Rocky Falls - Missouri Ozarks - #

Rocky Falls, Shannon County, Missouri.

The Missouri Ozarks is a region rich in geology. One consequence of the geologic make-up of the area is an abundance of beautiful springs and clear mountain streams and rivers, many of them augmented by the flow from the springs, and ornamented by rapids and falls. Some of the rivers are "shut in", that is confined in part to deep narrow canyons or restricted in other ways, by hard rock layers from the region's distant, violent volcanic past. Opportunities abound for canoers and kayakers, hikers, and day-trippers.

One such feature is Rocky Falls. It combines relatively easy accessibility, interesting geology, scenic beauty, climbability (good for family fun), and proximity of other interesting sights in the Ozarks.

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Rocky Falls, Shannon Co., Missouri (6 miles west of Eminence, on Hwy 106).

The first view a visitor gets of the falls, seen from the "swimmin' hole" at the base of the 40 foot falls. Late afternoon, early October.

Rocky Falls Shut-in, Shannon Co., Missouri:

The pool at the foot of the falls. The far corner of the foot of the falls is just visible at the right of the picture.

Look carefully at the rock wall of the far side of the falls. You can see clearly the distinctive purple hues of the 1.5 billion year old rhyolite.

Rocky Falls Shut-in, Shannon Co., Missouri.

A huge rhyolite boulder, impervious to the forces of nature that have stripped away all the sedimentary rock that once covered it.

Rocky Falls Shut-in, Shannon Co., Missouri.

The pool at the base of the falls (to the right) is lined with rhyolite "eccentrics", boulders of the igneous tough stuff that seem out of place surrounded by the gravel and sand of weathered sedimentary rocks.

Rocky Creek, the pool below Rocky Falls (to the right and behind).

The purple (true color) boulder in the foreground is rhyolite porphyry, a remnant of a huge violent outpouring of lava over the region 1.5 billion years ago. Rocky Falls is a portion of the creek that flows over an exposed portion of rhyolite. The hardness of the rhyolite causes a constriction in the stream's flow, and prevents it from cutting a channel though it as rapidly as it cuts through the overlying dolomite and other sedimentary layers.

Wild dogwood brightens the early autumn woods surrounding Rocky Creek at the foot of Rocky Falls. Shannon Co., Missouri

If some of the rock on the right (part of the falls) looks purple, that's because it is. It's rhyolite porphyry, an igneous rock.

Rocky Falls, Shannon Co., Missouri. Detail

$Rocky Falls, Shannon Co., Missouri. The falls is a divided braided spread of individual rivulets, one of which is seen here in closeup. It represents only a small fraction of the total flow over the falls. Surrounding the stream are rhyolitic boulders, some of which carry a distinct bloom of lichen. Clearly lichen can find a niche on the hard rock, though, according to the interpretive sign at the bottom of the falls, rhyolite is resistant to weathering from the acid produced by lichen.$

Froth at the foot of Rocky Falls, Shannon Co., Missouri.

Rocky Falls, Shannon Co., Missouri (6 miles west of Eminence, on Hwy 106).

The first view a visitor gets of the falls, seen from the "swimmin' hole" at the base of the 40 foot falls. Late afternoon, early October.