Photos of Arkansas

I wrote this article in 2010, but if you are planning a winter hike to Lost Valley in Newton County, you may find this information helpful.

With all of the places in Arkansas to hike, it’s hard to pick a favorite.  But one place will always be at the top of my list and that is Lost Valley in the Boxley Valley.  I have been making trips up to Lost Valley since 1969 and it has changed very little since my first trip.  Most of my hikes in Lost Valley are in the Spring or Fall and I rarely make trips up to the area in the winter.  But it can be a great place to photograph in the winter, especially when the various waterfalls of the valley freeze.  When this occurs you have a chance to catch some rare and unique ice formations.     Lost Valley is a box canyon and throughout it’s 1 mile or so length Clark Creek which runs through the valley creates many waterfalls, but the most important ones are towards the back of the valley and these are the Eden Falls complex.    Eden Falls is actually a 3 part waterfall,  lower Eden Falls, Cave Falls, and Upper Eden Falls.   Most of the year, you will find water in Lower Eden Falls and Cave Falls, but the upper which is also the highest and most dramatic only runs after a major rain event and even then it won’t run very long.  In the wintertime to maximize the best ice formations, you actually don’t have or want a high flow but instead you just need enough water to bounce off the surrounding rocks.  The bouncing water as it freezes is what creates the ice formations.

On this winter day, the conditions were perfect for the ice formations, as the temperature was around 12 degrees and there was no wind blowing.   Starting from the visitor center, I hiked up to the Jigsaw Blocks .   The ground had a nice covering of old snow that had a hard ice coating.  This made for a very bright shooting condition and while working the valley, I had to constantly check to make sure I was not getting blown highlights from the snow.  I have always been drawn to the Jigsaw blocks and I have photographed it many times over the years.  Most often Clark Creek is dry around the Jigsaw Blocks even in the Spring, so they tend to be a static study for me.  In fact in 25 years of hiking up Lost Valley, I have only seen a good flow of water at the Jigsaw blocks 3 or 4 times.  The best was in August of 2008 and the entire spring of 2009.  You can work the blocks in many ways, I tend to prefer a head on shot like this one.

There was a great play of light and dark on the rocks that create the jigsaw pieces.  This time of year, the sun is low in the sky so the shadows are quite dramatic.  You can see Clark Creek on the left of the rocks and if you follow it upstream you will see the Natural Bridge.  I was pleased to see that no one had walked around the rocks and left footprints.  From here I walked on up to the Natural Bridge. Read the rest of this entry »

If you can get away in the next few days, make sure you travel to Newton County. Anywhere you look, you will find excellent waterfalls. I would consider Smith Creek, Clark Creek, and Hemmend in Hollow for starters. The high bluffs along the Buffalo River will have small waterfalls running off of them. These falls will not be running very many days, only as long as the heavy rains continue. One of the best waterfall is the one at the western end of Roark Bluff. This waterfall must be close to 100 feet tall and falls directly into the Buffalo river. It is surrounded by trees and this of year makes for a excellent and rare shot.
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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.

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.

With all the rain of late, I felt it would be a great idea to post some shots that were taken during the brief dry spell we had in June and early July.  I tend to try to get up to Petit Jean as often as I can mainly since it’s so close to Little Rock.  I have taken  photos all over the state of Arkansas, but I still find Petit Jean to have some of my favorite spots.  The main issue with Petit Jean is the large number of people that will be there really at anytime of the year, except the dead of winter. You have to work your shooting around them and find spots less frequently favored (ones that are not just 10 feet away from a car).

Early in the Morning you can get one of the best sunrises from Petit Jean.  If you are lucky, you will catch the Arkansas river valley fully encased in fog.  The sun will rise over the fog and make for a excellent shot.  Make sure to get there at least 30 minutes before sunrise to allow you to get setup.  The grave site of Petit Jean is one of the best spots but there are other less known ones.  If you just drive past the turn off to Petit Jean’s grave and then then turn towards the Winrock Conference area you will find some great spots  along the road.   You get the same valley view, but with some more encompassing trees.   Once at the grave site, move around the big rocks until you find a spot where you can feature the rocks and the sunrise.  Don’t just limit yourself to the top, look around for cracks and crevases that make for more unique photos.

This shot which was taken from the grave site is looking due west.  The rocks here will come alive in the morning as the sun hits them.  You might have to take some of the more harsh graffiti off in Photoshop, but that seems to be a necessary evil up there.  The early folks were content to just carve in the rocks, but spray paint has taken over as the main method to deface the rocks.   This shot was taken as a series, HDR (high dynamic range) and then combined into one large negative.  I use a different method than most people to work my HDR,  developed by Timothy Farr and have found it to provide the best results.   This shot was taken with a Canon 5D MKII, with a 24-70 lens at 24mm.

The sky that morning was an amazing shade of of blue and it faded from a dark to almost turquoise color that was broken by a slight band of red right at the horizon line.   One issue you can have with any HDR work is movement.  Wind noise as I call it.  If there is a good breeze blowing you can pretty much forget working with traditional HDR methods as the leaves will never line up.  When this happens I work with a method I learned from Todd Smith from Little Rock.  This allows you to take parts from from several of the image to create the final version.  You also have to watch the clouds as they are moving and can blur also.  Your eye will most likely not pick this movement up.

