Ouachita Mountains

We thought the fall colors were pretty magnificent up in the Buffalo River country two weeks earlier, but by the first weekend in November, the Ouachita Mountains were putting on a crazy color show. We visited one of our favorite spots, Flatside Pinnacle, a mountain peak in the Flatside Wilderness, which is about an hour west of our house. It’s a very popular place for central Arkansas photographers. It’s a good spot for family outings because the trail to the top is pretty short and easy and the view is pretty spectacular. Abby is starting to show a fondness for rambling around these steep places. She gets that from me, I guess. It makes Gina really nervous. Thunderstorms boomed over Little Rock while we had mostly clear skies overhead. It made for a dramatic photo.

Then I turned around and caught a pretty dramatic sunset.

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.

Post Irony

Fall in the Ouachitas

High On A Mountaintop