Greer Spring

Missouri's second largest spring bursts from a cave mouth and a boiling stream bed at the bottom of a wooded ravine, reached by a 0.9-mile trail off Highway 19, then runs 1.25 miles to double the Eleven Point River.

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Most big Ozarks springs sit beside a road or a millpond. Greer hides. The water comes out at the bottom of a steep, shaded ravine, from two outlets about 250 feet apart: one pours from the mouth of Greer Spring Cave and the other boils up out of the rocky bed of the stream itself. Together they send about 222 million gallons a day down a rock-filled canyon, dropping 62 feet over 1.25 miles, until the branch meets the Eleven Point River and more than doubles it. It is the second largest spring in Missouri, and the Forest Service calls out the canyon's rock formations as a draw for photographers.

The walk is how you earn it. From the parking lot on Highway 19, the trail runs 0.9 miles and descends about 250 feet, starting in pine and oak-hickory woods and passing basswood, yellow poplar, dogwood, and sugar maple on the way down. In spring the trailside runs with wildflowers, Jacob's ladder, hepatica, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and yellow trout lily among them, and the ravine at the bottom stays misty and fern-covered around dolomite cliffs. Plan the climb back out into your timing: the same 250 feet comes back up at the end.

The spring's standing is official, not just local pride. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1980, and the Department of Conservation lists the surrounding 1,097 acres as the Greer Spring Natural Area, owned by the Mark Twain National Forest. The branch is protected water: no fishing, boating, floating, or wading is allowed in it, and the cold water shelters the coldwater crayfish, a species of conservation concern. You come here to stand in a misty ravine and watch a river start. That is the whole visit, and it is enough.