Spadra Creek

Plans were made for another grand photo adventure on Saturday with Zack Andrews. It had rained a bit the previous few days, so the plan was to see if any waterfalls would be flowing in the Ozarks. Usually it's so dry this time of year that it's rare to see waterfalls, unless you get a hurricane like last year when Gustav sat over the state and dumped inches and inches of rain.

But we met early Saturday morning in Conway and drove up to the hills. We decided our first waterfall to visit would be Haw Creek Falls, so we drove towards Clarksvile. I went to college in Clarksville, which I guess makes it my old stomping grounds. As we got into town, we took a little tour of some little neat spots. The first was right off the freeway - the old bridge over Spadra Creek.


I searched for awhile to find some good information about this bridge and didn't come up with much. No website I found could say when the bridge was built, just that it has been here since at least 1930. But I did see that it is a "Pratt pony truss bridge with steel grate deck." I also read that the bridge still sits on the original roadbed of what was then a major road connecting Clarksville with some nearby coal mines.

The bridge sits a bit hidden behind a McDonalds and a Wendys, but now serves as the start for the 2.6 mile long Spadra Creek Nature Trail. There is a steep set of metal stairs that takes you down to the creek, which is where I got this view from under the bridge.


From there we headed north, eventually going to the Buffalo River. We did see a few waterfalls, though they weren't really running. It didn't matter since it would turn out to be an amazing day for photography (even if I ended up getting into some poison ivy and am really itchy now).