Random Ramble
I headed up to the Buffalo National River on Sunday to shoot some fall foliage. Gina elected to stay home and I couldn’t find anyone else who wanted to spend the day doing outdoorsy stuff with me. So I took off alone. The weather forecast earlier in the week called for cloudy with some rain maybe, which would be perfect for viewing and shooting the colorful leaves. It rained Saturday night and was still raining in Little Rock when I left the house at 6 a.m. but by the time I got to Conway the sky was clearing. When I hit Russellville the sky was clear and I knew that I was going to miss all the good light. By the time I got to the Buffalo, the sun was high and harsh. I had originally planned to do the Hawksbill Crag hike, but I bailed on that and decided to just climb to the top of Roark Bluff across from the Steele Creek campground. My photo suffers from the harsh light. You really need a cloudy day after a rain to really get the great colors that nature has painted across the bluff. This was the first time I’d hiked Roark Bluff. It’s dangerous up there. The photo-taking spot is on a little spit of rock that juts out from the main bluffline. It’s a sheer drop on either side. If you fall, you’re going to die.
Like Looking For A Diamond In a Giant Dirt Field
A couple weekends ago we took Daisy down to Crater of Diamonds State Park for a camping/strike-it-rich trip. Summer has calmed down a bit. It was merely near 100 degrees instead of well over 100 degrees. We rented the Full Monty Prospectors Kit, which consisted of a bucket, a shovel and three screens. I’ve lived in Arkansas for over 30 years and had never been to one of the states biggest claims to fame. There are many ways to hunt for the diamonds. All of them rely on a vast amount of luck. I tried the squat-and-shake technique.
Into The Earth
It’s been so hot for so long here that 105 degree days are no longer remarkable. A couple weeks ago we decided to hit the coolest spot in the state that’s not inside a building: Blanchard Springs Caverns. Abby referred to it as going into the earth.
Daffy Day
We made our annual trip to Wye Mountain a couple of weeks ago to see the daffodils. Abby’s Mimi was on hand for this year’s trip.
Tumblin’ Fordyce
Sometimes Abby, Gina and I jump in the car and head off in some random direction. We ended up in Fordyce on Sunday. Fordyce’s only claim to fame that I know of is that Keith Richards was arrested there in 1975. When we got there we could’ve murdered someone on Main Street and gotten away with it because we were the only souls downtown. It was nice because no one was around to hassle us as we explored the ruins.
I got in some good brick-wall-shooting practice. I wonder why someone would label the burglar alarm in big red letters. It seems to me that you’d want to keep the location of the alarm under wraps so that a burglar wouldn’t destroy it before pillaging your building. Of course it’s about 20 feet up on the wall so maybe it’s safe up there.
Rex’s Liquor looked like a great place to score some Mad Dog 20/20.
Rex also has this great side entrance in case you don’t want anybody out on the street to see you going in.
Southern hospitality.
I did something to this photo I’ve never had the patience to do before successfully. A big guy wire from a phone pole extended from corner to corner totally marring the shot. I removed it using the magical content-aware-fill function in Photoshop CS5. I found an instructional video on on YouTube demonstrating how to do it.
Out behind the Dallas County Museum is a weird garden of signs with nuggets about the area’s history.
Fordyce is evidently proud of its high school sports teams, which have the redbug as the mascot. The redbug is more commonly known as the chigger, a most unpleasant parasite. (Note the sign in the previous picture explaining that Fordyce introduced the state to high school football.) This mural celebrating that first team is inside another building ruin that’s been cleaned up. Murals cover the walls on both sides with scenes of various high school sports, football through the years, basketball, baseball, track and golf. All the murals have the bizarre sea of chiggers rising from the bottom to suck the blood of the athletes.
Indian Creek Redux
My buddy Kurt and I hiked Indian Creek in the Buffalo National River a week ago. The creek is home to two waterfalls highlighted in the Tim Ernst Arkansas Waterfalls book: Copperhead Falls (seen above with Kurt posing) and Tunnel Cave Falls, formed by water exiting a cave. The trail begins at the campground at Kyle’s Landing and runs a little over two miles up into a box canyon. It’s a great hike. The park service doesn’t maintain the trail and it gets pretty rough in some places. I wouldn’t recommend it for the weak-ankled.
