Tranquility amidst Bransons traffic, and...The Fish Hatchery

 Between the train, sirens (not too many, but), vehicle noise and of course the ongoing air hammering of bridge deconstruction and reconstruction here by the river, I've been craving some tranquility, trees and shade, bird song and wind song. Today we found the place.

Just off the Green on the Yellow

Location: Fall Creek Road (just 2 blocks south of Highway 76, near Dixie Stampede). Entrance on left. The Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area is a 130-acre Branson city park featuring rugged hiking trails, a scenic observation deck overlooking Lake Taneycomo, two miles of the Lake Taneycomo shoreline and 315 hand-lain stone steps that descend to the lake. This is a designated wilderness area, set aside to preserve a portion of the natural Ozarks. Admission is free. For detailed information,  http://www.bransonworld.com/branson-attractions/detail/branson-lakeside-forest-wilderness-area.html



White Oaks, Hickory and Butternut make up the canopy.

Many areas of the shady trails are edged with poison ivy - stay on the trail, besides, not doing so compacts the soil and limits growth!  

A gentle breeze was blowing, and cicada song filled the air, along with the scent of green, and cedar.

We stayed to the gentler paths, and found ourselves atop the ridge at an old homestead made of local stone. The old grapevine was overgrown with wild potato vine in full bloom. The flowers were over 3" across!

Gentians grew amidst the sparse grasses and vines.

Picnic tables and benchs turn up at just the right place for a rest. I'd love to come back here when it's cooler and take the ridge trail down to the cave. Just a bit too warm for that today, and my happy hiker honey wasn't up to it, and sharing a hike with him is always better than exploring alone.

Next time, we bring lunch and the dulcimers.

Next stop--->Shephard of the Hills Fish Hatchery at the base of Table Rock Lake Dam

http://mdc.mo.gov/regions/southwest/shepherd-hills-fish-hatchery

At the base of the 800' high dam is the hatchery (established in 1957), which uses the 42 degree water from the bottom of the lake to raise rainbow and brown trout. It is the largest hatchery in the state. We sat through a short video explaining how the fish are raised, and went on a guided tour through the facility. Interesting. I loved the hugh tank with underwater viewing! Brown trout have large speckles with white circles around them, and lack speckles on their tails. They tend to get larger than rainbows.

Rainbow trout have small speckles everywhere and a beautiful rosy stripe running along the center of their bodies. Male trout have a long protruding jaw (which they use to bite other fish to keep them away from their female during spawning). Females have a short lower jaw, and are wider at the middle to accommodate the 5000 eggs each one carries at spawning time. In the wild, an average of 4-10 eggs out of 5000 lives to continue the species. At the hatchery, 3 out of 4 lives to be released into trout streams. Trout require very cold water with a high oxygen content. Lake Taneycomo is ideal with an average water temperature of 54 degrees.

Note: the name Taneycomo comes from Taney County MO. How many other names can you find within the state that use that approach?