Found a rare species … In fact, saw many of them grouped together amidst a vast sandbar usually known as Mosenthein Chute.
The rare species is known as a “Blue Hole.” Or at least that’s what the river rats call it. It is not a mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian or otherwise “living” thing. Rather, it is a phenomenon of river hydrology, climate and weather, and the effects of man made, crudely engineered dikes of stone. We discovered their existence six years ago and have returned in the late Summer and Early Fall since.
A Blue Hole?
Tucked right against the dike lay three pristine pools of Mississippi River Water, surrounded by high sand hills, little oases created for the best swimming on the river. These pools are the result of a channel of river traveling beneath the sand and then flowing back to the top like a spring, with the benefit of being filtered clean by sand. Each pool fills out approximately 15 meters in diameter, deep with layered temperatures to 20 feet bottom. They are oblong shape, one in a heart shape, au natural and exquisite.
All of this is the result of seasonally low water, approximately 3 ft gauge height at St. Louis. It creates a highly contoured sand island attached to Mosenthein. A perfect place for a dinner camp, eagle watching, pelican viewing and a symphony of forest, river and sand bar sounds.
