Waterfall – Post Irony

Two Are Better Than One

By Don on Monday, April 20, 2015

I’d been meaning to get to Compton’s Double Falls for years and I finally just went ahead and did it. Hike was pretty simple: Park on Cave Mountain Road, hike downhill for a mile or so and then hike back up hill to the truck. It’s not a tough route to find and it’s even marked with orange ribbon.

I took a slightly different route on the way out and ran across this bear-shredded log. The area had a strong musky smell as if the bear had just been there. For the rest of the hike I sang and talked to let the area bears know that I came in peace for all mankind.

Arkansas Family Fun Waterfall

Ramblin’

By Don on Friday, April 3, 2015

We’ve been on a couple of our patented family walkabouts that Abby professes to hate, but actually loves. We wandered around Petit Jean State Park back in February and stopped by the abandoned Carden Bottoms school on the northwest side of Petit Jean Mountain. It’s evidently a popular place for those into abandoned stuff. It does have a few interesting features, like this abused piano.

We’ve been getting some good rain in the late winter and the waterfalls have been pretty spectacular. We hit Glory Hole Falls in mid-March and stopped long enough for a family portrait.

A week before I headed out on a solo trek and stopped by Car Wash Falls on the banks of the Big Piney in northern Johnson County.

Arkansas exploring Hiking Ozarks Photography Waterfall

Waterfall In The Fall

By Don on Sunday, October 26, 2014

An unusually copious rain in western Arkansas a couple weeks ago had me out looking for a good waterfall to visit with my dad. We don’t normally get such a deluge in October around here. Some places got upwards of five inches of rain in the days before our hike. The rainfall map showed Bingham Hollow Falls, a 51-footer in Franklin County north of Ozark. It’s a very photogenic fall, but I imagine it takes a pretty good rain to get it running well. The drainage above the dropoff is not very big.

It started raining again shortly after we reached the top of the falls so we quickly scrambled down to the bottom and took shelter under the huge horseshoe of a an overhang. I made a couple of multishot panos to try to get most of the overhanging bluff into one photo. I’ve visited a lot of the state’s waterfalls and this one might be the prettiest and most interesting I’ve seen.

The leaves had just barely started to turn. I’d like to catch this fall flowing well during peak leaf color.

Falling Water Falls Outdoor fun Photography Waterfall

Falling Waters

By Don on Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Arkansas had some uncharacteristically heavy rains in early August, making the waterfalls run at a time of the year when even decent-sized rivers are generally down to a trickle. Gina and I had a day when Abby was occupied elsewhere and ran up to Falling Water Creek to check out the high water. We checked in with Fuzzy Butt Falls, a waterfall I had not been to. The fall is in a small canyon on a small tributary of Falling Water Creek and is a beautiful spot.

Arkansas Hiking Ladderbucket Falls Outdoor fun Ozarks Photography Waterfall

There’s A Ladder With a Bucket On It … Get It?

By Don on Monday, April 29, 2013

Dad and I stood a few dozen yards from the creek bank looking at the worse-for-wear ladder with the metal bucket hanging from it and speculated on how such a configuration might have come about. The ladder had been there for awhile for sure. Vines of what appeared to be poison ivy entwined along and around the two remaining rungs. It seemed obvious that the bucket came later and we remarked that it was somewhat interesting that the bucket hadn’t already been removed by some passerby. But it didn’t seem odd that the ladder and bucket were together. Painters famously use ladders and buckets simultaneously all the time. What was odd, however, was the location of the ladder and bucket. In the middle of nowhere. In the bottom of an Ozarks box canyon miles from the nearest road of any consequence. The bucket had a single bullet hole in it, so that might’ve been a clue. Dad expanded the scope and began describing the ancient ladders he had seen still hanging high in the cliffs of the Grand Canyon. Then we continued with our hike. In an epic episode of failing to put two and two together, we totally missed the significance of the bucket hanging from the ladder.

Arkansas exploring Hiking Schoolhouse Falls Waterfall

Schoolhouse Rock

By Don on Sunday, April 21, 2013

No real good reason for the title of this post, except for this.

Saturday didn’t promise to provide optimum conditions for waterfall photography, but I went out anyway. I had not given Schoolhouse Falls serious consideration, despite its being relatively close to my house, because Time Ernst’s description in his waterfall book is not exactly glowing. That was a mistake.

Arkansas black and white oddball stuff Outdoor fun Petit Jean State Park Photography Waterfall

Catch Up

By Don on Sunday, April 21, 2013

Easter

Hiking Photography Waterfall

Bear Skull Falls

By Don on Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Ozarks got a goodly dose of rain from Tropical Storm Hermine last week, but the weather report for the weekend looked like a bust for waterfall shooting – mostly sunny skies. So I was taken aback when I was awakened by a workman on the roof Saturday morning and found the sky completely overcast. Because it was my birthday, Gina said I could do anything I wanted and she wouldn’t protest, so I headed out for the hills to see if the waterfalls were still running. I drove up to Russellville, turned left onto Highway 7 and pulled over to consult the waterfall guidebook. Bear Skull Falls in northern Johnson County looked doable. I threaded my way along a couple of twisty state highways and then onto a dirt road until I hit the Ozark Highlands Trail. The waterfall was about a mile and half down the trail. It was a nice level hike for about three-quarters of mile and then the trail headed down, down, down to the bottom of the drainage. There wasn’t much photo worthy material until I hit the waterfall, which you can’t miss. It’s right next to the trail.

High Bank Twins Waterfall

High Bank Twins

By Don on Thursday, May 27, 2010

I visited this waterfall twice in a week, both visits after heavy rains in the area. The first visit came as I was heading back to Little Rock after a grueling weekend working on our summer house in Northwest Arkansas in an effort to get that albatross sold. (Anyone want a great house convenient to I-540 and the north Fayetteville shopping/dining district? Click here and check it out.) The rains hadn’t done anything for the falls. Barely a trickle. I stopped off five days later on a return trip to the money pit. (Really, it’s a great house. I just installed new ceiling fans and light fixtures and the whole interior has a new coat of paint in a neutral color. Click here and check it out.) The waterfall is located off Highway 215 near Cass. Parking is at the High Bank canoe access on the Mulberry River. The Mulberry was blown out of its banks and I hoped that indicated that the side streams were running high, too. The falls had more water than before but it was less than raging.

I’d been to this waterfall before and found it hard to photograph when the leaves were out. It’s 70 feet tall and if you move back far enough to get the whole drop in the photo, the leafy trees block the top of the falls. Oh well, I did the best I could.

Abby Falling Water Falls Family Fun Waterfall

Falling Water

By Don on Friday, May 7, 2010

It was pretty stormy in the state last weekend, so Abby, Gina and I took a trip on Sunday to check out Falling Water Falls in the Ozark National Forest between Ben Hur and Witts Springs. We also stopped by Six Finger Falls a few miles downstream. I wasn’t feeling very photographically inspired so I don’t have much to show. We had a good time, though. Abby caught a huge terrapin turtle and we saw a little snake, so she got her Bindi the Jungle Girl on a little bit.