Pinnacle Mountain – Post Irony

The Snow

By Don on Sunday, February 9, 2014

It’s been an unusually cold winter in Little Rock. We got a decent snowfall on Friday and I ventured out Saturday afternoon to see what the country looked like with a blanket of white. I headed west of town and wound up at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Mt. Pinnacle was snow capped just like Pike’s Peak. Well, kinda like Pike’s Peak.

The Maumelle River was frozen. I couldn’t figure out what those weird holes in the slush/ice were. They were scattered all about and not just under the cypress trees.

Dinosaur tracks. I should’ve included a quarter in the photo to show scale. These tracks were huge, about 8 inches long.

fall foliage Pinnacle Mountain

Not Quite Done

By Don on Saturday, November 16, 2013

Despite countless visits to Pinnacle Mountain since moving to Little Rock in 1994, I’d never made the hike to the east quarry area until today. The trail head is over on the north side of the park at the visitor center. At the beginning of the trail there’s a nice deck with a great view of the Arkansas River. The east quarry is about a mile and a half from the trail head and offers an even better view of the river. The photo above is the Big Maumelle River with Lake Maumelle way off in the background.

I was pretty surprised by the amount of color still on the trees. I wished I had been up there last weekend when the color was probably at its best.

Arkansas Photography Pinnacle Mountain

It Keeps On Snowing

By Don on Monday, February 7, 2011

It snowed again on Friday and I went out to Pinnacle Mountain to take some photos of it.

Photography Pinnacle Mountain

Heat + Humidity = Sweetness

By Don on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Some pretty wicked thunderstorms have kicked up the last two days. Abby and I went out looking for some on Tuesday. We found this one booming across the river at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Lightning was flashing but it’s impossible to hit the shutter button quick enough to catch it. On our drive home another one caught up with us and put on a light and sound show as we drove down Chenal Parkway. Click on the photos to fill the screen with scary storm goodness.

Arkansas Arkansas River exploring Hiking Photography Pinnacle Mountain

Summiting Mt. Pinnacle

By Don on Sunday, June 7, 2009

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.

Adventures in Strobistry Arkansas oddball stuff Photography Pinnacle Mountain

Flash Play

By Don on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

After my run Wednesday at Two Rivers Park I headed over to Pinnacle Mountain to see if there was anything worth shooting. I stopped at the arboretum off Pinnacle Mountain Road thinking I might get a shot of some cypress knees down by the Little Maumelle River. I did something to my knee during my run and I was limping pretty heavily. (I later made the self diagnosis of ilotibial band syndrome.) I barely made it to the river and to add insult to injury I couldn’t find anything swampy that I wanted to shoot.

On my limp back up he trail I came across this dead armadillo and decided to try my hand at a little Strobist style off-camera flash. I underexposed the ambient light and let the flash provide the correct exposure on the carcass. It didn’t turn out quite as I had envisioned. I envisioned a well-lit corpse with a goodly expanse of dark forest in the background. But hand-holding the flash while trying to get low on a badly hurting knee while enduring the stink of a dead armadillo is harder than it sounds. I gave up after two frames and this is what I got.