Scenic Hwy 7

Last Friday I had a meeting scheduled with the park interpreter at Lake Ouachita State park. I decided to leave the house early and pick up a few caches along the way, do some cache maintenance on a couple of mine, and take some photos. After all of the ice issues up in the Ozarks I was wondering how the higher elevations in the Ouachitas had fared during this time. All of the ice around town had already disappeared a couple of days before.
Just south of Ola at about 1000 foot elevation I came around a curve and the whole north facing slope of Ola Mountain was covered in ice and sparkled like millions of diamonds in the early morning sun. I tried to get a few photos but it was hard with the full sun staring down on me.

I stopped off at Lake Nimrod to do some cache maintenance and find another one. I spent a little time down by the river looking for scenes but just didn't see the right things.


After a few more miles of driving and looking for something to photograph I rounded a curve and spotted a great opportunity so I turned around and found the right spot to set up. I had to wait out some traffic but was finally able to get a really good shot of the curves in the highway with Forked Mountain in the background. This is one of the best views of Forked Mountain and clearly shows how it gets its name from it's unique shape.



As I was driving on down Hwy 7 I noticed the architecture on one of the old bridges and decided to stop and see if it had a benchmark on it. It took a little looking but I finally found it.
The architecture on these old bridges always amazes me. Most of these old bridges like this one were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. One of the bridges I stopped at had recently been damaged and half of one side had been destroyed and was replaced with just the plain ugly steel railing. It's a shame that we can't have the kind of quality that went into things years ago.

While thinking about these bridges and all of the other things that the CCC did back then I decided to make a stop at the location of the old Hollis CCC Camp. I had stopped here once before but never took the time to look around at the entire site and read all of the markers here. If you are unfamiliar with what the CCC was check out This Site to learn more about the program. The Hollis Camp was one of 16 in the Ouachita National Forest and enrollees began arriving in May of 1933. Hollis looked a lot like other camps around the country and was constructed following standard plans with locally available materials. The camp was disbanded in 1935 but was reopened in 1936 when the decision was made to close the Jessieville camp. Hollis then remained open until 1941, at the beginning of World War II, when the CCC program was no longer needed to help relieve the nations unemployment problems. The camp buildings were dismantled in March 1942.

Like most other camps in the area the young men came from nearby farms and most had less than an eighth grade education. During The Depression education was not something most of these young men could afford. An education adviser was assigned to each camp so that the enrollees could take classes in the evenings. Coming from farms most had not ever held a job and did not possess any skills other than what they had learned growing up there. With the CCC many were able to complete their high school education and then take other classes such as radio operating, auto mechanics, clerical skills, and many others. When World War II began many of the former CCC men were already trained for the armed forces. The next time you are in the area I encourage you to stop and take a look at this interesting site. It is located between Hollis and Jessieville just north of Hot Springs right on Hwy 7.

I then stopped off to make a short hike to check on one of my caches hidden on the Hunts Loop Trail. I made the quick trip to the cache and all was well so I headed on back to the truck and down to Iron Springs to take a few photos. This trail is a 4.3 mile loop with parking areas at the Iron Springs Campground and the Ouachita Trail about a mile north of the campground. The first 1/2 mile of trail from Iron Springs rises over 400 feet to the top of Short Mountain at an elevation of 1372 feet. The view from up there is awesome especially during the winter when the leaves are gone. There is also another cache hidden there. This was the toughest part of the trail since the rest of the way is pretty much all downhill. The trail then follows the ridge top for a while with some really nice views on both sides during the winter. At just about the half way point the trail intersects with the Ouachita Trail and then winds its way down hill to the parking area at the trail head. There the trail turns south and soon the Ouachita Trail splits off to the left going under Hwy 7 to continue on toward Pinnacle Mountain near Little Rock. Hunts Loop trail closely follows Hwy 7 back down to Iron Springs where there is plenty of evidence of the CCC's work.



