After yesterday's busy day in downtown St. Louis, which included a half-marathon, a ride to the top of the Gateway Arch, and seeing my Cardinals take a loss from the Red Sox, I'm headed north to my actual home town of Alton, Illinois this morning. It's only about twenty miles from downtown and I'll be spending today and tonight there visiting family and friends before driving home to Atlanta tomorrow.
On the way over though, I decided to check out a small park built at the confluence of two largest rivers in the nation, the Mississippi and the Missouri. The drive is a few miles out of the way on gravel roads, but I'm not in any big hurry. As I pass through this area though, I'm reminded of the great floods this area often sees. Back in 1993, which is the biggest one recorded, I even helped sandbag several of the businesses in Alton's downtown area in a futile attempt to persuade the muddy waters away. It didn't work. I imagine this lowland area between the great rivers takes a beating during floods, which is probably why they haven't paved the roads are done any extensive development.
The park includes a small parking area and a couple of trails. I'm most interested in the Confluence Point Trail, which leads out to the actual confluence. It's a short 0.6 mile hike on gravel and some small sections of pavement to reach the area. Out there, some markers indicate which river is which and offer some historical tidbits, including a panel describing the many Native American Nations that once used these waterways. While visually, the confluence is nothing impressive, the importance of it in social, economic, and even patriotic terms cannot be overstated. This is where nearly half of the rain that falls across the entire contiguous United States finds its path to the Gulf of Mexico. It's truly a grand junction.
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