is not the muddy river.  It only becomes muddy when it combines with the Missouri.  So the Missouri is the muddy river.  So when you hear about the Muddy Mississippi - well, its really the Missouri.

And just to prove that mom was here too...

I'm so happy I finally made it up to this park... it was just really neat and very cool.  After the park we went back over to Alton and had lunch at Chubbies... which is essentially Fast Eddies, but with more food selection.  It was pretty tasty.  We finished the day by driving home and getting some frozen yogurt.

It was a wonderful day and I am so happy to do it with my mom.  I highly recommend all of these places.