Jon Wisniewski and I took a day to do some photography this past Monday. We discussed the possibilities of shooting, but were a bit dismayed by the forecast which was mostly sunny! For those of you who aren’t in the know, mostly sunny and waterfall photography don’t mix well, so we were kind of reluctant to head out.

We decided to leave Sunday night after Jon got off work around 12:30AM. Our first stop was Haw Creek, where we thought we might be able to get some star trail photos over the waterfall, however upon arrival the fog and clouds were too thick to even see a star, so we decided to do a bit of light painting.

The light painting didn’t turn out as planned; our meager flashlights did not put off enough light to make any decent exposures, so we headed for the Compton Trailhead instead.
We arrived at the parking area around 3:30AM and got some sleep before heading down into the canyon around 6:00AM. The sun was rising, and we were happy to see a ton of clouds overhead, it turned out to be a pretty decent day for photography.

_{Compton Falls}

_{Compton Falls}

_{Compton Falls – Whitaker Creek}

_{Compton Falls – Cascade Downstream}

_{Whitaker Creek Drainage}

_{Compton Falls}

I had the white-balance off on this one or something, it’s way bluer than the rest, but I think it gives it a tropical feel; as if the waterfall itself didn’t already give it a tropical feel! =)

_{Compton Falls}

After Compton Falls, we headed towards Thunder Canyon, stopping at Hedges Pouroff on the way.

_{Hedges Pouroff Overlook}

The above pano can be viewed larger in the panos section!

_{Hedges Pouroff}

After Hedges Pouroff, we made the difficult drive on Erbie Road, which by the way is NOT for the faint of heart; especially considering the “4wd Vehicle ONLY” sign at the beginning. I remembered this road being pretty washed and rutted out, but my memories were pleasant compared to its current state. After all the rain the road turned into a huge mud pit! Fun for me, considering I just purchased a set of new tires and a lift for my Jeep. I hadn’t really put it to the test just yet, but this road for sure did that for me.

Jon had mentioned his civic could have made it most of the way, until we reached the muddy part, where he quickly changed his mind! I wish I could have taken photos of the Jeep in the mud and the 4ft water crossing we did after the Thunder Canyon hike, but I don’t think Jon or I wanted to stop during or after making it through either of those obstacles. I will say the Jeep performed exactly as it should and not once was I uncomfortable with the muddy road or the Cecil Creek crossing.

Once we made it through the bad part of the road, we stopped at our next destination the Cecil Cove Loop, which contains Thunder Canyon where a really unique waterfall is located; Thunder Canyon Falls.

Enjoy the shots.

_{Thunder Canyon Falls}

_{Thunder Canyon Falls}

_{Thunder Canyon}

_{Thunder Canyon Pano}

Can be viewed larger in the panos section!

_{Thunder Canyon}

Thanks for viewing and take care!

The Maps

( You must have adblockers disabled for www.zackandrews.com for these maps to function correctly. )

I didn’t forget about doing this on my most recent trips, but I’ve been having a problem lately updating them! They finally worked out the errors and I’m now able to upload the maps again.

Compton Falls

I didn’t GPS the Jeep so we got a bit off track on the way back, whoops! Probably hiked a bit extra, but we needed the exercise anyways, sorry Jon!

View Compton Falls in a larger map

Compton Falls Hike Stats

Time Started: Mon May 17 05:52:39 CDT 2010
Time Taken: 02:54:35
Moving Time: 00:30:16
Distance: 2.29 mph
Average Speed: 4.54 mph
Max Speed: 7.25 mph
Elevation Gain: 908 ft
Min Elevation: 1708 ft
Max Elevation: 2236 ft

Thunder Canyon Falls

View Thunder Canyon in a larger map

Thunder Canyon Hike Stats

Time Started: Mon May 17 10:18:47 CDT 2010
Time Taken: 03:17:35
Moving Time: 00:49:29
Distance: 3.8mi
Average Speed: 4.61 mph
Max Speed: 6.69 mph
Elevation Gain: 1662 ft
Min Elevation: 807 ft
Max Elevation: 1365 ft

This morning was pretty amazing.

