Dagmar

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man, but whenever students of demonology get together the stretch of I-40 between Little Rock and Memphis is generally agreed to be among the top contenders for exhibit A.

Especially in the rain.

The trucks were either going  30 or 90 mph, and were kicking up so much spray it was like driving through clouds. But despite some tense moments on the freeway, we finally made it to our destination - the Dagmar Wildlife Management Area near Brinkley. It's a neat spot, and one that not very many people visit. There is a road that follows a bayou, which then ends at Hickson Lake. The rainy weather seemed to saturate the fall colors on the trees.







As we were leaving, I made a quick stop to get a shot of the dirt road heading through some trees. As I stood in the rain, a few deer walked across the road. One stopped and stood still long enough for a picture, like it was posing.

Dagmar

It had been awhile since Zack and I had been out taking pictures, so we headed out the other weekend to try to snag a few fall color pictures. We decided to head east to the Dagmar Wildlife Management Area near Brinkley. We avoided the traffic on I-40, and instead followed Hwy. 70 as it ran through small towns and past fields and wetlands. Hwy. 70 runs right by Hills Lake, which was filled with trees that were adorned with fall colors that were glowing brightly in the afternoon sun.



We then headed through De Valls Bluff, which sits along the White River and is one of the two county seats of Prairie County. Near the courthouse is the old St. Mary's Catholic Church, which was built in 1912 but was closed in 1986.



From there we made it to the Dagmar Wildlife Management Area, which is home to 9,805 acres of protected land. The crown jewel of Dagmar is Hickson Lake, which is one of my favorite places in the state to take pictures.



The shore of the small lake is lined with thousands of cypress and tupelo trees, which were still great even if they had already lost most of their leaves. But there was still some good color to be found out there.