Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Confluence

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A few miles upstream from the Arch, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers blend into one another at The Confluence, the main junction of one of the world's great river systems. Together, they and their tributaries drain about 40% of the lower 48 states into the Gulf of Mexico.

In the first picture, the Missouri, full of ice swirled into circles by the river's currents, washes into the nearly ice-free Mississippi at a point recently converted into a Missouri state park. We took a side trip there during our eagle watching day trip. The Mississippi has plenty of ice above the big lock and dam at Alton, Illinois, which blocks its flow southward.

TOMORROW: Eagles? No. Pelicans? Yes.

5 comments:

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

Awesome! Never been there. Love the top shot, especially knowing what it is.

Chandlermom said...

Wow, how interesting - would love to visit and see it for myself!

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

Great nouns for the children we used to be and are still sometimes.
Thanks !

Pat said...

I lived in StL for 10 years and never thought about finding where the rivers meet. Cool that it's a park. If you're ever up in north county, I'd love to see a picture of our old home - 103 Castle Dr. it's way up there.

Kunal Bhatia said...

lovely shot, the waters of the two rivers look so distinct.. in india, the confluence point of rivers is a very holy place. the most prominent of these is the meeting point of Yamuna and Ganga at Triveni Sangam. the city there, Allahabad, is host to the world's largest religious congregation once every 12 years. 70 million people gathered here in 2001.
- Mindless Mumbai