Ozark Mountains

At the end of October I went down to Arkansas for my first time, well first time staying at least as I had driven through a different part of the state before which was *much* less to look at. I went with my then-girlfriend Tracy to visit several waterfalls that I had found in a book by Tim Ernst named appropriately “Arkansas Waterfall Guide.” Tim is a photographer and an avid outdoorsman and, in my opinion, one of the best sources for information on hiking, waterfalls, and basically all things outdoors in the state of Arkansas. Aside from his waterfall guide, he also writes trail and nature guides. [more info on his website]

Buffalo River - Northern Arkansas

Sadly the one thing that we planned poorly for on this trip was the weather. While the temperature, precipitation, etc was all lovely and caused no issues, the *lack* of precipitation in the prior months created a massive problem for our waterfall exploration adventure. Simply put, there was no water and thus no waterfalls and the Buffalo River itself was also quite low. We succeeded in finding all the waterfalls we had set out to find, sans water. I decided that I would make the trek again in the Spring when there is more water flowing and thus waterfalls. However, that decision didn’t exactly help the current situation! What do you do when you’re ~12 hours from home on a photography expedition and your subject matter simply isn’t there? You swallow your disappointment and make the best of it. There wasn’t much water to be had but there was plenty of rocks, colorful Fall leaves, and generally beautiful scenery all around. Here’s an example of working with what you have:

 

Lava Leaves – Petit Jean State Park – Arkansas

The photo above is of Cedar Creek in Petit Jean State Park. This is the main creek that flows from Cedar Falls through a good portion of the park. The problem is, Cedar Falls was a mere trickle at best and as such, Cedar Creek was mostly dry. I noticed the great rocks and the colorful leaves between them and thought this composition would work well as the leaves are effectively the “water” in the creek.

I kept this theme through most of the trip as I worked to create pleasing images even though all I could think about was the waterfalls that I was missing! I am very thankful that the leaves were in good color and that the area is so beautiful, even sans waterfalls. Here is another example of the brilliant reds and yellows in the fallen leaves over the dark grey rocks in Cedar Creek:

For those local or familiar with Northern Arkansas, here is a list of waterfalls that we visited:

• Liles Falls
• Triple Falls
• Eden Falls
• Cedar Falls

We had planned to see several others but given the lack of water in the whole area and the low level of the Buffalo River we decided to put the others on the “next trip” list. I am hopeful to get back out there this Spring and am really excited to visit Eden Falls in Lost Valley when there is actually water there! I leave you with one last look of the Buffalo River and the brilliant Fall colors:

Buffalo River - Northern Arkansas

Happy Holidays!