Matthew Kennedy and I headed out at 3:30AM for Forked Mountain. Forked Mountain is located in the Flatside Wilderness area of the Ouchita National Forest of Arkansas. The mountain is 1,234 feet at it’s peak elevation. It stands like a sentinel overlooking what is known as the Valley of Vapors. I can totally understand why the valleys surrounding Forked Mountain were thusly named due to the spectacle that I witnessed this morning.

_{Forked Mountain – The Valley of Vapors}

The views from the top were absolutely incredible. I don’t think there are words that could describe the essence, the emotion, of the morning. We fought the mountain all the way to the top, starting, in the dark, around 5:00AM and arriving at the summit around 6:15.

_{Forked Mountain Fog}

_{Forked Mountain – The fog in the Valley of Vapors reflects the morning light}

The last bit of the climb was incredibly strenuous and would have been a straight up ascent if we hadn’t circled around to the back side. We found a small trail leading to the top and upon reaching the summit we immediately knew the fight was worth it and we were well awarded for it.

The temperatures the night before dropped 20 degrees in almost an hour and I just knew that we would have fog the next morning. Matt and I were out at Flatside Pinnacle, a peak which can be seen from Forked Mountain, the night before shooting a storm moving in; that storm brought the cool temperatures that were going to provide the perfect elements for the fog that we witnessed this morning.

_{Forked Mountain – The clouds reflect the light from the morning sun}

_{Forked Mountain – Looking back at Flatside Pinnacle shrouded in fog}

_{Forked Mountain – Panorama shot}

The Valley of Vapors was in full color and I was there to witness.

It was quite an experience and one that I won’t soon forget. I’ll definitely be making return trips to Forked Mountain, especially now that I know the way.

_{Forked Mountain – The Valley of Vapors}

_{Forked Mountain – Matt Kennedy photographs the fog in the Valley of Vapors}

The Legend of Forked Mountain

Many trails converge on the sacred Valley of Vapors bringing Indians of all tribes from north, south, east and west. When they made their camps in this Valley of Peace where the healing waters flowed, they lay down their weapons and sat together around fires at night, smoking the calumet has brothers telling stories of long ago. Here, friendship was often established among the various groups, but ancient rivalries persisted and sometimes led to events that recall the tragic story of Romero and Juliet; for this was a romantic place where young people, far from their homelands, met and fell in love. This is the tale of one such unfortunate couple as told by white storytellers who lived near the strange mountain with two peaks that overlooks the Ouachita Forest near Hollis.

Once in the valley of Manataka, a lovely maiden from the south caught the eye of a brave warrior from the north. Even though their tribes were different, the two seemed to belong together. He was tall and straight and strong; she, gentle and loving as well as beautiful. When they looked into each other’s eyes, they felt as though their spirits were joined and could never more be parted. But her father was a powerful chief who could not think of giving his daughter to a stranger who would take her away. As the days passed, the two lovers grew closer and closer. They spent all their time together, bathing in the magic waters, gathering healing herbs and berries in the forest, fishing in the streams, and sitting by the campfires at night.

When her jealous father saw them so much together, he could not accept the thought that they might be joined forever and vowed to separate them. He could not kill the young lover or make war on his tribe because they were in the Valley of Peace where the Great Spirit had decreed that no blood should be spilled. Therefore, he called his people together and prepared them to leave the very next day.

_{Forked Mountain Panorama}

The young lovers, hearing this, were distraught. So strong was their love that they knew they could not live without one another. In desperation, they slipped away during the night and, taking two swift horses, fled toward the north hoping to find a friendly village where they could be married and live happily together. All night they rode, and all the next day until, exhausted, they came to a tall mountain and could go no farther. Leaving their horses, they climbed as far as they could go and hid among the rocks to rest.

