Taum Sauk Mountain 1,772 feet

Visited 8/21/2017

At 11:49:47 CDT, the moon began to edge its way in front of the sun. We looked up from the field at West City Park in Festus Missouri, through our dark glasses and solar binoculars, and cheered the initial sliver of eclipse. Then we removed our glasses to check the sky: Totality due in 85 minutes; overcast predicted for the early afternoon. It was a race between the sun, the moon, and the clouds.

Will we see the total eclipse?

The moon continued its stately trek across the face of the sun. The ocassional cloud drifted past, giving brief relief from the heat but temporarily blocking our view. The light seemed strange somehow, more angular perhaps, but no less bright. It remained daylight even when only a fingernail sliver of the sun remained.

Then, suddenly, at 1:17:06, it was dark. The crowd whooped, pulled off their glasses, and looked at the darkened orb. For two minutes, people murmured, cameras clicked, and we tried to describe the quality of the light. The "diamond ring" appeared, signaling that it was time to put our glasses back on.

Where's the sun?

Evelyn and I bought lunch from the BBQ tent, its line now gone. We watched the moon move slowly off the other side of the sun and the cars move slowly toward the exits. When we were done, we left the park and headed south, toward Taum Sauk Mountain Park and away from the St Louis-bound traffic. We reached the park in the late afternoon after an hour-plus drive through the wooded towns of southeastern Missouri.

We reached the highpoint on a short paved trail. After taking the requisite summit photos, we followed a three-mile loop trail to Mina Sauk Falls, the tallest waterfalls in Missouri. The falls were just a trickle this late in the season, but we worked up a sweat in the 90-degree heat and satisfied our urge for hiking.

Our 42nd state highpoint

After a day of adventures, we drove back to St Louis. We woke the next day to find it raining: thankfully that didn't happen on eclipse day! We spent the day on indoor activities: the AKC Museum of the Dog, the Basilica of St Louis, the Urban Chestnut Brewery, and the crazy cool City Museum. It was clear again the next morning for our trip up the Gateway Arch.

Gateway Arch eclipse