Boxley Valley

Later that day, I headed out from our cabin and drove back towards the Buffalo River. But the fall colors were so surprisingly vibrant that I made several stops along the way. Like at this barn...



And this barn...



And this barn...



And this really colorful tree:



And then I made it to Boxley Valley, which is one of my favorite places to visit in Arkansas. It is a true photographer's playground, since it contains a great colleciton of old barns, homes and churches.



This barn was built in 1915.



And down the road is the old Beechwoods Church (built 1918).



Nearby is this old building, which has been called an old school house. It sits right by the parking lot to the Lost Valley trail, which was completely packed with cars.



I headed deeper into the valley, and stopped again at the old Boxley Mill. The gate to the Mill was actually open, so I hurried over to take a few pictures before the park rangers closed it back up.



The first mill here was built in 1840. The mill would then later be the site of a small Civil War skirmish. The current mill was built in 1870, and was in operation until the 1960s. It closed after a flood washed out most of the millrace.







One of the most prominent buildings in Boxley Valley is the old Boxley Baptist Church, which was built in 1899.



And then further down the road:











It was time to head back to the cabin, but I made one other stop at this old church:



The cabin we stayed at was perched right on the edge of the hillside, overlooking what is known as the Grand Canyon of Arkansas. And while it's not really technically a canyon (more of a valley), the view here does contain the deepest part of the Ozark Plateau. The overlook sits at an elevation of around 2,100 feet above sea level. It is about a 1000 foot drop to the bottom of the valley.



And one last shot, from the stairs that ran to the other nearby cabins:

Steele Creek

I really didn't think there would be good fall colors this year. There hadn't been a significant rain in two months. The rivers and creeks had all dried up, waterfalls were all a distant memory. Burn bans blanketed the region. But lo and behold, it turns out there were was some good fall colors in the Ozark Mountains this year. Somehow.

So we decided to make a weekend out of it and head up to the hills to see the fall colors. We booked a cabin near Jasper, and loaded up the kids (and the dogs) into the car like the Beverly Hillbillies. We arrived late Friday night, well after dark. But the next morning I woke up early, and snuck out without hopefully waking anyone up. I met up with my friend Zack, and we drove off to take pictures along the Buffalo River.

We went to the Steele Creek access, which is arguably the most scenic spot on the river. And while the water level was low, there was some really good fall color along the river.



I don't think I had ever seen the river this low before.







We arrived shortly before sunrise, and gradually we started to hear people at the nearby campground start to awaken. But it was a little surprising that there weren't more people there. Usually campgrounds are booked solid around the peak of fall color on the Buffalo, but there were several vacant spots there. We had no issue finding a cabin on short notice.









I forgot to bring the charger for the infrared camera, so the battery was almost dead. But I did get one shot from this spot:



It was crazy to think that just a few months ago people were floating canoes through here.







Later that day, I returned to the river with the rest of the family. Jonah was excited to try to skip stones in the small pools of water. Elliott, being a typical four year-old, was excited about being able to throw rocks in the water. As we were leaving, I stopped to get this picture of the trees set against Roark Bluff.