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.

Buffalo National River - Parker-Hickman Farmstead

The next morning I woke up before sunrise again and headed back to the Buffalo River. This time it was to visit the old Parker-Hickman Farmstead at Erbie. It was still raining as I drove north from Jasper, but the rain slacked by the time I made it to the old homestead.



The cabin was built by the Parker family in the 1840s, and is the oldest building within the boundaries of the Buffalo National River. It was built just a few years after Arkansas became a state, and the old place has seen a lot of history. During the Civil War, there was a small skirmish nearby involving guerrilla fighters and the old Parker house was used as a field hospital.



The cabin and the property were then purchased by the Hickman family, who lived there until 1978. In 1982, the National Park Service acquired the cabin and the surrounding farm. You can take a peek inside the cabin, which is in remarkably good shape considering how old the structure is. In one room, you can see the layers of wallpaper and newspaper on the walls that was used as insulation back in the olden days.





The farmstead also contains several other historic buildings, including several barns. This one was built in the 1912:



Which sits next to a smaller barn, which was built in the 1920s:





And also there are these two old buildings - they were used as a machine shop and a chicken coop. They were both built in the 1950s.



From here a road heads off through the trees, leading to a small cemetery.



And behind the old cabin is a small outhouse, which was built in the 1930s. The outhouse, or privy, was built as part of a Works Progress Administration program during the Great Depression. Rural farmers across the US could apply for a WPA privy, with the intention that it would help cut down on diseases like cholera or typhoid that was caused by contaminated water supplies or from flies. Between 1933 and 1945, over 2.3 million privies like this one were built across the country. The Hickman family were later reported as saying that the outhouse was the only federal assistance they received during the Depression.



It's incredible to me that this house has managed to survive, and is still standing after all these years. It is really hard to imagine the people who lived here, building a house deep in a forest in the middle of the frontier back in the days before electricity. Could they have ever imagined that their old house would still be here after almost two centuries? Or that tourists in the future would travel there and take a picture of their outhouse?

Buffalo National River - Boxley Valley

The ongoing government shutdown didn't seem to impact the Buffalo National River much during our visit last weekend. Unlike previous shutdowns, the access roads to the river were open. The campgrounds and bathrooms were also open (but the Visitor Centers at Tyler Bend and Buffalo Point are closed). Hopefully the rangers and other NPS staff up there are getting paid, or the shutdown will end soon and they will get paid for the last few weeks.

Maybe it was because of the shutdown (or the rainy weekend), but the park didn't seem all that crowded. We did end up seeing a crowd of people as we drove into the historic Boxley Valley. There was a line of cars parked near the Ponca access point, with a bunch of people taking pictures with their phones (and a few real cameras). Which meant one thing - there were elk out there! We pulled over so the kids could see the elk, and I joined the scrum to get a few pictures too. There was one large bull elk walking around, seemingly oblivious to the people nearby.



The elk lazily walked through the field, and the throng of people would all hurry to change position along the nearby road. It was almost comical, the slow-moving elk on one side of the fence and the people on the other side creating a small traffic jam as they all moved their cars further down the road to get a better shot. We left the elkarazzi behind and drove deeper in the historic Boxley Valley. Our next stop was along this little dirt road, which leads to the old Beechwoods Church and cemetery.



And a shot of the old church (built 1915).



It started to rain again as we drove across the valley. We stopped by this old barn (built in the 1920s), and the kids happily ran inside to explore. It was also a good place to sit and watch the rain.



The next stop was a spot along the Buffalo River. The raindrops created ripples across the water, as fog drifted along the tops of the nearby mountains.





The fall colors seemed to get more vibrant as the day progressed, probably thanks to the steady rain. It was a good day to be out and about around the Buffalo.

Buffalo National River - Steele Creek

Last weekend we made a family trip up to the Buffalo River, with the hopes of catching some nice fall color. It was cloudy and rainy as we were driving up to the Ozarks, and the mountains were covered with thick fog.





We booked a place right in Jasper, which was just a few blocks from the Ozark Cafe and the Jasper Pizza Company. And it was also fairly close to the river, so early the next morning I woke up before sunrise and drove over to the Steele Creek access along the Buffalo. I arrived as the river, the trees and a few campers started to awaken for the day.

There was a nice amount of water in the river, which was a big difference from last year when there was a bad drought and the water was really low. A soft rain continued to fall as I set up the camera under an umbrella and started to take a few pictures.



The fall colors hadn't peaked yet that weekend, but the rain and mist seemed to help bring them out and saturate them.



I got back in the car and returned to Jasper, and we then took the kids for breakfast to the Ozark Cafe. After filling up on pancakes and bacon, we then all headed back up to the Buffalo River and made another quick visit to Steele Creek. Luckily at this point it wasn't raining, and the kids scrambled over the rocks along the river.



And then from there we headed back to the car, and then went to see a few other favorite spots along the scenic Buffalo River...

Living On The Edge

It's kinda weird to be envious of a tree, but I'm a bit jealous of this old Ashe's Juniper tree. It has managed to snag an amazing spot along a bluff, about 250 feet above the Buffalo River. Its roots have dug into the limestone bluff. Its trunks curve and twist, stretching out towards the river. Perhaps it is straining to get a better view of the river, which on this visit had a decent amount of water in it despite the lack of rain this summer. I wish I could always have a view like this, especially on those days when I have to go into the office and have a view of a cubicle walls.

Triple Falls

Back in March a round of storms dumped a lot of rain across the state, resulting in some pretty bad flash flooding. And the Buffalo River was hit especially hard. At St. Joe, the river is at flood stage at 27 feet, but back in March it reached 48 feet. At Steele Creek, the river flooded the campground and made it all the way up to the ranger station. It's now been several weeks but you can still see evidence of the flooding there, like the fences that are far from the river that were knocked down (or still have pieces of debris stuck in them). Closer to the river there are a lot of downed trees, which were pushed down by the force of the water.

Steele Creek was busy that morning. The campground was back open and completely full. The put-in at the river was full of people loading up canoes and kayaks.



From there I drove over to visit the famous Triple Falls. But along the way I pulled over and got a picture of this red barn, sitting in a foggy field.



And the fog got thicker as the dirt road makes its way down towards the river.





As I continued on, a guy driving a truck coming uphill tried to wave me down as we passed each other. I didn't manage to stop in time, so we just kinda awkwardly looked at each other for a few seconds. But luckily there was another truck right behind him, and the driver stopped to talk. He said that I might need to wait a bit. A car got stuck trying to drive up the steep hill, and was being towed out. He said there was a long line of about 30 cars waiting behind it.

Triple Falls is a popular waterfall, which sits within a Boy Scout campground. And that weekend just happened to be a big Scout campout, and the families were all trying to get home that morning. The road to the campground is steep, and can be rough. Especially after heavy rains. And apparently someone in a little sedan attempted to take on the dirt road and got stuck. I headed down the road, and soon enough saw a little car being slowly towed up the hill. And beyond, a long line of cars and SUVs sat waiting like it was rush hour in a big city.

Eventually I made it to the small parking area for Triple Falls, and then started the short and easy hike to the waterfall.



The falls are beautiful, falling 48 feet into a small pool before flowing off towards the Buffalo River.



It is definitely worth the drive to reach the falls (as long as your car doesn't get stuck).





By then, all the campers had departed and were on their way home. I guess no one else got stuck since the road out was clear and empty (except for the fog).