11-14-09 Fall Follow up On-Going
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Late fall scene on Petit Jean Mountain
The fall in Arkansas can be one of the most beautiful seasons in the state. Many elements seem to have to come together however to make for a perfect fall and once again in 2009 in most parts of Arkansas, I just didn’t see the best fall colors. In the next few entries, I will write about areas that I found to be above par and others that just never seemed to come together. For sure this year the fall was very species dependent. For example in and around Pulaski County, the oaks and hickory trees just turned brown and the leaves fell off early. Arkansas has a great many varieties of oaks, but by far the best for color seem to be the white oak and the black/red oaks. Sometimes you will get great color from the post oaks. The White oak leaf in prime color will first turn a light shade of yellow which over time turns to a dark gold color before going brown. The red/black oaks will most often produce a light red color which will fade to a deep red and then many times develop a wonderful mottled look before turning totally brown.
My other favorite tree, the hickory was very hard to find throughout the state. The best trees I found were on lower Richland and up on the Mather Lodge trail/Petit Jean Mountain. The maples seemed to want to come in with nice colors, but just as they should have been prime, they also seemed to drop or lose the majority of their color.
As I traveled throughout the state, I kept on the lookout for any oaks that were going to produce significant color. However mostly I just found dark brown leaves with the only expection being down around the Cossatot and Little Missouri Rivers, in the southwest corner of Arkansas. Here I found many nice oak trees even late in October and into the first week of November.
As usual, I worked the Buffalo River area first, since most often the fall is up to 2 weeks earlier in that part of the state. However due to the excessive rainfall, the week of the 18th of October was the last time I was able to get up to the Buffalo and safely cross it. Most of the views I like to work are below Steel creek which require several crossings of the river and at a normal level these are no problem, but when the Buffalo is over 400 CFS, I have found that it seems more difficult to cross than say Richland creek at the same level. I was also attempting to work the elk during the early part of the rut and this caused me to steer away from some of the better days, but the chance to catch the elk in the rut with fall colors seemed worth the risk.
After giving up on the Buffalo, I came back to my local area, West Pulaski County, and Howard County working into the Flatside Wilderness, however even by the 18th, there seemly was very little color starting to show on Flatside. Flatside and Forked Mountain have some of the best views of the Ouachita Mountains and give the viewer a great westward view. I will write more about Flatside later as I ended up making several attempts to catch the colors there later in October and into early November.
No fall for me would be without a trip to Richland. And Richland was another mixed blessing. I missed the best color, if it ever happened up at Twin Falls, (for the 8th year in a row) but found wonderful color from Bill’s Thrill rapid all the way to the campground (which by the way is still closed sad to say). I wonder where the horsemen have been going for the past few years on the 1st weekend of October? I made two attempts to get Richland the first trip was cancelled due to dark clouds and excessive wind on Saturday, but the next day, was a bright blue day, with almost no wind until late in the afternoon. I was able to work the entire creek but the water level was on the high side 270 CFS. The best color was missed by 4 to 5 days, due to high water. The best day to be there, the creek was running at least 2.500 CFS and I knew that would limit me to only hiking to Shaws Folly rapid and no crossing. I chose not to come down from Hill Cemetary solo, as I think my days of that may be over. Richland on that Sunday was perfect in many places, however you would walk around the bend and find no color at all, very hit and miss.
Petit Jean by far was the best for me this year. I have wanted to catch Cedar Falls with water in it in the fall and this year it was hard to miss. Cedar falls was running full most of the month but the real gem was the Mather Lodge trail. The small creek that winds it’s way down to Cedar creek has some of the best cascades in the state. You have to wait for most of your shots due to the high number of people on the trail, but it’s worth the wait. Here I found great color in the hickory trees and dogwoods (which of course turn a deep deep blood red in the fall). I made two trips back to back, one cloudy and rainy the other bright and sunny. I would have thought that the best day would have been the 2nd, suuny day, however I have found that most of the good work I was able to take came from the cloudy day, as the light was so harsh the following day.
Fall scene from near Flatside Mountain
After Petit Jean, I worked around the Little and Big Mamulle rivers trying to get some bald cypress trees, and finally was able to get a few nice days in. My favorite tupleo gum tree grove also didn’t disappoint me, by producing some wonderful color late in the 3rd week of October. I made one trip to the Cossatot, again holding off until the water levels were a manageable level, but missed most of the prime color there also. The Cossatot did have some very nice white oaks and sycamores that produced excellent color. It was the sweet gums and black gums that didn’t seem to produce much color at the Cossatot along with the few maples that are down there. Overall I traveled more than most years, but the end results were not that spectacular. I have still wondered what caused the dullness, too much water? or the one cold snap? Much more to write coming up in the next few weeks with more detailed trip reports.
Tags: Arkansas, Autumn leaf color, Cedar Falls, Ouachita Mountains, Travel
