My Ozark Creek Talking

Spring is attempting to invade the Ozarks. Walking along an Ozark creek is relaxing. Unlike in poems, my Ozark creek does not babble, not all the time.

During the height of the growing season walking along an Ozark creek is a difficult feat. Vegetation is thick and tall. Vines tie it together. Now only the bushes and trees are still there. They can impede progress a little.

Ozark creek rushing by
Water races down the runway with a rushing sound as though it were highway traffic flowing by. Ozark creeks with gravel beds often have sharp drops in elevation and these sluices go from a pool above to the swiftly flowing creek below.

Walking along the creek I could see its many character changes. Some places are placid moving sheets of water. Other places race down sluices. Fallen logs and rocks can narrow the channel. Part of the channel is deep. Most of it is shallow.

Each character change brings a different sound.

Ozark creek glugs and foams
Not tall enough to be a waterfall, water still drops over an obstruction into a hole with glug, glug, glug. The water below the hole foams up and over sounding like a small ocean wave foaming its way up the sand.

Placid areas are quiet. The sheet of water flows quickly by almost silently. It has a soft slipping sound. Rocks sticking up create tiny gurgles. In warm weather the minnows will jump creating plops. The wind ripples the surface into tiny moving eddies.

These quiet areas often end in gravel sluices. Water races down creating a rushing sound almost like highway traffic. If the gravel is large, the creek babbles as it races down the slope.

Ozark creek babbles over rocks
Where an Ozark creek flows over and around rocks of various sizes, it does babble. This is a combination of rushing, gurgling and glugging sounds that ebb and flow as the water moves from one to the next obstruction.

Stretches of fast moving water with large rocks scattered around gurgles. Smaller rocks cause high, soft gurgles. Large rocks cause deep gurgles.

Some places have obstructions. Water leaps over and into a deeper place beyond. The water there foams over the water arriving. There is a deep sound like water making a whirlpool in an emptying bathtub with a rushing sound over it.

Ozark creek pool
Broad pools are great places to sit near and relax. The water slips by almost silently. The sun plays on the ripples. The constant movement of the water with its ripples and eddies quiets the mind.

Walking along my Ozark creek is not boring. The creek is talking all the time. The conversation shifts as I walk by.

These conversations are as varied as the creek bed the water is flowing down on its mad rush to the river a half mile away.

Meet my creek and its denizens in “Exploring the Ozark Hills.”