The giant pink rock formations of Elephant Rocks State Park really do look like a chorus line of dancing circus elephants when viewed with a child’s eye. Our pick for natural wonder No.7 is as much fun as it is fantastic. The delicate floating formations in the Lily Pad room look like they were made from fine china. Tours follow a paved walkway leading through passages decorated with deposits called the Twins, the King’s Canopy and the Rock of Ages. The cave has 68 known species, from tiny invertebrates to grotto salamanders to little brown bats that hang around the entranceway. One of four state-owned “show” caves open to public tour, Onondaga has some 1.5 miles of passages decorated with pencil-thin soda straws, flowing drapery and giant columns where stalactites and stalagmites meet. And Onondaga Cave State Park is a standout. With 6,300 caves to choose from, Missouri deserves its nickname as the Cave State. Climbing the falls is a popular, if slippery, pastime. Rocky Falls has water most of the year, cascading down a 40-foot-tall series of chutes and ledges into a large pool that is one of the state’s best swimming holes. An oasis in the drab of winter, early spring brings a profusion of delicate woodland wildflowers.Ĭontinuing north on Highway 19, a sign at Winona points the way to our next wonder, Rocky Falls. In the middle of winter, the 50-plus-degree temperature of the spring keeps the bordering plants lush and green. The powerful surge creates a run of whitewater that rushes more than 1.4 miles to the Eleven Point River, nearly doubling its flow. The second, larger source is 300 feet downstream, where the force of the water rushing from deep within the ground forms a frothy “boil” on the surface of an emerald pool. The first flows from a small cave at the base of a gray bluff, tumbling over mossy boulders. Greer pumps out 220 million gallons of water a day from two sources.
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