Sunday, October 25, 2009

Falling Water Falls

This has been a bizarre year for weather in Arkansas. We have had record-breaking amounts of rain. One of the local weatherguys said last week that Little Rock has received huge amounts of rain this year. In fact, we are have already gotten ten inches more rain than what the yearly rainfall average is. It's been a wet year.

All that has been good for waterfalls. And the past few weeks have seen several rainy days, which has contributed to a rare event where we are able to see both fall color and waterfalls. I was able to take off a day from work last week, with the hopes that I would be able to get out and get some good fall color and waterfall pictures. Of course, the same weatherguy was predicting it to be sunny on that day. Sunny weather is the enemy of waterfall pictures.

My original plan was to drive up to Falling Water Creek, an amazing little area near Pelsor, in the Ozark National Forest. I thought that if it was too sunny for waterfall pictures, I would instead head over and hike the area around Pedestal Rocks and Kings Bluff.

It was bright and sunny as I left Little Rock, but clouds began to move in as I drove further west. Would it actually be cloudy when I needed it to be cloudy? Lo and behold, yes it was! Clouds managed to head in and block the sun, allowing for some decent waterfall photography.

This is a view of Falling Water Falls. At 10-feet tall, it isn't very tall but an interesting waterfall to visit.
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And a wider view of the falls. At this point the sun hadn't quite given up, and was sporadically breaking through the clouds.
Fall at Falling Water Falls

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I attempted to make my way down to the area at the base of the falls. The creek was running high, so there weren't many places to cross. I managed to find one place where I jumped across part of the creek, which went beyond and over these rocks.
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I couldn't find another decent spot to cross, so I got a few more pictures of the falls and headed onwards down the creek. Just beyond the falls, the dirt road crosses over a concrete low water bridge. A small creek runs over the bridge, and this was taken about 20 feet up from that bridge.
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And this was taken just below the bridge, where the creek has formed a small chute in the rocks. From here, this small creek flows down into Falling Water Creek. It's an area that I always want to spend more time exploring. But from here, I headed further down the road, off to see more of the sights of Falling Water Creek....
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2 comments:

Zack Andrews said...

Great shots Brian from an awesome place! It's definitely been a good year for waterfall photography.

Hopefully, we'll see some good snow this year as well.

Cormackphotos said...

Thanks Zack - it'd be awesome if we got some snow this year as well.