That morning when the chief had made ready to leave the valley he found his daughter missing. In a great fury, he took his strongest men and flew in pursuit of the couple, following their tracks up the trail to the north until he came upon their horses at the foot of the mountain. When he looked high up to the top, he saw the lovers asleep in each other’s arms under a rocky shelter. Remembering his vow to separate them, the angry chief called upon the Great Spirit to help him.

_{Forked Mountain – Sunrise over Flatside Pinnacle}

There was a great clash of thunder and a lightning bolt split the mountain at it summit. The two younger lovers disappeared, but the Great Spirit took pity on their love. The maiden’s spirit remained in one peak and the brave’s took its place in the other, forever joined at the base.

Credits: “The Legend of Forked Mountain” by Sandra Long and Marcus Phillips is from the “Indian Folklore Atlas of Hot Springs National Park” (1994).

_{Forked Mountain – Morning dew rests upon fresh spring leaves}

_{Forked Mountain – A rain drop clings to a small branch}

_{Forked Mountain – Redbuds, soaked from the recent rain}

_{Forked Mountain – A raindrop clings to the newly bloomed redbuds}

I’ve got a little bit of a backlog, so I’m going to make a couple of unorthodox posts!

I haven’t been inspired much to write lately so the photos from my recent trips have been adding up.

These photos are from a snowy adventure that Windy, Caden, and I had at the beginning of last week. I hope you enjoy and sorry for the lack of story to go along with the photos.

_{Hawksbill Crag Sunrise}

_{Hawksbill Crag Sunrise}

_{Cave Mountain Road with Snow}

One thing I can say about the recent trip is that it was a first to drive my new Jeep up into the Ozarks. I purchased a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited on March 16th. It’s been a great vehicle and is much more conducive to my life style than my last vehicle a 2005 Lincoln LS. I’ve been loving it so far.

_{Jeep Grand Cherokee in the snow}

Cave Mountain Road was beautiful in all the snow they had. Along the way we stopped to catch a few photos of a pond in the snow. I saw this opportunity to get a minilamistic photo and took the shot, I think it turned out great.

_{Cave Mountain Snowy Landscape}

On the way to Jasper we decided to stop at Triple Falls, it was running great that day due to all the snow melt.

_{Triple (Twin) Falls at Camp Orr}

We also made a quick stop at the Parker Hickman Farmstead, I seized the opportunity to grab another shot of the Jeep before we headed down an extremely rough road to an old cemetery.

_{Parker Hickman Jeep}

Last but not least, a photo from the cemetery. It’s probably hard to make out what the headstone says so this is it:

“Joseph Cecil
Born
April 26, 1796
Died
July 28, 1873″

He was born only 20 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed and our colony became a country, pretty incredible and one of the oldest deceased persons I have ever seen.

_{Joseph Cecil}

That’s all for this trip, check out Windy’s photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/windybug/

Thanks for viewing!

Matt and I had plans to visit one of Arkansas’ very cool waterfalls, Keefe Falls. However, upon arrival at Falling Water Road we were a bit dismayed to find the road completely worn out from the recent series of freeze’s and thaw’s it has been through over the past month. It was an absolute mud pit. Since we weren’t driving a four wheel drive vehicle, we opted against getting stuck and made more reserved plans.

So, we headed for Pedestal Rocks and thereafter Sam’s Throne.

_{Snow melts on a pine at Pedestal Rocks}

It was a fun day, as we were driving back towards Pedestal Rock’s the slight snow which we had been driving in turned into huge half-dollar sized snow flakes. Matt stopped the car for a few shots of the giant sized snowflakes.

_{Giant snowflakes clung to the lens as I took this photo}

_{The saturated road, luckily it wasn’t frozen!}

Afterwards, we continued for Pedestal Rocks and hiked both the King’s Bluff trail and Pedestal Rock’s trail, they’re both there so why not hike both? The falls under King’s Bluff were moving pretty good from all the snow melt the area was receiving. The ground was absolutely saturated.

