It's so beautiful here. I visit frequently. Camping, cabins, hiking, and swimming. The restaurant is our favorite place to eat. It's only open in the summer though. The dinning hall was built by CCC and is beautifully rustic with a view of the spring. Don't miss the onion straws. Delicious!!
One of the largest springs in the United States! Beautiful cold blue water boiling out of the ground. Great for viewing deer late in the evenings. Great park for kids.
went to big springs last week cant believe all the natural spring water that comes out of the earth at this spot so blue and deep, the water is so cold you cant hardly stand in it, when we were children my father use to bring us to Big Springs and dare us to stand in the water, This is the largest spring in Missouri, the park is a very nice place to bring the family for a nice day out in nature
I have been to the springs twice. Once when it was flooded over and once when it was simply a pretty walk through. The hike around it is great and the water is fun to watch. There are rocks to carefully climb and take pictures around the spring. The whole place is just nice to get away and be outside.
Beautiful area next to the Current River. The campground roads are not paved. We did not get rain during our stay. If it had rained, it would have been a mess. All the pads are gravel. Some very nice views on the riverside. We did take the float trip offered at the campsite and it was an awesome experience. The staff was very friendly. The campground was well maintained. The bathhouse was outdated but clean. Make sure you take time to visit the Big Spring Park and relax and enjoy a home cooked meal at the restaurant.
Lots of beautiful sights to see worth seeing. Nice little walk, and a park for the kids. Take a camera, good place for some photos. Wish I had of taken more.
We just got back from a week in the Ozarks and spent 3 nights camping here. A very nice campground with good facilities and being on the Current River as well as Big Spring made for some great nature viewing. If you do camp here be ready to see the fields full of deer of all sorts. They are very relaxed for the most part and arent scared of people. Was a sight to see 50+ in the field about sunset.
I'm already married, but if my husband asked me to do anything at this beautiful site I can't imagine saying anything but, "Yes!" Gorgeous, inspiring, and no one around in the morning. Isn't this the kind of place we all dream about?
Clear,clean cold water and a nice ecology around the spring and the area. Big Spring is a tourist attraction for the area but it wasn't busy or crowed which made it more enjoyable
"At an average daily flow of 286 million gallons of water, Big Spring is an awesome sight and a geologic wonder. Underground passages carry water from as far as 45 miles away to emerge at the spring. Studies have shown that the water is carrying a load of dissolved limestone equivalent to 70 tons a day! This dissolved rock gives the spring its color and is also carving out a huge conduit underground. Should the spring ever go dry, a huge cave will be the result." [wikipedia article]Only Idaho and Florida have anything equivalent, so imagine my wonder when my wife and I visited this in the course of our return from visiting the Grand Canyon and so many of the justly famous sites on the Colorado Plateau. Carole and I spent two nights in West Plains MO because of fatigue and impending storms. During the full day in between, we toured around on scenic roads in the Mark Twain National Forest and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Here at Big Spring I got an education in something I thought I knew: at Mt. St. Mary's, Emmitsburg MD, we had seasonal springs coming out of the mountain for the months of spring thaw behind the seminary building. We soon realized that there was much more to learn! Big Spring is the largest spring in Missouri and one of the largest in the world. Traveling through the nooks and crannies of the karst underground the water can take more than 130 days to reach the spring's outlet. The water boils from the base of a dolomite bluff and travels nearly 1000 feet before feeding into the Current River. The stream from Big Spring to the Current River was dug by the CCC to control the flow of the spring.The spring remains between 55 and 58 degrees year round and has a glorious aquamarine hue thanks to minerals dissolved in the water. Watercress abounds in the cold water, providing shelter for a large number of aquatic life forms including periwinkle snails, insect larvae and a variety of fish. Burrowing crayfish leave their mounded tunnel openings along the bank. Birds, deer and mammals such as squirrel and woodchucks also visit the spring.This photo completely encircles the mouth of the spring. From the other photograph, you know that to the right of this picture is the bluff below which the stream has its outlet. It simply BOILS UP AND OUT within this very small circle! I stared at it for some time but simply couldn't take this phenomenon inside my head. 286 MILLION gallons. 40 miles. 130 days from the time the water rains on the ground until it reemerges at this spot. Awesome. We only stopped to see the Spring. There's a whole park to explore!!