This photo topic interested me, and I realized that several shots from this week’s hike were monochromatic views of nature. In the Ozarks, various tones and hues of a predominant color can be inviting. Having said that, the following photo was not inviting enough to make me want to wade into Sylamore Creek at this specific location.

Happy swimmer in the cool water of the Sylamore Creek on the Ozark Highlands Trail.

The next scene was taken before sunrise. This view from the edge of a bluff communicated distance and size with little variation in color although the indirect light of the sun was beginning to play with the fog.

North Sylamore Creek Valley

Blandard Springs

My apologies if this isn’t true to the monochromatic theme, but the predominance of grays and absence of color in the spilling spring seemed to fit. The only hint at another basic color is the green of moss at the mouth of this cold, year round spring. Notice the opening at the upper right-hand corner.  This is an earlier exit for spring water before years of erosion formed the scene we see today.

Mirror Lake

Blanchard Springs eventually flows into Mirror Lake, a green on green scene.

This is the pedestal on which a waterwheel once turned. John Blanchard built this undershot grist mill in the 1880s. It sits downstream from Mirror Lake Dam as testimony to the hard working people who once made their lives in the Ozarks. The CCC restored the dam and part of the mill during the 1940s.

Grist mill

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Monochromatic.”