_{A Pedestal Rock at Pedestal Rocks}

We headed out from Pedestal Rocks for the very picturesque Sam’s Throne, and it didn’t miss a beat this day. From what we could tell nobody had been up there since the snowfall began, it was covered in about 5 inches of snow and ice and the trees were hanging low from the massive amounts of ice covering their branches.

_{The formation known as Sam’s Throne}

The views out were great, but the sky didn’t cooperate very well. We still had some pretty heavy clouds lingering around the area. Luckily though, the clouds broke up a bit and illuminated the landscape for the large shot at the top of this post.

Hope you enjoyed these few photographs that I got from the day.

Ah, Flatside.

I was asked by Windy a while back if this was my favorite place to shoot and I quickly dismissed it. However, I’m beginning to have doubts whether or not that is the case. Flatside is definitely a favorite of mine for shooting sunsets. Even more so since it is such an awesome location and not too far from home.

I recently purchased a couple of things for my camera and wanted to try out the new wide angle lens I got. I must say, I’m really excited about the possibilities that this lens is going to give me. After reviewing my shots from Flatside on this recent trip, I’m also very pleased with the results.

I got in touch with Windy on Tuesday morning regarding a possible trip up to Flatside. I told her that if the clouds looked cool in the afternoon that we should head up there. Later that day, around 3 or so, I messaged her because the clouds were looking good. That’s one bonus about this location, it gives you the opportunity to judge the sky before you leave, because it is so close to home.

_{Flatside Wilderness Sunset}

The drive for Windy is about an hour and it’s about the same for me. So, Caden and I left around 3:20 for Perryville to meet up with Windy for some Flatside Pinnacle stomp’n.

We arrived at Flatside around 4:30. At the pull off there was still a lot of snow left from the previous week and it kind of got me excited about the possibility of snow at the top. Unfortunately, I didn’t consider the amount of snow that may be on the trail on the way up, and there was still quite a bit! Needless to say, we were slipping and sliding all the way to the summit of Flatside Pinnacle. We didn’t think about it at the time, but when we were leaving we would have to slide all the way down the backside of the mountain until it leveled off again.

That made for some fun times and an interesting story…

Halfway down the mountain Windy calls out to us to, “check out this print! it’s definitely NOT human!” Of course, being the biology/environmentalist devotee that she is, Caden came sliding down the hill quickly to check out the aforementioned unidentifiable “animal” track. Caden’s face lit up with excitement as she saw the print and called over to me to come check it out, also stating that it definitely wasn’t a hand-print.

_{Flatside Pinnacle Sunset}

Ok, I thought. If they have no idea what it is, this must be pretty exciting, I gotta check it out. I shuffled over the ice and snow to where Windy and Caden were looking down on this unexplainable print and quickly said… it’s a chupacabra track!

Funny enough, we were just talking about chupacabra’s earlier on top of the summit. The subject came up because of a conversation Matt Kennedy and I had a couple of days earlier, regarding chupacabras.

However, this was not a chupacabra track at all. I quickly realized what it was and put my hand in the exact same position as the unfortunate soul who had previously fallen in the ice and snow while summiting the formidable Flatside Pinnacle. They both released a sigh of dismay. I found it slightly humorous that they were both hoping it was in fact a chupacabra track…

With that behind us we continued down the pinnacle with our hopes high that we were not being followed by chupacabra’s.

Thank goodness?

Check out Windy’s awesome photography over at her blog: Windy Richardson Photography

Carpe Diem!

Matt and I are pretty solid photography buddies. We know each others limits (easy for me, with Matt there are none) and also know that we each share a fascination in the undiscovered. Matt and I had planned this hike around the idea of exploration and scouting of new areas. Matt had always wanted to scout out the Graves Canyon area, so Sunday morning last week we did just that.