This was a weird hike photographically for me. I didn’t take many photos. For one thing, I did this hike a couple of years ago and shot a bunch of photos then. For another thing, I usually do these long hikes alone, which leaves me free to screw around and shoot photos that don’t end up being any good. Because I had a companion on this trip, I had other things to do, mainly flapping my gums with Kurt. For some reason I can’t seem to talk and take pictures at the same time. Kurt, however, had his camera out the whole time shooting me and the scenery and handing me his camera so I could shoot him and the scenery together. I didn’t mind. It’s more fun to have somebody along. Finally, Kurt asked me if I was going to take a photo of anything at all. So I snapped out of it and shot a bunch pictures of him in action.
This is my favorite one. Kurt emerging from the pit toilet at Kyle’s Landing with the sunset in the background.
The namesake cave for Tunnel Cave Falls is closed to explorers, but even if it wasn’t off-limits it appears a dicey proposition to enter it with it being 30 feet up a sheer bluff wall. No, I didn’t take a photo of the cave itself. I told you I didn’t do a very good job with the photography. The waterfall was dry, anyway.
I did manage to provide Kurt with a nice profile photo for his Facebook page.
It Keeps On Snowing
It snowed again on Friday and I went out to Pinnacle Mountain to take some photos of it.
High On A Mountain Top
A couple of weekends ago we set out for the Ozarks to see if we could find some snow still on the ground. We headed north on Highway 7 at Russellville and ended up at Pam’s Grotto to check out the waterfall. The waterfall wasn’t running very well, but the hike was fun. It was Abby’s first real hike in the woods and she did the 1.5 mile round trip like a champ.
Camping Fools
For the second week in a row, and the third time in a month, we took Ol’ Leaky out for some camping action. It rained. Ol’ Leaky, as you might expect, leaked. It wasn’t too bad though. The rain was quite heavy but it didn’t last long. We stayed dry and warm and caught the leaks with a towel and a bucket.
We went to Lake Ouachita State Park on the eastern end of Lake Ouachita, Arkansas’ largest lake. I’d never been to the lake before, so we got to see a new-to-us area. The campground itself was excellent, complete with electric, water and sewer, though we didn’t use the sewer.
A Cold Night In Ol’ Leaky
We set sail in Ol’ Leaky again over the weekend. We tested its water tightness last time (she failed) and we decided to test her cold tightness this time. We headed up to Greers Ferry Lake near Heber Springs and camped at the Dam Site Campground. It was my first trip ever to the lake and the campground was excellent. We got a spot on a bluff overlooking the lake. It was our first kinda cold snap of the fall and temperatures were forecast for the high 20s. It didn’t get that cold but we probably found the bottom of our cold tolerance in the pop-up. The space heater ran all night and the electric blanket and double sleeping bag arrangement kept us just warm enough. Ol Leaky made a good star trails subject. The red-orange light on the trees is from the campfire on the other side of the camper.
Get Your Sunrise On
My Dad and I went out on our now-traditional hike on the last morning before daylight saving time ends. Only this year the end of DST wasn’t on the weekend of Halloween. I like seeing the sunrise so close to the end of DST because it comes so late in the morning, making it much more likely that I will be able to drag myself out of bed in time to see it. Like last year, we headed up to Petit Jean State Park to catch the dawn breaking from Stout’s Point. Granted, I haven’t seen a lot of sunrises, but this was probably the most spectacular I’ve ever witnessed.
Maiden Voyage Of Ol’ Leaky
This is Ol’ Leaky. We bought this thing in July for $1,500 and thought we either got a good deal or something was wrong with it. What was wrong was the roof leaked like a sieve. It had a big air conditioner on top and the roof sagged noticeably. After doing some research on the Internets I found out that this particular model requires special braces from the manufacturer when installing one of those aftermarket air units. It had no special braces. So I removed the air conditioner and sold it on Craigslist. Then I installed a roof vent and patched up some other stray holes and replaced the weather proofing on the roof seams. The seat and bed cushions had also been wet in the past so they were pretty stinky. We tossed out the big bed cushions and washed the upholstery and replaced the foam in the bench seats, which helped with the smell.
