Wild horses of Missouri
For the first 50 years of my life I always had my “foot on the gas.” Go, go, go! But, for the last 12 years I’ve tried to keep my “foot on the brake.” Slow, slow, slow! (Now, to be honest, my slow speed is faster than most people’s fast speed. It’s just in my DNA.) In part, this means taking back roads instead of highways. And, eating at local family restaurants and diners versus mass produced chain gastopubs. It also includes taking time to see and reflect and not just looking and moving on. This also affects my photography. I do my best to not only capture what I see, but also what I’m sensing or feeling at that moment. Let’s face it – as long as we’re humans with eyes to see and hearts to feel, we will by nature attach those feelings to what we are seeing. Okay, on with our story!
What does that have to do with wild horses? Kathleen and I love to take back road trips around the Midwest. This year I decided I wanted to see more of our beautiful state. So, our first Missouri 2019 road trip was to the southeastern portion of the Ozarks to try and catch a glimpse of the wild horses of Shannon county. I had read quite a bit about them, but would finding them be elusive, and photographing them all the more difficult?
We left before sun up on a Wednesday and booked a room for two nights at Echo Bluff Lodge. It’s a very nice place, but there are no restaurants around for 20 miles, except for the lodge. Our first stop was Silvemines Campground area just west of Fredericktown on Hwy 72. There is an old stone dam on the St. Francios river which makes for nice subject matter. However, with it still being winter and overcast, there wasn’t much color to be had.
Next we wound our way around the back roads through Arcadia Valley, Lesterville, and Ellington before hitting Eminence. On our way in we stopped at one of the “off-road” fields where the horses are reported to roam – nothing!
“Okay,” we thought, we just got here, let’s just see what happens the next day or two. If we see them, great. If not, we still enjoy being out in the country. Next, we decided to take in Alley Spring. It was overcast and rain was coming in a bit later, but I’d try to get in a few snaps. Here are the results so far. Hope springs eternal is available for purchase. I also wanted to practice shooting panoramas. Also below is a selective color pano of the spring and mill.
After a long drive and a few hikes it was supper time! If you are ever in Eminence, be sure to check out Martin’s Family Restaurant. The gluten-free, cornmeal catfish was de-lish! During supper it started to pour. And I mean POUR. The whole Midwest was in the thick of the “bomb cyclone.” It didn’t matter. We were done for the night.
Bam!
We started out early the next morning and thought we’d give looking for wild horses another shot. Bam! Found them around sunrise! They were pretty far away in a field grazing but, we just wanted to see them – 13 in this herd. Wanting to be cautious and respectful, I never got closer than 100 yards. I got out my camera and 300mm lens and started snapping. The low side light and white horses made for very high contrast images. Here are a few. Everything from here on was icing on the cake.
Miles and miles!
The rest of the day we were going to hike and visit some other items of interest on our list. Due to the rain the day before the rivers were overflowing their banks. The hike I had planned along the Jacks Fork – closed. Blue Spring – was pretty muddy and not much to see. The long drive up to the Devil’s Well – well… Aker’s Ferry was out due to high water. Turn around and drive another hour back. A quick hike, supper, and maybe shoot Echo Bluff at sunset – NOT. Nothing but clouds, high water, and dull lighting. We were pooped. A little TV and off to bed.
“STOP the van!”
Maybe I could catch Echo Bluff at daybreak with the sun light reflecting off the canyon face – NOPE! Still totally overcast, dull lighting and high water. We planned to head for Big Spring near Van Buren then mosey our way back home via more back roads. “Stop the van!” Kathleen exclaims. I quickly found a spot to pull over and to our amazement there were 3 wild horses right in front of us! The Round Spring herd we believe. I once again grabbed my camera and very slowly started snapping. With low light and the horses constantly moving I wondered if I get any nice snaps. I’ll let you be the judge of that. (see below)
After that exhilarating experience, what we thought at the outset of our adventure was Mission Impossible turned out to be Mission Accomplished.
After lunch at Zephyr’s in Piedmont and meeting new friends Candy and Katlynn, we took a drive through Sam A. Baker state park then headed north for home.
The next Missouri road trip?
I don’t know where our next Missouri road trip will take us, but we do hope you’ll follow along. Until then we’ll keep finding the extra in the ordinary.
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