To be honest though, the whole trip was somewhat uneventful aside from an unforeseen blockage in the road on the way in. I hopped out of the car to examine the tree that had fallen over the road and attempted to move it. Luckily it was broken in half, and one part was easily removed. The other part gave Matt and I a good game of tug-o-war with a come-a-long that Matt keeps in the car for emergencies. With that out of the way we were down in the canyon in no time taking photos in the morning light.

Forever falls is the first sight you see on entering the canyon.

_{Forever Falls}

The light this morning was interesting. There was a light fog covering the whole area and the oranges and reds were absolutely saturated with it, which made the colors just “pop” as cliche as that sounds.

_{Graves Canyon}

_{Graves Canyon}

This is a cool little spot on a larger waterfall. I really liked the way the smaller falls kind of mimicked each other. You can see the larger view of the falls at Matt’s blog, he took a full-size shot that turned out very good. Check it out here.

_{Graves Canyon Falls}

_{Orange leaf in Graves Canyon}

Matt and I actually found this other waterfall up one of the drainage’s, since we have found no record of it, that means we get to name it! I told Matt that I didn’t mind the name of it, whatever it was I was just happy to have taken part in finding it. Therefore, Matt has dubbed this one Split-tree Falls, since the tree in the middle of the falls splits the waterfall in two. The height of this one is about 15ft or so.

_{Split-tree Falls in a drainage off of Graves Canyon}

On the way back home Matt had spotted this waterfall off the side of the road. It’s actually a very large waterfall at around 25-30ft. I was kind of amazed that it isn’t in one of the guidebooks, it’s also not named. Therefore, we’ve dubbed this one Mt. Levi Falls.

_{Mt. Levi Falls}

Everyone I know and everyone who has seen my photos eventually comes to the conclusion that this is “my shot,” a signature of mine if you will. I’m all about taking a leaf from the surrounding area of a waterfall and taking it’s photo with the waterfall as the background. It’s become my signature shot and to be honest, so far I’ve never seen it from any other photographer.

_{Mt. Levi Falls – My signature shot}

That’s all folks! =D

Hope you enjoyed this round of photos, stick around for some beautiful shots from Flatside Pinnacle.

Carpe Diem!

Had another interesting weekend this past week.

Brian Cormack, Matt Kennedy, my girlfriend Caden, and I all took a small trip up to The Blue Hole near Jerusalem, Arkansas. This was an area I wanted to explore again and I finally got the chance to do so. However, I will definitely be returning in the spring to visit it during it’s peak season.

_{The Blue Hole}

The shots that I got turned out a bit bland. This might be an effect of having to hear Matt’s horror story of him dropping his camera into the water! The story isn’t a horror story because of the camera falling into the water though, his camera will forever be known as the “zombie cam” thanks to a full recovery after being submerged for a few moments! It was a mood breaker at the time, but we are all excited to hear that his camera is in full operation.

_{The Blue Hole}

He even got some great bird photos over this weekend to prove it’s zombieness, check them out here.

Yes, zombieness is now officially a word.

Hope you guys enjoy the few pics I got, to see more from this trip check out Matt Kennedy’s blog and Brian Cormack’s blog.

I had an awesome time with a buddy of mine, Michael Fitzsimmons, today. He had originally planned for us to take a camping trip however, once viewing the forecast for the Jasper area and seeing the below 10 degree temperatures, we decided against the camping. We did decide to go on a day hike though and I sure am glad we did.

We headed towards Compton at 12:30AM this morning and, after driving through the snow the last leg of the trip, arrived at the Centerpoint Trailhead that leads down into Hemmed-In-Hollow around 3:30AM. Immediately we warmed the truck up as hot as it could get, shut it off, sat back in the sleeping bags and tried for some much needed sleep before the 6 mile hike ahead of us.

The wind was howling like mad and as the occasional car drove down the road past us you could see the snow gradually increasing in intensity within its headlights. The snow was building ever so slightly right outside of the truck, and the temperature was dropping dramatically.

