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.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so I figured I should get around to showing some new photos of mine.

_{The Blue Hole}

View Larger – Click “Blue Hole” after the jump!

These photos are from the most recent outing of mine, a quick trip up to the Blue Hole with John Moore.

_{The Blue Hole – Fall colors envelope a small cascade}

John and I met at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Russellville around 6:30 in the morning and headed up to the Blue Hole, not far from Jerusalem, Arkansas.

_{The Blue Hole}

The Blue Hole is somewhat of a hidden gem in Arkansas. From what I have seen online not many photographers visit this beautiful location. This, to me, is a bit surprising considering all the Blue Hole has to offer.

_{The Blue Hole}

The Blue Hole has two major waterfalls which are approximately 10ft in height and 30-40ft in width. They are cascading falls and slowly roll over a series of boulders and drops as the water rumbles downstream.

_{The Blue Hole}

They both are truly unique waterfalls and have so many different angles and variations that one could photograph them all day. Unfortunately, I had to be back in town by one o’clock. Although, it was quite sunny outside and it became hard to photograph the falls in anyways.

_{The Blue Hole}

John had a hunch about a particular hollow that might contain a series of waterfalls. On the way out, he and I took this small detour. Upon arriving at the hollow we were quite surprised to find not one, not two, but a HUGE amount of waterfalls cascading down a runoff. John and I were quite amazed that we may have been the first photographers to have ever seen this place. We both, pretty much, vowed that we would return in the spring.

_{The Blue Hole}

The Hollow itself was quite a site to see, at one particular point the ground went straight into the hillside and opened up into a large cavernous outcropping that contained a huge ~30-50ft waterfall, it was hard to see because we were on top looking down. Unfortunately, we were running out of time. However, the scenery around the falls was quite dead already so it would be a better place to visit in the spring anyways.

_{The Blue Hole – Flower Macro}

On the way back into town we stopped for a few quick shots from an overlook. Nuclear 1 can be seen in the distance.

_{The Blue Hole – Nuclear 1}

I had a great time with John, he’s an amazing photographer and it was an honor to get to spend the morning alongside him shooting this awesome location. If you would like to see his photography, which I strongly encourage, then check out his website at: http://www.mooremonkeys.com

_{The Blue Hole – “Fire” washes over the hillside}

Until next time! Carpe Diem!

My geography professor was predicting this cell way before it even appeared on the U.S. maps. We were hit by the low pressure system on Friday morning which brought a ton of rain into Arkansas and throughout the southeast.

Matt and I were planning our weekend way before that though, and had in mind one of the most beautiful locations in the whole state, the Richland Creek Wilderness.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Twin Falls}

The area has been blocked off from the south access into the Richland Campground for some time now. A landslide last year during the hurricanes is the cause of the road block. It has been at least a year now since the slide has been there and it doesn’t look like it will be removed any time soon. Therefore, access to the campground is restricted to the north side. Matt and I hiked in from Hill Cemetery, which is about 3 miles north of Twin Falls.

_{Highway 7 Overlook HDR}

The hike in doesn’t seem like it would be that bad, but I had fifty plus on my back and with that weight it was interesting. We attempted to drop down the hill several times in hopes to find Don Hamilton falls, along with some other waterfalls that run through the area. The creeks in the Richland Creek Wilderness all have unique features, which include several slides, waterfalls, and cascades. You could spend a week or more exploring this area and all it has to offer, something which I may do next spring.

For this trip though, we had 24 hours.

Day 1

Matt and I left Conway around 10:00AM.

We were headed for the holy grail of hikes in the whole of Arkansas, Richland Creek Wilderness.

I’ve never been there before this day, but I was definitely excited. I have heard many good things about Richland Creek Wilderness. I have even attempted the grueling hike in from the campground a while back. Unfortunately, I had to turn around and head back due to limited time.

