Arkansas – Page 3 – Post Irony

Camping Fools

By Don on Monday, November 15, 2010

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.

Arkansas Camping Photography star trails

A Cold Night In Ol’ Leaky

By Don on Monday, November 8, 2010

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.

Arkansas Hiking Photography

Get Your Sunrise On

By Don on Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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.

Arkansas Buffalo National River Camping Photography

Maiden Voyage Of Ol’ Leaky

By Don on Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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.

Arkansas Haw Creek Hiking King's Bluff Pam's Grotto Waterfall

It’s The Shoes

By Don on Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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.

Arkansas Ouachita Mountains Photography

High On A Mountaintop

By Don on Friday, December 18, 2009

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.

Arkansas exploring fall foliage Photography Waterfall

Dawn Patrol

By Don on Thursday, November 5, 2009

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.

Arkansas exploring Photography Waterfall

Cedar Falls At Dawn

By Don on Sunday, October 11, 2009

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.

Arkansas Bikes Blues BBQ Fayetteville

NWA Weekend

By Don on Monday, September 28, 2009

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.

Arkansas Vacation

Fab 40th Birthday Weekend

By Don on Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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.