_{Michael taking in the view from the Goat Trail}

I didn’t get much sleep, but I did get a bit of rest for the hike ahead. It was a decent hike all downhill till we got to the goat trail and then all uphill on the way out. The distance wasn’t that bad, but the elevation change was. Unfortunately, my phone could not hold a good GPS signal in all of the snowy/icy cloud cover and the track that I made for this trip is a bit out of whack.

We began our descent towards the Goat Trail around 6:45 in the morning. As we looked off towards the east the horizon was lit up a deep orange which was soon covered by clouds. Fortunately, the clouds towards the west began to break up about ¾ of the way into the hike and as we approached the goat trail the light was amazing as it lit up the Buffalo River Valley.

_{The view, looking west, from the Goat Trail}

I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so amazing. The views from the bluff alone were worth the whole effort, but the light that we were witness to was just icing on the cake. It truly was an awesome moment to be out on the goat trail.

After taking in the morning light we began our ascent back up to the very top of the mountain on which we parked. We made way with a slow and steady pace and arrived back at the truck around 11:00AM.

_{Trailhead sign covered in a sheet of ice}

We had discussed it before and decided upon a driving experience of a life time. The road down into Erbie from the north side! I had read/heard this road was pretty beat up, but that was an understatement. I’m definitely glad we took my father’s 4×4 truck into the thick of it, otherwise I don’t think I’d be here writing this so soon!

We descended something like 1000ft in a quarter of a mile, and the road looked like it had recently had a 62 ton tank driving down it that created giant ruts! Not only were there huge ruts, the ground was uneven and icy. Let’s just say that Michael and I are glad we made the trip, but definitely won’t be doing it again anytime soon! We’re both also glad to announce that were alive and safe at home!

Upon reaching the bottom of the valley we were greeted with the Erbie Church near a Buffalo River Trail access point. This is where we turned and followed Erbie Campground Road to cross the Buffalo National River. There is a low water bridge there that at the current time had about an inch of water crossing, very swiftly might I add. I definitely wouldn’t recommend crossing that bridge during high water; you’d be swept down the Buffalo River and taken for the ride of your life.

_{The Erbie church along Erbie Campground Road}

We did make it across the river and on the other side were met with a familiar sight, for me anyways; The Parker Hickman Farmstead. Brian Cormack and I had visited the area this past summer and had vowed to visit it in the fall. We didn’t get the opportunity to do so, so I skipped the fall photo opportunity, but I did get one in the winter! I tried to capture the same path image that I took during the summer and got pretty close.

_{Parker Hickman Farmstead pathway}

_{The previous shot, from this past summer}

After visiting the Parker Hickman Farmstead, we kept heading down the road towards Jasper. I don’t know about Michael, but my stomach was turning! I had been hungry all the way back at the Goat Trail, so we decided to stop at the Ozark Café! It was a typical lazy Thursday at the Ozark Café, the only ones visiting were the locals and the atmosphere was great. I had the philly-swiss burger thanks to a recommendation by a photographer friend, Windy Richardson. Just as usual, it was an absolutely amazing burger! I’ve had more than half of the burgers there now and still haven’t found one that I don’t like.

After filling up at the Ozark Café, Michael and I headed for a nearby hiking trail, Roundtop. Unfortunately, upon arrival we found the turn off had a no trespassing sign! What gives? We decided against driving right through it and turned around. Instead of Roundtop we headed for Triple Falls, which would be our last destination for the day.

_{Artsy fartsy shot of Triple Falls}

This was another fun experience. I’ve visited Triple Falls many times; it’s just so easy to get too. However, I’d never seen it with ice. It definitely made for an interesting experience and for some cool photos. One thing that amazed me about the day was how blue the water was. Typically, Arkansas water is a very deep emerald green color. I’m guessing that, during the winter, the algae that creates the emerald green colors dies out. Therefore, the water is left with its natural color, the super deep blue. Just my guess, but who knows?

_{Triple Falls covered in ice}

As we were leaving the Kyles Landing Road we stopped for a few photos of giant icicles clinging to the cliff.

