Arkansas – Page 6 – Post Irony

Fallen Fall

By Don on Tuesday, November 4, 2008

We had planned to go for a drive in the Buffalo River area Sunday to see the leaves, but Abby got sick and Gina felt a 103 degree fever was not conducive to viewing fall foliage. Gina cut me loose for the afternoon and I headed out by myself.

I drove to Ponca and bought a map of the hiking trails in the western part of the national river park. Parking at the Ponca access to the river, I took off east on the Old River Road Trail, which I had never been on before. The scenery in he Buffalo River bottom is always nice, but the fall foliage seemed to be past peak down there. I bet the trees along the river in the top photo were afire in red and yellow a week ago. That would have made a better picture, of course.

Arkansas fall foliage Hiking Kings River Landscape Photography Photoshop sunrise

Kings River Sunrise

By Don on Saturday, November 1, 2008

A couple months ago when I went to check out Eagles Nest Falls in the Madison County Wildlife Management Area I found this magnificent view of the Kings River valley. I made a mental note to try to get back there to see the fall foliage at sunrise. I figured this Saturday would be perfect because the switch back to standard time on Sunday would make sunrise come earlier and make it less likely I would be able to get there early enough. (I realize that sunrise happens when it happens and we humans are the ones who put a time to it. But these are mental gymnastics I used to convince myself that rising at 5 a.m. was a good idea.) My dad was in town and he’s always up way too early and he enjoys a good hike, so he was game to go along with my idea.

Arkansas Family Fun Uncategorized

Mules

By Don on Saturday, October 11, 2008

The annual Mule Jump in Pea Ridge is truly something everyone should see once. Once will do it. Mule jumps draw the kinds of crowds you’d expect. Very few of your urbane types, unless they came up from Fayetteville to see how they live in the provinces.

Abby enjoyed the mules, the funnel cake and the clapping from the crowd.

Arkansas Eagles Nest Falls Hiking Landscape Photography Tea Kettle Falls Waterfall

Saturday Ramble

By Don on Monday, September 8, 2008

Hurricane Gustav parked itself over Arkansas most of last week and dumped a whole bunch of rain, so I hoped enough water would be left running on Saturday to have the waterfalls at full glory. Perusing the Arkansas waterfall Bible written by Tim Ernst, I picked out Tea Kettle Falls to visit.

Tea Kettle is in the Madison County Wildlife Management Area south of Eureka Springs about a mile off a gravel road. It’s a pretty good hike, about a mile down Warm Fork Creek with no official trail. You just follow the creek through the woods. The picture above is a waterfall on a side creek visible from the main creek. The Warm Fork probably only runs during wet weather. Despite there being plenty of water in it, I didn’t see a single fish or other water creature. And the water was clear as gin. Creeks and rivers in the Ozarks normally have an emerald green tint from mineralization, but this water was as clear as any I’ve ever seen.

Arkansas Family Fun Hiking Vacation

Team Jackass Redux

By Don on Sunday, August 10, 2008

Team Jackass reunited for some geocaching on Saturday, this time in the rugged terrain of the Ozarks. Team members were able to overcome the heat, humidity and elevation changes, but six miles of bad road felled the team’s elder statesman. While he was attempting to recover from a punishing case of car sickness, the other members scaled Round Top Mountain near Jasper, Ark., to claim a cache called Knife Edge.

I didn’t document the expedition very well. I think the pressure of topping last year’s film got to me. I didn’t take many pictures and the footage I captured on video is mostly people walking through the jungle-like terrain. I got a decent shot of the sisters, though, and one of Katie examining the goodies in the cache.

Arkansas family Photography

Sold!

By Don on Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Grandma Dailey (my dad’s mother) lived in the country near DeQueen Arkansas for about 37 years. For the last 30 years she lived there alone after the death of her husband, Aubrey. She was an antiques dealer, quilt maker and made the best corn bread. She’s 93 now and her health has gotten to the point where she can’t live alone anymore and has moved in with one of her daughters in Texas. On Saturday she held an auction at her house to sell her furniture and other belongings to get the house ready for it to sell.

