Jacks Fork is part of the "Ozarks National Scenic River ways" . This is near where our longtime member "Slowfoot" lives and plays.

We spent a little time there last year and I posted a photo of a swimming hole there. This week my wife and I took some time to float a few miles of the Jacks Fork and explore around a bit. We went to see "Round Spring", which is pretty much on the main path, and "Blue Spring", which is pretty far off the main path, but hardly forgotten. Right now the entire area is as lush as a rainforest.

At Blue Spring we met some locals our age that grew up in the area, Poli and Debbie. They were lounging on the gravel bar and loving life so we spent about an hour hanging out with them. Debbie told us about some caves near where we were, and showed us the cave where the Blue Spring is. It's pretty well hidden behind some boulders but once you're inside the water is around 300 feet deep. We swam in the swimming hole outside it but that water coming out of it was pretty darn cold so we stayed where it was nice and perfect. I think I'd rather float a boat over to it and peek inside anyway.

I'm thinking I'll have to go backpacking around in there this coming season. It's pretty crowded this time of year, and there's way too much poison ivy to want to bushwhack around now, but there are amazingly sweet spots all over along in there that really deserve to be explored in the cool season.

I didn't take any photos, but the link above has tons of them. None of them compare with swimming in that spring fed river this time of year though.