The Scenic Route

From Flatside Pinnacle, I decided to take the scenic route over to Charleston while visiting the family over Easter weekend. This meant that instead of the freeway, I took Hwy. 10 west, which has a nice selection of stuff to take pictures of along the way. My first stop was at Lake Sylvia, a small lake in the Ouachita National Forest. Along the way, I stopped along the road and got this shot a blooming dogwood:


And another Orton-ized shot of the forest in its Spring colors, with an added bit of white from another blooming dogwood.


The recreation area at Lake Sylvia was closed for the season, but this was a view looking down the road from one of the closed-off parking areas.


From there I got onto Hwy. 10 and headed west. I stopped at this old rail crossing in the small town of Perry (in Perry County, just down the road from Perryville).


There were tracks that seemed to be the home of trains that looked like they hadn't moved in years. But there was a newish looking building, with a few cars parked outside, that was the home of a small railroad company. I was curious and did a google search of it, and found that it was the the home of the Little Rock and Western Railway, which is headquartered in Perry. The LRWN runs from Danville to Little Rock, and usually carries "wood and paper products, grain, limestone slurry, cornstarch, salt, LP gas, and pulp mill liquid." I've always liked trains, so its nice to see a small rail operation still up and running. This rail line was originally started in 1900, so its been around for awhile.

From there Hwy. 10 continues on towards the west, past more small towns. There were a lot of neat old buildings, but I didn't manage to get any good shots of them. Eventually, I took a random road off of Hwy. 10, which went through farmland and pastures. I stopped to turn around at this old barn:


I might have been trespassing here, a dangerous thing to do since the Farm Bureau warns about doing anything bad out there. Luckily there was only a guard cow keeping watch on everything that day:


After that I again rejoined Hwy. 10 and headed farther west. I stopped again at an old barn, with Mt. Magazine looming in the background.


After that I finally finished the trip by arriving in Charleston. But on Sunday I decided to take the long way back home again, taking the back roads and avoiding the freeway as much as I could. I stopped at this spot along Hwy. 64 between Altus and Clarksville for a shot.


After that I did get back onto the freeway because I wanted to make a quick trip to Petit Jean Mountain, trying to seek out some waterfalls before it got dark...