Since Cedar Falls was dry, (surprising due to all the rain), I drove over to Mather lodge.  I am big fan of the trail that runs from Mather Lodge to both Cedar Falls and the Blue hole.  It has non stop photo opportunities and is full of Dogwoods.   The visita from Mather lodge features the canyon that has been created by Cedar Falls Creek.  You can see the cliffs on the left that are part of the Bear Cave area.  This morning there was a good amount of sunlight lighting the valley.  However as I stood there some low hanging clouds started to move up the valley and within 5 minutes the entire look of the valley had changed.

This shot is a what I call a slight pano.  It was taken from two frames from a medium format back in the Landscape mode.  The medium format back is a 4:3 ratio and lends itselft well to this type of work.  I worked the two frames up independently and then combined them in Photoshop.   Photoshop does an good job on this type of work and can  correct for a lot of the optical errors that can occur.   Within 5 more minutes, the clouds were gone and the valley was back to normal light.  You can see from the various trees, that everything was very lush almost like a rain forest.

The cliffs on the right side can be reached from the road that cross Cedar Creek near the campgrounds.

 

The full effect of the springtime colors can really be seen at Flatside Pinnacle. I feel that the westward view from Flatside is by far one of the best vistas in Arkansas. You can see Forked Mountain way off in the distance. But to me the most impressive view is slightly to the left of Forked Mountain. Here you see one rolling hill after another and they are lined up in such a way that they make for a wonderful photographic subject.

Often you can get great cloud formations during the day at Flatside. Here is a shot that was taken over the past weekend when a Storm was rolling it. I kept thinking I had the best shot, then as I was packing up, the clouds would change and then an even better formation was created.

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I had spent so much time up on the upper Buffalo river that I felt it would be a good thing to check into some of the rest of the Ozarks. I had not traveled up Hwy 65 yet so I decided to head up to the Sylamore Creek/Gunner Pool area. Leaving Little Rock, on Saturday the 1st of November, I headed up to Conway, then hit 65 and stayed on it to Marshall, and then headed to the Rush turn off on Hwy 27 & 14. As soon as I was through Clinton, the colors were spectacular, the best I had seen year to date. These were the colors I had been trying to locate on the Buffalo, with all the trees turning at once giving the great multiple color arrays. Once I crossed the Buffalo River on Hwy 14, the colors started to get drab again and by the time I got to Rush, the colors were almost nonexistent. I turned around and headed back down Hwy 14 to where it joins with Hwy 27. Here I stayed on 14 headed towards Mountain View.

This is a great drive that I had forgotten over the years. You cross over several small creeks and drop down into some very pretty valleys before finally climbing up to the high ridge line above Syalmore creek. There are several great campgrounds in this part of the state, Barkshed, Gunner Pool, and the Blanchard Springs Campground. I prefer Gunner Pool over the others, but most of the year it’s hard to get a campsite due to the crowds. I arrived late in the day, and found the campground almost empty and was able to get a spot down by Gunner Pool. The colors all the way down to the campground were as good as the ones I had seen earlier on Hwy 65.
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The colors in the far north Fayetteville area seem to be behind the Upper Buffalo Area. Last weekend, I found the areas around Ponca, to already have dropped their leaves or the trees were just turning brown. However the valley near Kyles Landing should be perfect this weekend as the oaks last week were just starting to turn. Here is a sunrise shot taken looking towards Kyles Landing from last weekend. As you can see, the oaks in the shots are just starting to turn and they are showing a good yellow color unlike the oaks up around Roark Bluff.
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Throughout the central part of Arkansas, Pulaski, Saline, and Perry Counties, the fall colors have yet to even begin to peak. Based on the colors that were showing at Flatside Pinnacle on Thrusday, I feel that it will be the middle of November before any real peak happens here and maybe as late as the 1st of November up in the Northern Counties. The small amount of rain that fell on Thrusday did not bring any of the local creeks up so my hopes of getting some fall stream shots are starting to fail.

I have yet to head up to Petit Jean but I feel that Cedar Falls will not have a very good flow. The evening skies do allow for some wonderfull sunset work as many nights the deep blue of the evening sky has really stayed out long after the actual sun has set.

Hopefully things will start to come together this weekend as there are only 2 left before the opening of modern gun season.

Over the past weekend, I spent some time up at Ponca AR to photograph the Elk herd. The Elk in Arkansas are considered a great success as the heard now has grown to close to 500 animals. The viewing of the herd has become a big item at Ponca and on the weekends you can expect to get a lot of traffic along Hwy 43 as people stop to look. There were more photographers out looking for the Elk that I expected. Enough that it reminded me of photography in Yellowstone during the fall rut.

The Elk will come down into the main fields near Ponca early in the morning and later in the afternoon. I found that the later afternoon shooting provided the best opportunities for my shooting style. If you are working the fields around Boxley Valley, you are limited to the fence line. This means that most of the visible Elk are between 100 to 200 years out. Even with a 400mm lens, the distance was really too great to take a photo to feature an elk without an extreme amount of cropping. To really bring the animals into view, you would be better suited with at least a 500mm lens, even a 600 or 800mm. There were plenty of people using these huge pieces of glass. Enough that it reminded me of a sporting event.

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I had hoped that more rainfall would have occurred in the later part of September so that Richland and other creeks would be at a higher level in October. It has been 2 years now since there was good water in Richland Creek during fall.

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