Now I Know. Its A Beautiful Float.

[jdmidwest]

All my life has been spent near the Big Creek and I have never floated the section above Sam A Baker Park. I have waded sections from Des Arc to the Park, but never floated. I had always been told that it was treacherous and needed to be floated in the spring when water flow was good. Last Friday, I camped with a couple of friends and their sons at the park and floated it Sat. We put in off a county road between Brunot and Des Arc and floated to the park. The weather and water was perfect, you could not have made a better day. The float had spectacular scenery. Crystal clear waters, rock formations, old growth trees, bluffs, and blooming redbuds and dogwood.

The down side to the float is the 3 rock gardens that required threading the boats thru with ropes while walking on slippery granite boulders. I used the yak and still had problems. The river has a good gradient and the runs generated some good waves. Fishing was slow, a front had move thru, but the scenery made up for it. It was on the top 10 of floats I have taken in my life because of the scenery. The only downside was all of the trash. It started out below the access with the antique car parade, 50's vintage cars rusting on the stream side. All the way down we encountered tires, bottles, coolers, buckets, and various other trash.

[Outside Bend]

Cool photos, I've spent a fair bit of time on Big Creek and, aside from the time I was nearly struck by lightning, enjoyed every moment of it. Sounds like a great float!

[Al Agnew]

I once broke a supposedly unbreakable aluminum and plastic paddle in that rock garden in the photo...which was not a good place to break a paddle.

It sure is a pretty creek. I gotta get on it again; it's been more than 10 years since I last floated it.

[Wheatenheimer]

This seems to be the Holy Grail of Missouri Paddlers. I have read about it for at least 25 years, but never made my way out that direction to float it.

Thank you for posting the pictures! One of these days I will get out there.

In the first photo, What is up with that very derelict looking bridge? Is that an old foot bridge, or a really shanty Railroad bridge? I'm intrigued!?!?!

[eric1978]

Wow, it really is pretty. I've only seen the St. Francis from way up high on a hike. Too bad about the garbage, that's a real shame.

Did you catch any smallmouth?

[ozark trout fisher]

What a beautiful stream! It looks like something you'd be more likely find in Colorado than Missouri. That one just jumped to #1 on my to do list.

[jdmidwest]

I was really surprised, I had floated the park thru and down the St Francis to 34 many times. This float surpassed it 100x.

The bridge was a neat feature, looks like it was an old RR trestle that had been converted to a foot bridge. I wanted to get pics from the upside, but a sycamore across the stream and a fast run messed that up. There are a bunch of real nice cabins at that location also. The old pilings had been skewed around some by floods over time, you could see it better from the upside.

The rock gardens would be a bear in warmer weather, I am sure they are great warming sites for the legless, shoulder less types of critters. I am sure there would be a snake in every hole.

The water was cold and fishing was slow. Most were 8-11" smallies with a few longears in the mix. There were several very deep holes and lots of boulders for cover. I am sure if the water had been warmer, the bite would have been better.

[Al Agnew]

Big Creek really is rather unique. It's the only really clear stream large enough to float fairly easily that flows through the extensive igneous rock outcrops of the St. Francois Mountains. The St. Francis is the "master" stream of the St. Francois (yes, the different spelling is correct) Mountains, but it's usually somewhat murky. The only other floatable stream that is entirely within that geologic region is the Little St. Francis, which is also fairly murky. There are granite or other igneous rock outcrops on several other streams, from the upper end of the Huzzah (Dillard Mill Dam is anchored in granite), the upper end of Big River, upper Castor River (Amidon Conservation Area or Pink Rocks Shut-in), Black River (East Fork of the Black is what flows through Johnson Shut-ins State Park, and there is granite as far downstream as the lower Black in the Williamsville area), and Current River between the Jacks Fork and Powdermill. But these are mostly isolated outcrops. Big Creek has several shut-ins sections, as does the Little St. Francis. The rock garden in the photo is one of the prettiest.

Geologically, the St. Francois Mountains are the "center" of the Ozark uplift. The igneous rock of these mountains is the "basement" rock of the Ozarks, and in much of the Ozarks is several thousand feet underground. Here, the land has been uplifted high enough for long enough to have all the overlying rock eroded away. The St. Francois Mountains are also the only TRUE mountains in the Ozarks. They are the oldest landscape, and were volcanic peaks a half billion years ago, then buried under sediments of various oceans that covered the land. The rest of the Ozarks is an eroded plateau (well, actually three eroded plateaus), and here it eroded enough to expose those once buried peaks. But there is a lot of sedimentary plateau remnants within and between the still half-buried igneous peaks. That's why all the streams in the St. Francois Mountains will flow for stretches through "typical" looking Ozark valleys with flattish bottomlands and limestone or sandstone bluffs, and then encounter one of those igneous outcrops. The volcanic rock is much harder and resistant to erosion, so as the stream cuts through it, it carves a narrow, V-shaped valley. The hard rock also acts almost like a dam, so the stream usually flows much more slowly until it runs into it, then drops a lot faster through it. Those V-shaped canyon stretches full of rapids are called shut-ins, and they make the only true whitewater in Missouri, as well as a landscape that is so different (and beautiful). I've spent a lot of time over the years visiting and photographing various shut-ins, from the well-known to the practically unknown. If I get a chance, I'll post some photos of them in a separate thread.

[Gavin]

Looks like fun...That creek has been on my list for a long time but I've never floated it..Thanks for the report and pictures. Cheers.

[Guest]

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