It’s The Shoes
Sometimes I’m a stupid, stupid man. When I got up at 5:30 Saturday morning to head up to King’s Bluff Falls north of Russellville, I had it in my head that the temperature was going to be in the 40s and the sun would be out part of the time. (In my defense, I got that from the weather forecast.) I donned my thin silk long underwear and put on my old New Balance running shoes over a pair of heavy wool socks. I also took two fleece jackets and thought I might be overdoing it in the warm clothes department. I was startled to find snow still on the ground when I turned north from Russellville on Highway 7. And when I got to the parking lot at the trail head, it was flat cold and the wind was whipping over the mountaintop. No sun was showing and wouldn’t the whole day. A good day for waterfall shooting, but bad for staying warm. The nice thing about the overcast and the wet ground is that the colors really saturate in the photos.
High On A Mountaintop
Abby’s been gone all week and school’s over until next semester, which has been nice because I got a bunch of stuff done. But by Thursday I’d done everything that needed doing and I found myself at loose ends. I headed west into the Ouachita National Forest to see what I could see. After wandering around on the back roads for a couple of hours I found myself about halfway up Grindstone Mountain in extreme northwest Saline County. I decided to get out of the truck and walk the rest of the way up the mountain. I thought maybe a nice sunset would be in offing, but the overcast sky just took on a kind of pale yellowish glow while the evening haze clinging to the ridges took on a blue-grayish hue. The landscape kinda looked like what you always see in movies featuring dinosaurs. I guess we tend to think the sky and air looked weird a few million years ago. I shot the photo on cloudy white balance to pump up the yellow in the sky.
That big rock sticking up in the middle of the top photo is Forked Mountain.
While I was up there one of those big C-130s from Little Rock Air Force Base flew by, circled Forked Mountain and headed back to the east. Those things always fly very low. This one was at about the same altitude I was.
Dawn Patrol
My Dad and I made our second-annual day-before-the-end-of-daylight-savings-time-sunrise pilgrimage on Saturday. The first annual DBTEODSTP was so successful, we decided to do it again. This year we went to Petit Jean State Park and caught the sunrise from Stout’s Point near the gravesite of Petit Jean herself. Several photographers had already assembled by the time we got there. The sunrise wasn’t all that great photographically, but it was pretty neat to hang out up there with my Dad.
Cedar Falls At Dawn
If I never accomplish anything else in life I can always say that I was the first person at Cedar Falls in Petit Jean State Park on October 10, 2009. It rained heavily across the Ozarks and Central Arkansas on Thursday night and Friday, so I knew the waterfalls would be running for a few days. The trouble was that Saturday was supposed to dawn with clear skies, and bright sun is no good for waterfall pictures. You need the muted light of cloudy skies to get good photos. I figured if I got out there before the sun got very high, I could do some shooting before things got too bright. Problem number two was that I’d have to go somewhere close by if I was going to be there at sunrise. The only real waterfall close enough for me to get to that early is Cedar Falls. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and got to the trail head a little after 7. And as luck would have it, it stayed cloudy, dark and gloomy all day. The top photo is a panorama made from six blended and merged photos.
NWA Weekend
The whole fam damily went to our summer home in Northwest Arkansas this weekend to do a little yard work and go to Bikes, Blues and BBQ in Fayetteville. We parked on the University of Arkansas campus and headed down to Dickson Street. On the way we stopped to show Abby where Gramps’ name is carved into the Senior Walk. She pointed out all the D’s in his name.
We didn’t stay long at BB&BBQ. It’s the exact same thing every year. Same vendors, same BBQ providers, etc. If you aren’t into motorcycles, then attending once ought to hold you for awhile. Having said that, it does make for some great people watching. You see a lot of bare midriffs that, for the good of mankind, should never see the light of day. We stayed just long enough to eat some exorbitantly priced and poorly cooked food, and I didn’t shoot many pictures. I wasn’t well, suffering from some kind of parasite or virus or something.
Fab 40th Birthday Weekend
It appears the old saw “time and tide waits for no man” is actually true. As recently as last month I thought it wouldn’t happen, but I actually turned 40 years old. I’m dealing with it, but it’s going to take some time. To commemorate the august occasion, Gina booked a couple nights at Lookout Point Lakeside Inn, a nice B&B in Hot Springs.
