The only problem was the weather that day - bright and sunny. That's the worst possible weather to attempt waterfall pictures in. But we set out in the hopes that some clouds might pass through...
Kings River Falls is reached via some dirt roads up in the Ozark Mountains. The dirt roads were, thankfully, in good shape. We ended up taking a different route to the falls than what I had taken earlier this year, and found several neat old barns along the way. We stopped at one, and then was pleasantly surprised to see this cool abandoned house next to it.
We walked inside the door here and had a quick look around. It seemed like the house had been home to a chicken coop recently, as evidenced by the large amount of chicken poo on the floor.
We eventually made it to the trailhead to the falls, which is located right next to an old house and barn. The trail runs through a gap between a small creek and a large field, overlooked by the old barn. The poor barn has surely seen better days. Now it looks like a bomb had gone off inside it.
It also reminded me of Back to the Future, where Marty goes back in time and messes up his parent's falling in love. The result is that his brother and sister start to fade out of the picture he carries with him. The barn looks like it's slowly fading away to nothing. Great Scot!
The trail to the falls is short and easy. And before too long, you finally reach the 10-foot tall Kings River Falls. It was still way too bright for my pictures to turn out, but I tried my best. I had borrowed a set of ND filters from Zack, and used every single one. But still, not much luck.
Eventually I left to take some pictures along a small creek that flows into Kings River. Finally some big puffy white clouds came along, shielding everything in shade. It was temporary, the sun would pop back out after a few seconds. After awhile the clouds seemed bigger, which would mean that the light was slowly getting better. So I hurried back over to the falls and tried to get a few more shots. The falls would be shaded for only about 30 seconds, so I ended up getting only a few good shots. This is the best of them:
I also dropped down and got some pictures under the falls. It was shaded there from the sun, so I was able to get pictures without worrying about the light. I saw this rock, with some moss hanging down from it, sitting under part of the falls.
The small creek that flows into Kings River had some nice little waterfalls and cascades too. Here are some shots from there, which was helped slightly by the fact that it was harder for the sun to get past the trees here.
Lots of fallen leaves already, too...
The creek spills over this set of boulders, making a cool little waterfall:
It was here that I turned back around to get shots of Kings River Falls again. Zack had gone up further past here and found another cool waterfall. But after taking more pictures of Kings Falls, I eventually made my way up the hill, and was taking pictures of this little waterfall when Zack was walking back down the hill.
It was getting late in the day, so we ended up leaving after that so we'd have enough time to get lunch and check out Sam's Throne. I'm annoyed with myself for not going to see the other waterfall there. Oh well. After all, it would have just been a different spot for me to stand while getting annoyed at the sun.
Great shot of Kings River Falls. I wish I had come back down to the river with you when you got that shot.
ReplyDeleteI also like the one you were taking when I was coming back down the hill, it turned out great as well.
Good day, even if it was a bit bright.