Abby Arkansas Eureka Springs Family Fun

Eureka!

By Don on Saturday, June 14, 2008

Abby, Gina and I took a little trip over to Eureka Springs today for a little walking and window shopping. We had Abby in her full tourist get-up. She likes to push Dora the Explora around in her baby stroller. You have to be patient when she’s got that stroller going.

A banjo, a fiddle and dog. Three reasons why Eureka is so much fun. That and cross-dressing bikers. (I didn’t have the gumption to shoot the cross-dresser.)

We took a little rest near the airbrush tattoo stand where these disembodied, yet sexy, legs were kickin’ it.

We watched a middle-aged woman get a butterfly tramp stamp.

The taffy puller at the candy shop was the most interesting thing about the candy shop, but Abby started yelling CANDY! so we had to go in. In order to get Abby out of the candy shop, Gina had to tell her that the candy was in her purse and we’d get it out when we got back to the car. We didn’t actually buy any candy.

We went down to Spring Street to see the Grotto Spring. It was apparently dug out in the late 1800s and a cool stone arch built at the entrance.

Ned in the first reader lives on Spring Street, evidently. We saw several of his trademark works along the sidewalk.

Thornecrown Chapel was out last stop. It’s made mostly of glass so it feels like you’re sitting in the woods at church. Except it’s about 15 degrees cooler and there are no mosquitos. The attendant was a little annoying with his photography rules and shushing the visitors.

Arkansas Family Fun Hiking Landscape Photography

Hawksbill Crag

By Don on Sunday, May 11, 2008

Dad and I drove down to the Buffalo National River and hiked to Whitaker Point and visited Hawksbill Crag, perhaps the most photographed natural feature in Arkansas. On the drive down we encountered a huge thunderstorm, part of a swarm of storms in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas that killed a bunch of people. We pulled off under a tree when the hail got too bad. As we started off down the trail, we heard the ominous sound of thunder. We planned to visit Upper Haley’s Falls and then go on to Hawksbill Crag. Tim Ernst named the falls in his waterfall guidebook after Haley Zega who got lost in the area in the 2001. I suggested that the waterfall probably had a huge overhang — because most waterfalls in the area do — and we could take refuge under it if need be.

Arkansas Hiking Landscape Photography Waterfall

Glory Hole

By Don on Tuesday, April 29, 2008

the drop 2, originally uploaded by dldailey32.

I’ve always loved waterfalls and with all the water that’s fallen from the sky this spring, the water falling from the rocks has been spectacular. I tried taking photos of them in the past with film, but I just didn’t do it enough to become proficient. The lag time between shooting and developing film and seeing mistakes and remembering them and correcting them the next time out was too arduous for me. I’d rather just go play golf with its instant feedback. But with a digital camera I can shoot, check out the LCD, spin some dials, push some buttons and try again until I get something I like.

Now, I’m not disappointed with the exposure, but a lot of times I’m disappointed with the composition. I did like the composition on this shot of the underside of the Glory Hole near Fallsville in the Ozark National Forest.

I’ve gone kind of goofy on photographing the waterfalls. I bought the Tim Ernst waterfall guidebook and I’ve been mapping out what falls I want to see before they dry up this year. Gina, Abby and I went out Saturday looking for King’s River Falls and it was a total bust. It was sunny and we were out too early in the day. Abby got grouchy after 3 hours of riding around, which meant Gina was grouchy and I was grouchy. After all that we didn’t even get to see King’s River Falls because the road was too washed out for Gina’s Honda Accord to navigate.

Arkansas Hiking Landscape Photography Waterfall

Rattlesnake Falls

By Don on Friday, April 25, 2008

This shot of Rattlesnake Falls in the White Mountain Area of Northwest Arkansas is currently my favorite shot. You can see it on my Flickr page here where it looks better for some reason.

I used a neutral density filter and a polarizer to get a slow enough shutter speed to make the water go all blurry. I worked up the pic in photoshop using some skills I picked up from Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Photoshop. It’s a great book. I recommend it.