A Little Bit Of Falling Water At Falling Water Falls

We left The Narrows, driving back down the same dirt road that runs through Richland Valley.



We got an early dinner at Hillbilly Slims, and then decided to pay a quick visit to the nearby Falling Water Falls. I was a little shocked to see that there was actually a little bit of water flowing through the falls, despite the long lack of rain this summer.



Just for a little comparison, this is what Falling Water Falls looked like the last time I was here in April:



There were just a few other people there at the falls, including some people swimming. They would jump off the top of the falls and land, with a loud smack, into the water below. They said the water was really cold.

The Narrows

I have to apologize for the lack of any recent posts to any readers of this blog (if there are any out there still). This summer in Arkansas has been brutally hot, and the heat has stolen any willpower to go out and take pictures. But last week it was like someone flipped a switch, and it went from temps in the 100s to temps in the 80s. And with the cooler weather, it made me want to leave the precious embrace of air conditioning and go outside to take some pictures. So I reached out to my good friend Zack, and we decided to pay a visit to a spot along the Buffalo River called The Narrows.

It's not easy to reach The Narrows. You can either get in a canoe and float there, or drive down a bunch of dirt roads. The dirt road option can be tricky, however, since the road crosses Richland Creek a few times. And when the water is up, you can't safely cross. But since we have barely had any rain this summer, we definitely didn't have to worry about this. We followed the road as it ran by the creek, and made a stop at this old abandoned house.



The house was built in the "dogtrot" style, with an open breezeway between the rooms in the house. A seemingly new decoration to the house was a selection of bones and a skull, hung Blair Witch-style on a railing. I'm assuming those were placed there to scare people away (or maybe they were fans of Georgia O'Keefe paintings?).



The wooden beams on the old porch didn't seem like they were very stable so we didn't really explore too much around the old house:









We then headed further down the road, and passed by a cool old barn:



And then another one:







And then we headed further down the road, as it headed deeper into Richland Valley:



And we went by another barn, which seemed to be leaning off to one side. This one probably won't be around for too much longer.







And then we finally made it to the Narrows (or The Nars), which is a really cool spot along the Buffalo River. It is the remnant of an old mountain, that once sat in between the Buffalo River and Richland Creek. The two rivers carved and eroded away much of the mountain, so all that remains is a narrow sliver of rock that stands about 100 feet tall, but is only a few feet wide in places. The Buffalo River still flows beneath the unique bluff, but Richland Creek has since migrated to the other side of the valley.





And to just give a sense of scale of how narrow the bluff is here. On one side is the Buffalo River, and the other side is the road far below.



The last time I was here was in 2012. We had camped in a field nearby, and we were visited in the middle of the night by a herd of elk.





We carefully made it down the bluff without falling, and I got one last shot before we left. This bluff that we were just standing on stands tall on the left side of the image. The road runs to the Buffalo River just beyond.

To The Moon

Last week there was a "very deep partial lunar eclipse" visible over most of North America, South America, Africa and Europe (sorry Asia and Australia). The scientific description is that the full moon passes through the Earth's umbral shadow, causing the light on the moon to dim and then the moon to turn a slightly reddish-orange color. Here in Arkansas, the eclipse started at 8:23 PM, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 11:12 PM.

I wanted to get pictures of the eclipse, but there was one tiny problem. I had purchased tickets for my wife and I to go see Hamilton, which was playing at Robinson Center in Little Rock that night. The play started at 7:30, and then ended around 10:30. So after the play, I hurried home to drop off Caroline and then grab the camera. And then I hurried to head back downtown to try to get some pictures when the eclipse was at its peak. It was late, and there wasn't much traffic out. But I somehow managed to hit every single red light between my house and downtown Little Rock.

I ended up at the State Capitol, and quickly set up the tripod and the camera.



It was quiet at the Capitol. All the politicians and state workers were gone, and only a few bored security guards were around.





Over the last few years I've spent a good amount of time playing the Legend of Zelda video games, so I was a tiny bit wary of seeing a reddish moon rising in the sky. Luckily nothing like this happened that night:

Trainspotting

Earlier this week we actually got rain - probably the first really significant amount of rain in weeks. And the rain and clouds helped keep the temperatures down that day, resulting in a rare day this summer that wasn't over 100 degrees. Honestly it felt like a miracle to be able to actually go and enjoy being outside again.  

To celebrate the rare break in the ovenlike summer temps, I headed out around sunset to try to get a few pictures. On my way to Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, I drove by this stretch of old buildings and got a few pictures:



I went to Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, but was soon kicked out by the NLR Police. Apparently the park now closes right at sunset, which it used to be open later. Not sure when or why this changed, but it does get in the way of people taking pictures down there now. So instead I headed over to the Junction Bridge and got a few pictures there instead.



Maybe instead of closing the parks early and getting the police to remove people from the park, the cities should fix all the lights on the downtown bridges instead?



From the Junction Bridge I headed across the river and went to the old Baring Cross Bridge. This is the oldest railroad bridge in Little Rock, and the only one that is still used by rail traffic. In fact I didn't have to wait very long for a freight train to slowly make its way across the bridge.



And with a loud squeal of breaks, the train rolled to stop. On the other side of Cantrell Road there is a small bridge over the tracks, which has a nice view looking up towards Union Station and the State Capitol. The train was still stopped, but there was a slow stream of freight trains making their way to the bridge on the other track.

Hawthicket

The old Hawthicket church has been abandoned now for several decades. It sits, seemingly alone and forgotten, along a little dirt road that leads to a small cemetery. Pasture land surrounds it, so the only company this church routinely sees are the occasional cow on the other side of the barbed-wire fences.



Time (and the lack of maintenance) is starting to catch up with the church. The church and its roof are still standing, but who knows how much longer that roof will hold.



On our visit last week, we stayed past sunset and waited as darkness crept across the sky. Then I set up the camera to take pictures over the course of two hours, capturing the slow movement of the stars. This is the result, showing the stars moving high above the lonely old church, the pastures and the cows.