_{Kyle’s landing road icicles}

_{Kyle’s landing road icicles}

The drive home was uneventful aside from a huge elk crossing the road in Boxley valley. It was amazing how large this animal was. My father’s truck sits nearly 8 feet off the ground and this elk was looking me level in the eye as we slowly drove past him. He didn’t budge an inch until the truck got nearly 5 feet from him and he then decided that the diesel engine was just too loud for him.

I included one shot of an elk to show you how close they were to us. This was shot at 70mm. I guess on Thursdays they’re not too worried about people, seeing as most of the elk watchers are working. This is not the elk that was crossing the road (obviously, he’s in a field.)

_Moo

Thereafter, we drove down towards Clarksville and back out onto I-40 for the trip home. It was an awesome day and I’m sure glad the snow didn’t scare me into staying at home!

Here’s the map and stats for this trip. This isn’t exactly accurate, yet again. Initially I started the tracking at the truck, but the snowy/icy cloud cover was too much for the GPS signal to handle. Then, when we arrived at the goat trail the GPS didn’t like the overhanging bluff on top of the cloudy weather so it botched the track and says we flew out over the Buffalo, which I can assure you is not the case, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here typing this! I’m sure this will probably be better during the spring/summer months when the clouds aren’t full of ice and I’m not underneath a huge bluff shelter. It is fun to look at though, and for now, gives a somewhat accurate measurement and display of the hiking trips.

View Goat Trail Hiking in a larger map

Hike Statistics

Moving Time: 01:57:26
Total Distance: 4.95mi
Average Speed: 2.53
Max Speed: 5.06mi/h
Elevation Gain: 1484ft
Min Elevation: 1292ft
Max Elevation: 2158ft

Carpe Diem!

Saturday started out at 2:30AM. I took a quick nap before waking up to the sound of the alarm at 2 in the morning. Matt and I were on another expedition, this time our destination was Bowers Hollow Falls on cave mountain road near Boxley Valley.

_{Bowers Hollow Falls}

Bowers Hollow is a beautiful location and may just be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the entire state. I can only imagine what it would look like during spring, as I’ve only visited it once, which was this past Saturday.

The purpose of this outing was to photograph some snowy waterfalls. Matt and I were a bit worried that the snow might have melted off, yet we were determined. I’m glad we didn’t call it off, there may have only been a couple of inches of snow, but the photographs were well worth the effort.

_{Matt Photographing Me Photographing Bowers Hollow Falls}

We arrived at the parking area of the Bowers Hollow hike at around 5:00AM and sat in the car, dreading the blistering wind and freezing temperatures. Stepping out of the car was like stepping into an icebox. Immediately you were chilled to the bone due to the cold wind whipping about in the air. It was COLD! We started towards the waterfall in the pitch black of night, with only our flashlights and the stars providing light for the journey. We hiked for about an hour and a half and arrived at Bowers Hollow just as the sun was beginning to crest the horizon. Matt timed the hike perfectly and the sun provided just enough light to start photographing the falls when we arrived at the base of the hollow.

_{Bowers Hollow Falls}

One of the most interesting shots that I got Saturday was a scene Matt photographed as well. I had noticed the light hitting the water as we were hiking in but didn’t think to photograph it until Matt was doing so. I quickly set up after getting a couple of shots of the falls and photographed this serene landscape, the sun was really glistening off the water and provided a bronze look.

_{Bowers Hollow glistens in the morning sunlight}

After photographing Bowers Hollow Falls, Matt and I hiked down the hollow until we came upon another neat waterfall, which we quickly stopped to photograph.

_{Bowers Hollow Waterfall}

Thereafter, we hiked uphill to the very mouth of Bowers Hollow where it meets the Buffalo River, the scene was beautiful, but it was very hard to photograph. I didn’t take any shots at the river, but the view from the bluff was beautiful, I can assure you.

I did something new on this hike that I haven’t done yet. I recently purchased a new phone which allows me to track my gps signal as I’m hiking, using google my tracks, it’s a cool little GPS utility that keeps track of your path as well as statistics for your hike. I’m going to start including the map and statistics for the hikes that I go on, that way others can see where I was and where I went on my various hikes.

