A weekend full of mud, salamanders, interesting plants and scaling new heights was accomplished.  My family made our third trek to Greensfelder County Park in Western St. Louis County.  The area is beautiful with trees and an old mountain range (or hills).  My children have been completing the St. Louis County Jr. Ranger Scavenger Hunt, http://www.stlouisco.com/ParksandRecreation/AboutUs/ParkRangers/JuniorRanger .  The hunt consists of ten different parks with a few items or pieces of information to find. Greensfelder is one of our last parks to finish.  Today’s task was to find Mud Cave and figure out what made it muddy.  I will let you explore the St. Louis County Park website yourself to find the directions on how to get there.  My sons, Jobe and Silas, found the cave.  It was a little crack in the hill.

Once you squeeze inside the cave, the squishy floor is slippery but it opens up into a room with terraced water pockets.    Unfortunately there is some evidence of vandalism.  Continuing down the room, we came upon the salamander room where we came across many red and black speckled salamanders.  At this point Ruth decided she was done.  

We continued through the “lake” as the boys named it.  It was probably about a foot deep with mud and water.  After which we reached a gorgeous, huge stalactite.  A drop off was on the other side of the stalactite so we turned back.  It was a fun afternoon and the mud cave lived up to its name.