We started off the day with a few appetizers, Falling Water Falls and Six Finger Falls. The colors of the leaves in the area are changing and the road on the way in was beautiful. I captured the view of the road at one particular point where a couple of dogwoods were hanging over and displaying their bright red leaves.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Falling Water Road}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Falling Water Road Panorama}

Falling Water Falls and Six Finger were just full of water. Torrents upon torrents of water were flowing downstream towards Richland Creek Campground. This was the sole purpose of the trip though, Matt and I knew there would be a lot of water after the heavy rain we had on Friday.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Falling Water Falls}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Falling Water Falls}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Falling Water Falls HDR}

After quickly viewing Falling Water Falls and Six Finger Falls we headed around to the north side of the Richland Creek Wilderness area and parked at the start of the journey, Hill Cemetery.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Six Finger Falls Panorama}

We started from Hill Cemetery and quickly crossed several creeks which run down the hill during high rains. One in particular had some really interesting waterfalls running through it; unfortunately, we were short on time so those will be left in memory. However, at one point we did drop down the hill in search for Don Hamilton falls. We did not find Don Hamilton falls, but we did find a couple of interesting falls that were fun to photograph.

For this shot in particular I was standing on a small outcropping over the creek with a bluff at my back. I had approximately 10 square feet of space to work with and 6 of those feet were taken up by the tripod legs.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Unnamed Waterfalls}

Matt and I continued downstream hiking along the creek in search for Don Hamilton falls, unfortunately we hit a spot where the creek went into a slot canyon and we had to hike back up and around, up wasn’t too much fun with all that weight, but we made it.

We hiked a little ways longer and finally heard the roar of Twin Falls. As I always state, I’ve seen the photos before, but being there is a totally new experience. The Twin Falls look MUCH larger in person than they do in photographs. They are about 25-30 feet tall and almost the same size in width. Viewing them in person is a majestic experience that I recommend everyone to have, at least once throughout their lifetime, especially if you live in Arkansas.

When Matt and I arrived at the falls it was getting very dark. We had plans to cross the creek and camp at one of the established campgrounds in the area, but the water was flowing way too high to make a safe crossing. Therefore, Matt and I sat up camp on a small overlook above the confluence of Long Devils Fork and Richland Creek. I actually got an interesting shot on this trip, in the photo you can see the two different waters merging together and can clearly see that Long Devils Fork is much bluer in color than Richland Creek which was brown.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Richland Creek and Long Devils Fork Confluence HDR}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Richland Creek and Long Devils Fork Confluence Panorama}

Even after all the rain, Matt and I got a humble fire started and it provided some fantastic warmth into the darkness of the night. We stayed up till around 9:45, which was almost 3 hours after the sun had finally set. The temperature got down to around 35 degrees where we were camping, but the warmth from the small fire kept the cold from chilling the bones. On an earlier backpacking trip I had learned of a cool trick, boiling water and thereafter placing it at the bottom of the sleeping bag. Matt and I didn’t have anything to boil the water in so we sat the bottles close to the fire. Over the course of the 3 hours they heated up quite nicely and provided some great warmth in the sleeping bags.

At one point during the campfire building Matt came across a small salamander. According to a post on the Central States Nature Photographers forum it is currently salamander migrating season, who knew? What was funny about finding this little guy was that Matt was just discussing the post earlier in the day and we happened across one on our hike! It was pitch black outside so the only light I had was my flash, probably scared the little guy to death, but I did get a couple of shots of him before he crawled off into the darkness. Not an amazing shot, but at least you can see what he looked like.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Salamander}

Soon after the salamander left, Matt and I hit the tents, and got some sleep before waking up around 7:00 for the short hike up to Richland Falls. Lucky for us, the raging torrents that were Long Devils Fork and Richland Creek became a bit tamer and we were able to ford.

Day 2

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Richland Falls}

We forded Long Devils Fork and took a small trail up to Richland Falls. Richland Falls is approximately 1/4 of a mile from the confluence of Long Devil’s Fork and Richland Creek. It’s definitely worth a view if you’re in the area. It may not be tall but it covers a span of about a 120ft. It’s literally impossible to get the waterfall, from the front, in one single shot. Therefore, a lot of panoramas were taken of Richland Falls. It would have been nice to cross Richland Creek and get some shots from the opposite side; unfortunately, the water next to the falls was a bit too high to make a crossing.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Richland Falls Panorama}

Matt and I got a few shots of the falls, which were running quite nicely, and then turned around to make a short trip up to Twin Devil’s Falls, better known as Twin Falls.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Twin Falls}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Twin Falls Panorama}

I have seen many waterfalls on my adventures, but Twin Falls has got to be the most beautiful waterfall in the entire state of Arkansas. It was just jaw dropping awesome. The hike in and out of the Richland Creek Wilderness was absolutely worth it, especially in such good conditions. I’m glad that I took the time off of work to go see it after all the rain we had on Friday.

