Here is the 2nd image.

Both of these were hand held at around 1/30 of a second and I was glad to see that both came out OK.  There was a bit of noise in the darker areas which did surprise me since I was shooting at ISO 125.  However the shadows were considerably darker in the raw file, as I was more concerned about blowing out the highlight of the sun in the fog.  So far the Canon 5D MKII has been very forgiving in regards to noise as long as the ISO is kept below 2000.

After this series of shots, I headed over to the millpond.  Michael Dougherty, of ArkansasNaturePhotography.com had mentioned to me that there was a lot of wildlife activity around this area.  He was right!.  I spent the next 4 hours working around the millpond.  To those that don’t know where I am talking about, the millpond is about 2/3′s of the way to the Hwy 21/43  junction and is the pond that is associated with the “old mill” that is now off limits (I would love to get back there).

The millpond is known for the Trumpeter Swans that are permanent residents, but it also has an amazing number of other animals that frequent it.  While I was there, I was able to photography two types of hawk, some blue wing teal (amazing results), several song birds, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, and a beaver.  In the winter eagles can often be found in the snags.  One of Michael’s best shots of an eagle was taken here last winter.

I had planned on shooting the Elk, but at this time of day, they were not out.  They have been frequenting the replanted fields near the Hwy 21/43 area, fields I know well.  So after working the Millpond I headed back to Steel Creek to see if the sun had come out on Roark Bluff.  The sun  was starting to poke out of the clouds at the millpond so I had high hopes.  Unfortunately, by the time I got to Steel Creek, the clounds were back and it was starting to rain.  I made a quick decision to go ahead and hike to the top of Roark, one of my favorite (and everyone else) spots.  The downside to this hike is ticks.  This year the seed ticks have been terrible each time I have hiked to the top of Roark bluff.  Really terrible,  around 100 or so visible on me by the time I got to the  summit.  The problem IMO is that the horse traffic on the trail along the Buffalo has given the ticks a year round supply of food.  Plus the area is so overgrown right now, with plants over my head, as you walk through there and brush up against the plants, the ticks  just drop off on you.  I dreaded the hike back, knowing I would have as many on me by the time I got back.  I am not sure what the solution is, as had sprayed a large amount of deet on my legs, neck, and arms.  If you have a dog,  I would not take them in this area right now as they will be misreable.

As I got to the summit, the sun started to back light the clouds so, I went ahead and set up.  I ended up taking a lot of shots as the light kept changing.  Here is a shot from the summit, time of day is around 2:30 pm, taken with a Medium format digital back. Right before the shot, 3 deer were down in the fields, but by the time I got ready to shoot they were gone.  Notice in the line of gum trees along the river, there are signs of leaves already starting to turn fall colors.

It actually rained on me again and then the sun broke out.  However the haze was really harsh and started to interfere with the scene.  The view behind me was much better, however even though it’s of Bee Bluff, the horse parking area and all the roads seem to detract from it.  I still have some really old 35mm slides of this area right after the park took it over and you can still see the huge horse barn and fences.   One other note, you can continue along the make shift trail on the top of Roark, however it’s not an easy hike and does involve some height exposure.  You can access the far end easily by crossing the river right below the camping area and hiking up into a small hollow which is visible in this image, look for the light brown bluff at the end.  There is a great waterfall here  however when it’s running, the Buffalo River tends to be too high to cross without a canoe.  To get to the summit from this end, requires one tricky move, one that 20 years ago I made without thinking, now I would want a rope.  But later in the afternoon, it’s a better spot to be as the sun is working with you.

After this I headed back to the Hwy 21/43 junction and found a nice herd of Elk.  The bulls have all lost the velvet and are getting ready for the rut.  The herd I was able to work, had one large bull, a 7×5, strange rack, and several spikes, and then at least 50 cows and calves.  The calves are still nursing and I was able to watch that drama unfold.  For the first time, I heard a cow call, it’s more of bark than the bulging sound of the bulls, but one cow in particular kept at this until her calf reappeared from some brush at the edge of the field.

It will be most interesting to see what and when the fall colors fully materialize.  A lot of the trees along the river are starting to turn fall colors and I saw some of this also up by the millpond.  I was surprised by this since it was the last week in August.

There is never a dull moment in the Boxley valley.

Sunset

I also stopped at the Sam’s Throne area and the Vendor valley. As was last year, the Sam’s Throne area is way behind the Jasper area and still has great potential for color. The trees there are turning more in unison and so far seem to be turning more traditional colors. I saw some beautiful Maples and Oaks just starting to turn. The Black Gums are prime to just past prime at Sam’s and this too is just last year. The walk along the bluff is one of my favorites. It’s interesting that most of the climbers seems to pass up Sam’s for Horseshoe Canyon. The state has really fixed up Sam’s Throne and now the drive in there is nowhere as a treacherous before.

Bluff View from Sam's Throne

I have yet to travel to the southwest part of the state, but hope to get there soon.

Sunset colors in the Fall.

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.

Shaw's Runout in the early morning at Richland Creek.

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.

All the way up HWY 7, I noticed that the colors seemed rather muted which is the same way they have appeared around Little Rock. The good news is the Forest Service Road 1205 is still in very good shape all the way down to the bridge over Richland Creek. I had been worried that since the campground was now closed, the routine maintenance on 1205 past Dicky Junction would now be continued. Since the large landslide that occurred on 1205 south of Richland not much has been done to fix 1205 south of Richland Creek campground.

Richland Creek itself has had a hard year as there were two major floods approaching 20,000 CFS on it during the Spring and then one other major flood after Hurricane Gustave saturated Arkansas with rain. The signs of the high water are all along the creek either in the form of small contained landslides or huge trees that were pushed down and have washed up on the bank. All of the rocks were totally scrubbed clean of most of the lichens during the spring floods but these in time will grow back.

I have been hiking in from the parking area on the North side of the Campground bridge. This makes for a tad longer hike, but you also take in some great maple trees along the creek near Maytag rapid. The creek was running at around 8 CFS which is a very low level. At this low level, I chose not to go all the way up to Twin Falls since there would be almost now water coming over the falls.

This day I worked my way up the creek to Bill’s Thrill Rapid and then setup. As was the case in 2006, the trees on one side of the creek had already hit the prime color stages and dropped their leaves and the trees, mainly sweetgums, on the right side of the creek had only begun to change colors. This is a favorite spot of mine due to the formation of large rocks in the creek bed which offers many angles to shoot, both up and downstream. There were a lot of clouds coming over the creek this day and it made for some tricky shooting. The fall colors always seem to pop more when the sun is shinning on them.

After working the Bills Thrill area, I then headed back down the creek and stopped at several different spots. I skipped many of my favorite spots since the water level was so low. The day ended at Shaws folly rapid, which really took some abuse in the Springtime floods. Several of the larger trees that used to help frame this area on the creek were totally broken off at the trunks and all that is left are the stumps. The water made allowed for some very nice close up shots one of which I have featured in this review.

The day was starting to wind down so I didn’t head on over to Falling Water Creek. This is still one of the best creeks to hike down in the fall, but again the water levels would have been very questionable.

The Stack rock area will most likely be perfect in the next 2 weeks and Sam’s Throne should start to peak in color in the next 10 days or so.