Our hotel for our visit to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge was in St. Joseph MO. After an afternoon on the loop at the refuge, we checked into our hotel and made the decision to go see the Holiday Lights at Krug Park rather than spending time going out to dinner!

It was another loop through a large park with lots of vegetation to act as a backdrop to lights. We got to the park shortly after they opened at 6 and waited in line for a few minutes for the drive through. It was a popular event in St. Joseph and has evidently been happening since 1981.

The next morning, I was impressed with the breakfast at the hotel because they used silverware and ceramic plates rather than plastic! Kudos to Holiday Inn Express! I had scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and a blue berry muffin (as usual I raided the oatmeal fixings for a few walnuts and cranraisins).

We waited a little later than we originally planned to leave since the fog was so thick. Everything was very wet (note the pattern of moisture on my car window) as we left the hotel hoping that the fog would be less dense by the time we got to the refuge.

I remembered to have my husband stop on the road to the refuge where loess is visible….something left behind when the glaciers melted and the sediment dried out…and was carried/sculpted by wind.

After one more time around the wildlife loop and a trip to visitor center (it had been closed the previous day), we headed toward home.

We took two road trips over the past month --- opportunities to observe Missouri geology along the roadsides! My copy of Roadside Geology to Missouri has been a good reference.

The first was from our home near Springfield MO to St. Louis. Interstate 44 dominates the route and there are plenty of roadcuts first on the Springfield Plateau then the slightly lower Salem Plateau…finally down the northeastern flank of the Ozark Dome close to St. Louis. Our day trip was on a sunny day, so it was easy to take pictures.

One of the most interesting road cuts is at the north side of the rest stop near mile marker 235. The Roadside Geology book says – “Tilted blocks of Pennsylvanian sandstone and shale….are part of a down-dropped block of rocks along a fault zone or a filled-sink structure, or perhaps both.” I took pictures from the south side of the road as we were going toward St. Louis

And then one as we passed by on the return.

We noticed caves and state parks along the way and are planning a ‘field trip’ in April to see some of those.

The second was from our home near Springfield MO to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City MO. The route took us from the Springfield Plateau to the Salem Plateau…then the Osage Plains as we turned toward Kansas City and crossed the Missouri River…finally to the Glaciated Plains of Northern Missouri. The day was sunny, making photographs of road cuts as my husband drove possible. I even got two pictures of the roadcut near out home as we set out!

The road cuts were less pronounced as we got further along…and more crumbly. On a botanical note – the sycamores are easy to spot this time of year.

I was so busy photographing overpasses and the bridge at Kansas City that I didn’t realize the bridge was over the Missouri River!

The Loess Bluffs (in this case roadcuts) look very different than the roadcuts further south. The loess here is from the edges of glaciers of the last ice age. Plants sometime can take root…but often sluff off and the loess is revealed again.