Maramec Spring Fish Hatchery

We took a mini vacation down to Branson, MO this past weekend. Branson really isn't our *thing*, but we were really going for a family reunion on Kevin's side. There is another thing in Branson that I do enjoy, but you'll have to wait till later! I'll go more into more details on the reunion in another post as well!

It's about a 5 hour drive for us, and Nova did extremely well. Our first big stop was Maramec Spring Park. It's a trout hatchery and I wanted him to see it and feed the fish. It's SO beautiful there. It was the perfect place to stretch our legs!

These photos do not do the water justice. It is the most tranquil aqua shade. This is a great place to go on a hot day, the air is so cool near the frigid spring water.

To view large sizes of any of these photos, click on the photo, then "all sizes" on the flickr site.

Here you can see some medium size trout going after some food. They really flop around!

Here fishy, fishy!!

Nova loves bridges. They are fun, aren't they!

I like this pic because of the *hands*

This is where the baby fish are...zillions of them! For every ripple you see there's probably about 20 fish at least.

Fish food station~

I have quite an affinity for moss and ferns, and of course who doesn't love rushing water and waterfalls?


Oh, I love tree roots too~

Pretty cool, huh?

The fish came right up to the bank, I've never seen them do this in this particular area of the park before!

A favorite mossy pic~

So peaceful.

The ripple in the water is a muskrat, but he was too quick for my digi cam to capture him!

Here is the actual spring. That's my SIL Joyce, Kevin, and Nova...ahhh...moss, a cave, serene blue water, and fish...

Looking out from beneath the cave,

I have actually walked across this part of the stream before. But this day I was wearing pleather cowboy boots and no socks, thus my feet were suctioned to the inside from heat and sweat. Oh, I SO wanted to take them off and dip my tootsies! This is a VERY slick walk tho, lots of mossy moss!

Check out that fish leapin' in the middle!

Ok, more moss. I cannot help myself. I want to pet it.

This is a powerhouse, doesn't it look so Hansel and Gretel with the MOSS??

I could sit on these steps for hours.

And lastly, I'll leave you to a fishy video. I hope you enjoyed Maramec Spring as much as we did!