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but keep in mind, while these photos may be beautiful they do absolutely NO justice to the beauty of this place. Twin Falls is simply amazingly serene.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Long Devils Falls}

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Big Devils Falls}

After getting our shots of Twin Falls, we hiked back down Long Devil’s Fork and captured a few photos of the color along the creek. The colors of the trees in Richland Creek Wilderness are just beginning to turn. Some of the trees closer to the creeks were helped along by the cold water. Here in a couple of weeks though it will be spot on perfect.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Long Devils Fork}

Matt and I decided on heading out earlier than we had anticipated. We were both a bit worn out from the hike and were just ready to get back to the truck and head home. Not only that, when we finished the hike the sun was blazing and the Razorbacks were whooping up on Auburn. The score was 27 to 3 at halftime when Matt and I made it back to the truck.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Long Devils Fork}

We had an awesome trip into the Richland Creek Wilderness. It’s a unique place in Arkansas and one that is hard to get to nowadays; which makes it that much better. I’ll definitely be checking this location out a lot more over the next spring when I have a week to myself away from school.

_{Richland Creek Wilderness – Long Devils Fork}

Thanks for visiting and viewing!

Stay tuned for more of my adventures in Arkansas!

Saturday morning was an interesting one, for sure.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Photographer Matt Kennedy}

Matt Kennedy called me the night before asking if I’d like to go with him and Clay Wells out to Flatside Pinnacle for some moonset and sunrise photos. I’m never one to pass up a photography expedition invite, so I said yes. Of course, the subjects we were photographing would require us to wake up really early.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Moonset}

When I work, I work till midnight. Friday night, I worked. I got off work and headed home for some sleep before having to wake up at 4:45 Saturday morning. Saturday was an OK day to shoot at Flatside Pinnacle. There weren’t many clouds, but there was a little fog. The conditions we were looking for were tons of fog in the valleys and clouds in the sky, but we were a bit disappointed to find neither.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – HDR}

_{Flatside Pinnacle – HDR}

Even without those perfect conditions you do what you can and take the shots. So, we all set up and prepared ourselves for the sunrise. Without the clouds and the fog, I think it still turned out awesome. We all moved around to the southwest side of Flatside and found a good vantage point to view the rising sun. From the southwest side of Flatside Pinnacle you can see Lake Maumelle which, from that vantage point, the sun rises directly over.

Along for the trip this time was Clay Wells, a great photographer. He decided to meet Matt and I up at the summit for the shooting that day. This was the first trip that I’ve taken with him and it was nice to shoot with, and meet, another photographer from the Central Arkansas area.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Forked Mountain with Fog}

After the sun completely rose over the horizon, we shot the shadows created by the Ouchitas. I’ve never been to Flatside Pinnacle for a sunrise before, looking at the view during sunrise was a completely different experience. The way the light falls on everything is simply majestic. The sole purpose of this trip was to try and get the views with clouds beneath and above us, therefore the sole purpose was ruined, however the simple light play with the shadows that the mountains create was a great experience in it’s own right.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Perspective}

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Above shot taken this time last year at sunset}

I set up for a couple of panoramas which you can view below. The first is looking southwest towards Little Rock, with the sun rising. The second is after the sun had already risen over the horizon, but as it was still creating interesting light on the Ouchita foothills.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Looking towards Little Rock Panorama}

Photography by Zack Andrews – Panoramas – Click Flatside Pinnacle after the jump

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Forked Mountain with Fog Panorama}

Photography by Zack Andrews – Panoramas – Click Flatside Pinnacle after the jump

The rest of the photos are my artsy detail shots that I like to take on my photography expeditions, enjoy!

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Sunrise through the trees}

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Warming the dead}

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Rock Detail}

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Who put that there?!}

Last but not least, one of my favorite shots from the day. Ironic, that it was taken not on Flatside Pinnacle itself, but on Brown’s Creek which runs by the road on the way there.

_{Flatside Pinnacle – Autumn is Drawing Nigh}