After my meeting at Lake Ouachita I grabbed a few caches in the state park and then headed over to the circle of caches recently hidden by QuartzCachers. Bruce has really been busy lately and has many more planned to put out before the big event in June. I had to hurry on the last few caches in order to make it up to Ouachita Pinnacle before sunset. The roads leading to the pinnacle are pretty decent but can get really confusing on which way to go. QuartzCachers solved this problem for us geocachers by placing a series of caches along the way to guide us to it. Finally arriving at the top, the highest point in Garland County, I still had about thirty minutes till sunset so I made the quick trip down the trail to find the cache hidden there. After finding it and signing the log I began scouting for a location to take pictures of the sunset but there were some trees in the way. So I backed my trailblazer down against the rock wall and set up the tripod on the roof to keep the treetops out of the shot. I spent the next thirty minutes up on the roof shooting lots of pictures but never quite getting that perfect sunset photo. I did however manage to get a good shot of Lake Ouachita from up there.



I always enjoy driving through these areas because it is one, if not the most scenic in the state. If you have not traveled Hwy 7 between Russellville and Hot Springs I highly recommend it. There is plenty to see and explore to keep you busy all day.

A Long Day in Johnson County

I headed out Thursday morning to get caught up on some of the new caches in Johnson County. We have a great bunch of cachers over in this part of the state who have been very busy lately putting out caches like crazy and from what I hear they are just getting started. I stopped in Clarksville and grabbed a couple in town and then made my way toward the Harmony area where I was able to get at least one FTF on a new puzzle cache hidden by the King and Queen of Arkansas geocachers RKLMBL.

While I was at one cache location the sounds of the nearby creek just kept calling to me so I spent a bit of time along the banks of this small creek taking photos. It was still a little foggy upstream but this spot was just clear enough to get a few good shots. We have not had much rain lately so there was not a lot of water in the creek but I found this one spot that had some nice rocks in the middle of the creek creating a tiny set of waterfalls. After leaving there I cleared the Harmony area of all but one cache that I had not completed the puzzle on it yet.

I then headed over toward Horsehead Lake and down to Hunt where I found a few more and DNF'd one that I should not have if I had read the previous logs. Sometimes that helps. Many miles and many caches later I ended up stopping along the road at the Sacred Heart Church and cemetery to take a few photos.


















After spending quite a bit of time shooting photos of the large cross in the cemetery I headed on down to Hartman to find a few caches there. I especially enjoyed the Hartman Veterans Cache. It was a great setup on this multi in a wonderfully kept cemetery. After finishing up in Hartman I grabbed three more on the way back to Clarksville. I really enjoyed my tour of Johnson County and look forward to returning again for more geocaching and photo opportunities.

As I was getting closer to Russellville on the way home I noticed in my rear view mirror that the sun was quickly going down and there was already quite a bit of color in the sky so I decided to head on over to Lake Dardanelle State Park to see if I could get some good sunset photos. Arriving just as the sun was beginning to drop below the ridges in the distance, I grabbed my camera bag and tripod and ran to the back deck of the visitors center. It's amazing how fast the sun, or the moon, goes down. You can actually see it disappearing before your eyes. The best color for a sunset is the few minutes after the sun finally disappears below the horizon and it helps a lot if there are a few clouds in the sky to help broadcast the light from the sun and create that wonderful color. I spent the next fifteen minutes trying different compositions trying to get that perfect picture. When the color began to fade I packed up and headed on home to rest after this very long and productive day.

So I will leave you with one my favorite photos of the sunset. Until next time.

Fall Colors

A Walk Along Indian Creek

I had not planned to go anywhere on Friday but after dropping Daphne off at school I just did not feel like going home. I headed up Hwy 7 to see how the fall colors were progressing up north of Russellville. I turned west onto Hwy 123 and was thinking of going to Pam's Grotto but decided instead to take Indian Creek Rd back toward the south. I stopped many times along the way to take photos of a few areas with some color.





I came to a spot in the road where something along the creek caught my eye. I parked the truck and grabbed my camera and tripod and headed down to the creek. What had caught my eye was a bend in the creek that had a nice little overhang that had been cut into the bank. I spent the next 45 minutes taking photos along that bend in the creek and some other spots just downstream that had some nice color.