The map below only covers our hike OUT of the hollow, I didn’t get the idea until it was too late! The rest will include both in and out maps =)

View Bowers Hollow in a larger map

Stats:

Total Distance: 3.52m
Average Moving Speed 3.59mph
Elevation Gain 1,073ft
Min Elevation 1,812ft
Max Elevation 2,277ft

I’ve also included a video taken with my phone to give you, the viewer, a sense of scale of this waterfall.

That’s all I’ve got for now, I hope you guys enjoyed the photos, Bowers Hollow with snow was a unique experience not many have had! I’m glad I was a part of it.

Carpe Diem.

Well, since you know what I haven’t been doing (out taking nature photos,) I figured I’d show you what I –have- been doing over the past month.

Caden and I have been pretty busy lately finishing up our final exams at UCA and preparing for the next semester. On top of that, we’ve been in the holiday mood just like everyone else. We didn’t have much money to spend this year on Christmas gifts, so we decided to make them!

To start, Caden made a lot of wonderful cards for both of our families to enjoy. I must say, she has a knack at making beautiful cards from scratch; she could probably even make them for profit, if she wanted.

_{Christmas Cards}

_{Christmas Cards}

_{Christmas Cards}

After creating the cards, we thought of ideas for the gifts that we could give to the people in each of our families. We, mainly Caden, came up with the idea of creating ornaments for the families’ Christmas trees. I helped with a couple, but honestly, Caden has the touch as far as arts and crafts go. I’m sticking to photography, for now.

_{Zack, decorating and ornament.}

_{One of Caden’s Christmas Ornaments}

Caden and I have also been busy running back and forth from Greenwood, which is just south of Fort Smith. Her mother has been in the process of moving residence and Caden and I have been helping. That took up a lot of our time over the past month, but it also gave us the ability to visit one of our favorite places, Mount Magazine. I’ve been to Mount Magazine three times within the past month, but only got two decent photos out of it! I guess I haven’t really been in the photography mood.

_{Mount Magazine Silhouette}

Mount Magazine is a neat story for Caden and me, not only is it an incredibly beautiful place to view a sunset, but that’s the sole reason we met. We met, so that I could see Mount Magazine, to photograph a sunset from there. Just so happens we hit it off and haven’t looked back. We’re going on 4 years.

_{Mount Magazine Grass}

We have made it a tradition to visit the city of Paris and Mount Magazine at Christmas time, around our anniversary, the 22nd of December. We didn’t disappoint this year, and we made the trip yesterday, the 19th. Paris was as beautiful as ever and Mount Magazine didn’t disappoint either, even if it was dark and engulfed in clouds, it still made for an interesting visit!

_{Logan County Courthouse, Paris, Arkansas, at Christmas}

We would both like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we hope that everyone had a wonderful 2009. Thanks for viewing and I’m looking forward to what the next year has in store for me.

_{Zack & Caden}

I’d like to also include a few shots which I’ve taken over the past couple of months that didn’t receive posts of their own. Hope you enjoy these as well!

I recently went on a camping trip with a buddy of mine, Michael Fitzsimmons, he and I used his GIS abilities to backpack into some pretty rough terrain in the Leatherwood Wilderness. We saw some cool stuff and it made for an awesome trip, thanks for the awesome hike Michael!

_{Leatherwood Wilderness in Fall}

On that trip, Michael and I also visited the infamous Glory Hole falls. I got an awesome detail shot and a decent panorama out of the experience and saw the place for the first time. It’s definitely one to check out if you haven’t already! Just don’t tell all your buddies your going to the Glory Hole…

_{Glory Hole}

_{Glory Hole Falls Panorama}

Last but not least, the backyard always provides some interesting shots, one of my mother’s last marigolds hanging on for dear life even after frost.

_{Backyard Marigold}

Carpe Diem.