12/24/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Patterns in the Rock on the Cossatot

Patterns in the Rock on the Cossatot River

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, and 100mm Macro lens, ISO 200.

The Cossatot River has some of the most unique rock formations in Arkansas.  They are sandstone mixed with Quartz veins.  The rocks tend to work their way across the river in rows and ledges and the river creates small channels through the rocks.  The most famous of these would be Cossatot Falls, where there are 6 separate ledges going across the river.

I love to work the Cossatot, both in normal wide landscape shots but also like to spend time looking for macro shots.  There are hundreds of spots like the one in this photograph, where the river has cut down the main ledge, and smoothed it over like sandpaper was used.  Many of these will contain small depressions, that will catch rainwater.

This photograph was taken late in the fall season after a rain.  The leaves were captured in the rock and the puddle just added to the scene for me.  The smallish quartz veins that were running through the rock added some nice contrast.  The rock in the Cossatot can appear pink when the sun is hitting it directly but there are some nice grey ones also to make for a colorful composition.  In this photograph, you can see a bit of the pink showing up in the lower left corner.

The Cossatot is a long 3 hour drive from Little Rock but the area is remote so you can often find yourself working the falls all by yourself.  If you are heading down that way, also consider the Little Missouri River, near Langley Arkansas.  The Cossatot is in the southwest corner of Arkansas in the Ouachita mountains.