Another trip to Collins Creek

Sadly, the camera hasn't had much use the past few weeks, though not for lack of trying. The weekend before last, I traveled up to Clarksville to take in a high school football game. Now I haven't been to a high school football game since, well, I was in high school. But I went to this game to watch my cousin, who plays for the Charleston Tigers, take on the Clarksville Panthers (it was a real cat fight!).

I got to the stadium, met up with some family members who made the trip there, and even got permission to stand on the sidelines to take pictures of the game. I got the camera out, turned it on, and discovered the big red letters saying "NO CARD." Turns out I had taken out the memory card for some wacky reason, and forgotten to put it back in the camera. And of course, I had no spare cards in the camera bag. So I just ended up in the stands watching the game, which Charleston won 39-28.

It was perhaps the longest football game I've ever sat through. The scoreboard wasn't working, so there was no way to keep track of time. The game officials seemed to have the same problem. The first quarter took over 45 minutes to get through, and the first half finished after a long hour and a half of gameplay. There really is so much high school football one can take, and I was happy when the game finally ended (especially since my cousin's team won, yay!).

But this past Saturday I made plans to meet up with Zack Andrews, another local photographer, to find a neat place to take pictures. Since we haven't had a hurricane pass through here lately, I didn't think waterfalls would be running all that well. A plan was then set to hit up the always awesome Collins Creek, which is one of the few places that has waterfalls year-round.

It was sunny on Saturday, not a cloud in the sky, so we had to wait until the sun set low enough to get good shots of the creek. To pass the time, we decided to hike the short Mossy Bluff trail, which presumably would take us by a bluff with lots of moss. Since we weren't entirely sure where the trail was at, we stopped at the Greers Ferry Lake visitor center, and annoyed the girl working the information desk when we asked for maps and directions.

The trail was supposed to start out next to the visitor center, and we started walking down a paved road that didn't seem to be the right way to go. So we retreated to the visitor center, annoying again the girl working the front desk (and clearly disrupting what was probably a very intense game of solitaire on her work computer). She walked outside and pointed to the trail head, marked with a large sign saying "Mossy Bluff Trail," and we continued on our way.

The trail was...ok. It was a pleasant hike, though it could have been much more dangerous:


Luckily I didn't manage to slip on the treacherous bridge. The slipping would manage to occur later on that day at Collins Creek.

But the trail did eventually make it past some bluffs, which had moss!


The trail ended at a series of steep stairs leading up to an overlook of the Greers Ferry Lake Dam...


This was a bit anti-climactic, since we found out then that you could just drive out to the overlook instead of taking the mile long hike. Oh well. It was time to head off to Collins Creek anyways.


I love this place. Collins Creek has a nice steady of flow of water through it thanks to a pipe from Greers Ferry Lake. The purpose of it was to provide habitat for baby trout, but it also makes some awesome waterfalls.




To get these photos, I took off my shoes and socks and walked out into the creek bare foot. Luckily the creek is very shallow, but it is quite cold.


Collins Creek isn't all that long of a creek, but it does have so many different places to take pictures. I've been up there four times in the past 12 months, and there are still interesting new angles to shoot.








While I was standing in the creek taking pictures, Zack had traveled a bit further upstream, near the area where water gushes out of the pipe that helps to give Collins Creek its awesomeness. I put my shoes and socks back on and decided to head up and join him by the pipe. To get there would mean crossing the creek on a series of slick rocks, which I attempted and failed. I slid some, and ended up ankle-deep in water, soaking my shoes. Oh well, it made crossing the creek easier if you didn't mind getting your feet wet.

But all the times I'd been to Collins Creek, I tended to avoid the area around the pipe. The water gushing out of the pipe does make a nice waterfall, and I finally decided to include that into a picture. I tried to shoot it so that you couldn't tell that the water was flowing out of a pipe...


Along with waterfalls, Collins Creek has some great places to focus in on some interesting detail shots. A lot of mossy rocks set in the creek...




It was starting to get dark, but it was difficult to stop taking pictures of the creek. It really is an awesome place.


And the last shot of the day, converted to black and white:


The hike through the woods did show that fall is just around the corner - a lot of trees are just beginning to turn. And all the rain we have had this summer should mean spectacular fall colors this year. I'm already looking forward to a good autumn in the Ozarks and Ouachitas.