“Anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie.” — Willa Cather. I’ve lived in the Midwest for nearly a decade but only now am I finally learning to let go of my stupid and limited standards for what makes a dramatic and worthy landscape (mountains! valleys! arches!). It’s so tempting to call the prairie big and empty but it’s not. Buffalo roamed on the horizon, and everywhere there were noisy birds and frogs and deer and rabbits and crickets and the air smelled so deep and wet and thick with green, new life. I stayed in the park until blue dusk and then drove the chalky unpaved roads back to the highway, passed farmers in tractors working by the rising light of the moon and lonely farm houses on the horizon and grain silos and ramshackle barns. I thought about all the people in those lives, and how a decade ago I would have found that kind of path both unimaginable and unbearable but now it just seems so unbearably lovely because it’s also my own. I got a little weepy. It’s been a years since I’ve felt nostalgic for my own life but the prairie has a way of slowing down time so much that the living present already feels like the past. This place has a plain and painful ache. It is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. @visitmo @only.in.missouri @missouristateparks
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#willacather #prairie #nativeprairie #missouristateparks #missouri #missourionly #mophotos #missouriphotos #missouriphotography #missouriadventure #missourioutdoors #missouribound #missourisky #missouriparks #showmestate #showme_photos #midwest #midwestisbest #midwestlife #midwestliving #midwestsnaps #midwestern #midwestphotography #midwestgrammers #midwestexplorers #midwestmoment #midwesttoday #wideopenspaces #grassland #grasslands
Mondays are for mule ears. This guy has lived on our farm just as long as I have, but I’ve only saddled him up once, and he immediately trotted under a low-hanging branch and bonked my head. Mules are SMART. When we rode them down to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon, our guide told us, “A horse walks with pride, but a mule walks with intelligence.” As scary as that ride can be, no mule rider tourist has ever died in the Grand Canyon, but people die on foot every year. That trip boosted my riding confidence so much that I’d like to build up my relationship with our own mule enough to try riding him again. My dream is to ride him up to the bank in town, which still has the turn-of-the-century tie-downs on the sidewalk for horses. I ploy him with fruit and cereal. Yesterday, he let me rest my head against his nose. We’ll see what happens.
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#farmlife #farmanimals #missouri #missourionly #mophotos #missouriphotos #missouriphotography #missouriliving #missourilife #showmestate #showme_photos #ozarks #ozarkmountains #theozarks #ozarkphoto #midwest #midwestlife #midwestliving #midwestsnaps #midwestern #midwestphotography #midwestgrammers #midwestexplorers #midwestmoment #midwesttoday #countrylife #countryliving #mules #mulesofinstagram #muleriders
We were just walking along, admiring the view of a little creek from the top of a bluff. Then I skirted down a game trail to see what what the bluff looked like from below. Come to find out, we weren’t on a bluff at all, but a huge overhanging ledge with a big flat shelf for easy walking. I’ve heard that Big Sugar Creek State Park is one of the least-visited state parks in Missouri. That’s a shame, because this park is so lovely! It has all the Ozarkian topography on display. Bluffs, springs, rocky pinnacles, bedrock creeks, slab waterfalls... there is so much to see. We had it all to ourselves. Every state park in Missouri is FREE and dog-friendly. This one is located in rural McDonald County, near the Arkansas/Oklahoma line. @visitmo @mostateparks @only.in.missouri @dogsthathike
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#missouristateparks #stateparks #missouri #missourionly #missouriphotos #missouriadventure #missourioutdoors #missouriparks #showmestate #showme_photos #ozarks #ozarkmountains #theozarks #ozarkphoto #midwest #midwestisbest #midwestphotography #midwestexplorers #midwestmoment #optoutside #exploremore #lonelyplanet #nature #findmeoutside #getoutstayout #womenwhohike #bordercollie #bordercollies #bordercollielife #bordercolliesofinstagram
After yesterday’s storms, everyone on Ozarks insta is going to be out in the Ouchituas or Buffalo, but I’m staying home. We got 4.8” of rain on the farm last night, which means all of the run-off is creating beautiful, fleeting waterfalls. It’s hard to believe that this one will probably disappear by evening. Heckle is basically an otter in a border collie body, so he loves all the new temporary swimming holes! @only.in.missouri @ozarks_gram @dogsthathike
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#waterfalls #waterfallwednesday #missouri #onlyinmissouri #missouriphotos #missouriphotography #missouriadventure #missourioutdoors #showme_photos #ozarks #ozarkmountains #theozarks #ozarkphoto #midwest #midwestsnaps #midwestphotography #midwestexplorers #midwestmoment #optoutside #exploremore #lonelyplanet #nature #findmeoutside #getoutstayout #womenwhohike #womenwhoexplore #bordercollie #bordercolliesofinstagram #dogsthathike
Happy Earth Day from the guts of this beautiful world. Missouri is known as “The Cave State” because it’s home to more than 6,000 caves. I always get a thrill walking around, wondering if there’s one right under my own feet. Some are protected by state park status, others are commercially operated by touring businesses, many are owned by private citizens who keep them all to themselves, and still more are totally undiscovered.
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These are scenes from Jacobs Cave, the largest public cave in the Lake of the Ozarks region. You can walk half a mile into it, and the owners have done a terrific job with natural lighting instead of cheesy colored spotlights everywhere. Portions of this cave are dripping with water, which means it’s alive and still growing, and other sections are dry and dead. The water? That’s an underground river. They’ve found mastodon teeth there, and also claw marks and footprints from prehistoric bears. But the most interesting feature of this cave are fractures from the huge 1811 New Madrid earthquake, which split many of the formations in half — and now the cave is slowly drip, drip, dripping to piece them back together. @visitmo @only.in.missouri @ozarks_gram
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#jacobscave #lakeoftheozarks #cave #caves #caving #cavern #missouri #onlyinmissouri #onlyinmo #mophotos #missouriphotos #missouriphotography #missouriadventure #missourioutdoors #missouribound #missouriliving #missourilife #showme #showmestate #showme_photos #ozarks #ozarkmountains #theozarks #ozarkphoto #earthday #nature #exploremore #lonelyplanet #wanderlust
I love seeing these old farmhouses and barns, but they always make me a little bit sad, too. What will it take to revive the rural agricultural economy? People who come from beautiful farms like these are forced to leave, drawn to towns or urban areas for work, education, or both. In other parts of the Ozarks, development is rapid. I like seeing the opportunities and money that brings, but it’s also frightening, because rapid expansion happens with a carelessness that erases quiet places like these farms and the legacy of those who lived there. I have hope for thoughtful city planners, but I also believe that protecting and caring for local heritage has to begin with the individual, with people who care enough about a place that they’ll do what they can to preserve it. Right now, the owner of this property lives a hundred yards away in a modern home. I’m glad for their prosperity, but wouldn’t it be a lovely thing to drive past this old house and barn and see it loved and alive again? @savingplaces @visitmo @only.in.missouri @ozarksalive
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#missouri #onlyinmissouri #onlyinmo #mophotos #missouriphotos #missouriphotography #missouriadventure #missourioutdoors #missouribound #missouriliving #missourilife #ozarks #ozarkmountains #theozarks #ozarkphoto #midwest #midwestisbest #midwestlife #midwestliving #midwestsnaps #midwestern #midwestphotography #midwestgrammers #midwestexplorers #midwestmoment #abandonedplaces #farmhouse #thisoldhouse