Another couple of miles down the road I noticed an old rock fence leading away from the road and decided I needed to stretch my legs some more so off I went. The old stone wall went down by the edge of the creek and made a right turn and followed Indian Creek downstream. This is one of many stone walls left by the early pioneers who called these areas home way back in the 1800's. They built these walls with rocks they had cleared from their fields. When you look at the old walls it is amazing to think of how much work it took to build it placing stone on top of stone. And it was all done by hand with no modern machinery. The determination and work ethic of these early pioneers always amazes me. I followed this wall downstream at least a half mile and it was still going when I turned back. I plan to come back in a few weeks to use my gps to measure it and see just how far it goes.

It was a beautiful day to be out enjoying the forest. The pictures turned out great but just cannot even begin to show the true beauty of what you experience being there yourself. There is so much more than what the eyes see. God gave us all the other senses so we could enjoy his creation to the fullest extent. The sounds of the wind blowing through the trees or the water rushing over stones in the creek. The feel of the bark on the trees or the soft touch of the moss that grows in the shaded areas and on the damp rocks. The smell of fall in the air, an aroma like no other. The taste of the wild plums that I found still on a tree left untouched by the animals that inhabit this area. I only wish I would never have to leave places such as this. I feel more at home here than in any town or city I could ever visit.

I'm still here!!

In a previous post I said that I needed to post more here and again I neglected to do so. Well the last few months have been very busy with work and all the other great things that I love to do and it is just so hard to find the time to sit down and do this. But, also one of my favorite things is to share my photos with family and friends so here are few photos from the last few months.

Seven Hollows hike

Tuesday I hiked the Seven Hollows Trail at Petit Jean State Park with some geocaching friends.

This is a great trail with lots of nice rock formations along the trail. There is one really large natural bridge and there is a small one over on the other side. The trail is a 4 1/2 mile hike. So if you are going to do this one bring some snacks and plenty of water and allow yourself plenty of time. Possibly 4 hours if you take your time and check out everything along the way. At about the halfway point there is a trail that will take you back into an area called The Grotto where there is a nice large overhang and a small waterfall. This is a great spot to stop and eat lunch or take a break before finishing the last half of the trail. I have heard that there are some Indian drawings in this area but I have never been able to find them. In August of 2000 a wildfire swept through most of the trail area. The area has recovered really well although some areas are more overgrown with brush now than it was before. I have posted some pics below.


If you look closely at the natural bridge from this view it looks like some kind of animal. Daphne says it looks like a cat. What do you think??

It's been a while...

It has been a while since I have posted anything to this site. I have been on many adventures since my last post and just never got around to posting anything. My geocaching has really kept me from going hiking as much as I should but it has also taken me to lots of new places I would have never been otherwise. I have been up on Mt Nebo many times since last spring and taken quite a few nice photos. The picture to the left is a bridge along the Summit Park Trail. This is a great trail for a good workout but it also has some beautiful things to see along the way. The trail is only 1 mile long but there is a lot of elevation gain on the way back up. I have also hiked the Rim Trail several times this year and took my new gps on my last trip and saved a track log. I will be posting the track log and some photos and trip notes on everytrail.com in the next few weeks. My intention is to post as many of our Arkansas trails as possible on the site to bring in more folks from out of state to enjoy what Arkansas has to offer.




I finally made it back down to get a few shots of the waterfall down by the river behind the house. I had been here several times since last Spring but the falls were never running enough. On this day I hiked out through almost a foot of snow to get some pictures. The waterfall was running nicely but man was it cold. I had to work that day so I was unable to follow the bottom of the bluffline around to the other two larger falls. Maybe someday I will be able to be there at the right time to get some shots of them.









Back In February I was geocaching up north of Russellville along Indian Creek and after I got up to Highway 123 I decided to make a side trip back into Pam's Grotto to get a few shots of the waterfall there. This is one of the most beautiful places in the state of Arkansas and it does not get visited very often.

I have posted a few different photos and one has myself in it to give you an idea of the height of the waterfall and overall size of the whole place.

This is just one of those magical places that photos just cannot do it justice. You really should go there in preson and enjoy the full beauty of the place.