Accommodation review: Nestled on the shore of Lake Hamilton, Lakeside Inn provides the comforts of a luxury hotel in a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere. Each of the rooms is named after a town in Arkansas. The owners picked the names to convey relaxation and a sense of country life. (They eschewed my personal favorites: Bald Knob, Oil Trough, and Blue Ball.) My companion and I stayed in Evening Shade. The king-size bed was draped with super-soft sheets (Egyptian cotton perhaps) and the bathroom contained a glorious two-headed shower. Other amenities included a whirlpool tub, a separate toilet room and a fainting couch. Large windows provided a view of the lake. (I think all the rooms have lake views.) Couple of weird things: the television was tiny and we had to sign some kind of contract promising we wouldn’t smoke on the property under penalty of $500. Soft drinks, ice and breakfast are included in the rather pricey accommodations. We opted to sleep both Saturday and Sunday mornings in lieu of having breakfast.
Just Looking For A Hit
I found myself with a little free time Saturday and since I haven’t gotten a lot of chances to use my ultra-wide-angle lens, I went looking for something to shoot. I eventually ended up at the old bridge over the Maumelle River on an abandoned stretch of Arkansas Highway 300 in Pinnacle Mountain State Park. This bridge is popular with local photographers and rightly so. It’s old and rusty and corroded and interesting.
Saturday Drive
Arkansas has a split personality. High country and forest lie in the north and west and to the south and east it’s as flat as Kansas. Little Rock sits right on the dividing line. You can drive 30 minutes in one direction and climb a mountain; or drive 30 minutes in the opposite direction and see the curvature of the earth. On Saturday, Abby, Gina, Aunt Jodie and I loaded up and headed to the flat lands, where row-crop agriculture dominates.
On an earlier jaunt I had discovered a country road lined on either side with huge walnut trees that formed a leafy tunnel for a mile or so. We headed back there because I wanted to get a photo looking down the road in some nice afternoon light. That photo idea was a bust. It was still too early in the afternoon and the light was too harsh. We stopped near what looked like an old sharecropper shack to let Abby get out and play in the dirt. A man in a snazzy BMW showed up directly and told us we were on the end of his crop-duster landing strip and needed to move along. So we did.
Summiting Mt. Pinnacle
I had a great idea for photo of the rising full moon from the top of Pinnacle Mountain, so on Friday I set out to complete the first part of my idea, which was to get to the top of the mountain. The trail is only .75 of a mile long, but it’s uphill all the way. Pinnacle Mountain State Park is only a few miles west of Little Rock and it’s a very popular place. The trail traverses great expanses of huge rocks and so many people have been over the trail the rocks are worn slick in most places. Slick enough to slip on even when dry. The mountain is about 1,000 in elevation (the highest hill around) and provides a commanding view of the Arkansas River, Lake Maumelle and other lesser mountains to the south and west.
I got to the top about an hour before the moonrise and about two hours before sunset, so I had some time to kill. In wandering around the peak looking for something to shoot, I was drawn to the ubiquitous graffiti. I decided to make a little photographic study of the marred rocks.
The Creek Was Angry That Day, My Friends …
… like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.
I had been to Longpool Falls in Pope County north of Russellville back in January, but I didn’t get any photos worth looking at. So when a huge deluge hit that part of the state on Friday I decided to go back and see it when it had something to show. When I got up at 7:30 a.m. Saturday the rain had made it to Little Rock, but it was still raining in Pope County. I drove through torrential rain all the way there and the rain the didn’t stop. The top photo is a two-frame panorama of Longpool Falls and the ravine downstream.
Nothing Much To Do
Weird. It’s been weird this week. It feels like a pocket of calm before everything changes – again. Gina’s been out of town this week leaving Abby and me to forge ahead as a duo. Tuesday was extra dull and I asked Abby what she wanted to do and added that watching Calliou was not an option. She said, “Go to the Big Dam Bridge.” So that’s what we did.
I took my 70-300mm telephoto lens with us because I thought maybe there’d be some gulls flying around, but there weren’t. We walked up the bridge and watched a storm over Pinnacle Mountain. Then we walked down the bridge and out on an unpaved trail that branches off the North Little Rock River Trail. Abby was looking for fire ants. She’s taken a liking to stirring up their mounds and watching the ants go nuts and then running away shrieking. We got our shoes muddy and Abby saw some bugs, but no fire ants.
Backtalk