Pic Of A Piece Of Bluff That Has Fallen Into The Meramec

[Brian Jones]

Here are a couple of pics of a bluff on the Meramec that lost part of its face. It is about 1/4 mile upstream Campbell Bridge. I think that this happened sometime in December, but I had truthfully forgot about it and was quite surprised to see it when we came up on it.

[flytyer57]

Looks like new fish structure in the water to me.

[Ham]

Bet that was loud.

[Outside Bend]

That's pretty awesome- I've floated a couple stretches of the upper Big Piney and Jack's Fork, and wondered the volume that would be associated with a rockslide like that. Very cool!

[flytyer57]

That's pretty awesome- I've floated a couple stretches of the upper Big Piney and Jack's Fork, and wondered the volume that would be associated with a rockslide like that. Very cool!

Could ya imagine being in your canoe or yak going by when it slides?

That might not be so cool.

[Ham]

I can imagine it very well and it would not be cool at all. I was on a SW MO stream with Cajun Angler in our yaks when a big rock let go up the hillside. It was making a ig noise rolling down hil, but got stopped by trees etc before it made it to the river. We were never in any danger, but it was kinda spooky none the less.

A whole section of bluff letting go like that would be pretty darn scary if you were anywhere close to it at all.

It would be pretty cool if someone had a before photo they could upload of thet bluff that let go.

[Al Agnew]

It happened back in July, at night. The campground owner just upstream heard a big boom and drove around the campground to check to see what was going on, but didn't realize the bluff had collapsed until the next day. The slab that fell off was around 200 feet across, 80-90 feet high, and mostly 1-6 feet thick, but had one protuberance that was considerably thicker.

This isn't quite the biggest bluff collapse in the Ozarks in recent history. That honor goes to a bluff on the Gasconade above Hwy. 17, which collapsed back in November of 1971. It was a section 200 feet long, 60 feet high, and 20 or more feet thick, weighing approximately 20,000 tons. The rock fall dammed the river, raising the water level 4 feet, and rocks bounced all the way onto the opposite bank. That collapse is still evident when you float by there, since the rock face that is left is still a little raw looking, but the river has mostly worked its way around the rock fall.

[kevthebassman]

I think if I were paddling by as that let go, I would need a new set of trousers!

[RSBreth]

Like Ham said - I wouldn't have liked to be near it when it let go - I was on the lower part of the Buffalo River back in 96' (I think) when a chunk came off a bluff - a chunk the size of a small car. It was enough to make a pretty big wave and bounce me all over until the pool settled back down - it was like the wake from a big boat. I was lucky the chunk landed near the middle of a long pool and I was up near the riffle leading into about 100-yards away. Scary.

[Stoneroller]

would have been fun to surf the wave downstream from it though