Blue Spring

The deepest spring in Missouri rises cobalt blue under a bluff on the Current River, filling a look-but-don't-touch pool inside a state natural area.

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Blue Spring earns its name the moment you see it: water rising from a shaft more than 300 feet deep (the Park Service's place page puts the figure at 310) turns the pool an unreal cobalt under its sheltering bluff. It is the deepest spring yet measured in Missouri and the sixth largest in the state, sending roughly 90 million gallons a day down a short branch into the Current River.

The spring sits inside a 17-acre Missouri Natural Area designated in 1972. The Department of Conservation owns the spring and runs the natural area, while the Park Service administers the surrounding Riverways land and the river itself, a split both agencies state plainly on their own pages. Because the place is fragile, the rules are strict: no swimming, wading, boating, or fishing in the spring or its branch. Come to look, to photograph, and to picnic at the trailhead instead.

Getting there is part of the visit. From Highway 106, between Eminence and Ellington, a steep gravel road (County Road 106-535) drops roughly two and a half to three miles to a parking area, and a trail of about a quarter mile finishes the trip; the Park Service says large RVs and buses should not attempt the road. Hikers can also walk in about a mile and a half from Powder Mill Campground.