2025

It's the end of the year as we know it. 2025 was a pretty chaotic year (not just because we have a pandemic baby running around our house). There was a lot of crazy and negative news during 2025, so it was good to find some positive things out in the world. We were able to do some traveling, and managed to visit four different National Parks. And in between parenting, working and napping, I found the time to take a few pictures. So here's a countdown of my favorite photos from 2025:

#25:

June 2: Cairo, Illinois.
Cairo sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and was once a prominent town. But it has been struggling for several decades now, and the historic downtown area is a sea of grass-covered lots. But a few old buildings are still stubbornly holding on, including the old Cairo Board of Trade Building (built 1912).

#24:

August 12: Little Rock, Arkansas.
The original plan that night was to get some pictures of lightning over downtown Little Rock, but the storm clouds fizzled out and drifted away. Clear skies were left, which provided a good opportunity to instead get a shot of the moon rising by the capitol dome.

#23:

April 26: Broadwater Hollow, Buffalo National River, Arkansas.
2025 was a particularly good year for waterfalls in the Ozark Mountains. And Paige Falls at Broadwater Hollow was looking really nice in the Spring. It's a great waterfall to visit - especially because it's a really short and easy hike to get there.

#22:

March 24: The Sinks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
It was just after sunrise when I made it to The Sinks, a dramatic waterfall along the Little River. It was a cold and rainy morning, and I had to hide the camera under an umbrella. When we went back there later on during the trip, the sun was out and the parking lot was completely full.

#21:

January 18: Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

And also:

October 18: Near Hamilton, Arkansas.
My five-year old son Elliott is still obsessed with all things cars (including trucks, trains, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, helicopters, excavators, school busses, and also just the movie Cars). So for him, here are pictures of two old cars I found while out driving through eastern Arkansas. Both have been parked for awhile, gathering dust and rust like a rock gathers moss.

#20:

September 12: Near Stuttgart, Arkansas.
I accidentally arrived too late to this old rice dryer and had to set up the camera in the dark. But I wasn't alone out there, I was greeted by about one billion mosquitoes who were eager to swarm anyone silly enough to be standing out there at night.

#19:

March 27: Tremont, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
We went to the Smoky Mountains over Spring Break, but Spring hadn't yet made it to the Smokies. The trees were still bare and devoid of leaves. But you could still catch some great color in the trees, when the sun set low enough to cast the mountains in golden light.

#18:

November 19: The Edge, New York City, New York.
Caroline and I took a little trip up to New York to celebrate our anniversary, and one of the first places we visited was the Edge observation deck at Hudson Yards. The deck, which I assume is named after the guitar player from U2, sits on the 100th floor and is billed as the highest skydeck in the Western Hemisphere. It was a pretty good way to kick off our visit.

#17:

May 25: Marty's Falls, Smith Creek Nature Preserve, Arkansas.
It started pouring rain as we started the short hike to this waterfall, and of course I had forgotten to bring a rain jacket or an umbrella. So I was completely soaked by the time we reached the waterfall. Luckily there was a nice shelter under the bluff, so we could get pictures of the falls without getting drenched again.

#16:

March 24: Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
This river might be called little, but it ranks large in terms of scenic beauty. Someone was even kind enough to build a road alongside the creek, and it's nearly impossible to not stop at every single pull-off to take a few pictures.

#15:

November 23: Roosevelt Island, New York City, New York.
Roosevelt Island is worth visiting if you are going to New York. It provides great views of Manhattan and of the Queensboro Bridge. And you can also ride across the river in a really fun little tram!

#14:

February 5: Big Dam Bridge, Little Rock, Arkansas.
This was taken on a really foggy night, and the lights on the Murray Lock and Dam seemed to disappear into the misty expanse of the Arkansas River.

#13:

April 26: Big Creek Cave Falls, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas.
This spot, where a 30 foot-tall waterfall drops out of a small cave on the side of a bluff, might easily rank as one of the coolest waterfalls in the state.

#12:

April 27: Hammerschmidt Falls, Buffalo National River, Arkansas.
I was really glad I decided to do this hike, since it ended up combining two of my favorite things to take pictures of (fog and waterfalls).

#11:

November 20: Grand Central Terminal, New York City, New York.
The Main Hall of Grand Central Terminal is so immense that you can't capture the whole thing in one photograph. I carried a fisheye lens with me all the way from Arkansas just so I could try to capture as much of the cavernous space as possible.

#10:

June 26: Chicago, Illinois.
I woke up before dawn and walked over to the Michigan Avenue Bridge to get a few pictures. I had to kinda zoom in some on the buildings from this angle, since there is an ugly and tacky logo on one of the buildings that I was trying to avoid getting in the shot too much.

#9:

October 25: Roark Bluff, Buffalo National River, Arkansas.
I've probably taken hundreds of pictures from this exact spot along the Buffalo River, but I can't resist. It's such a beautiful spot, especially with a little bit of fall color.

#8:

November 21: Manhattan Bridge, New York City, New York.
The Manhattan Bridge is a great place to take pictures. People have cut convenient holes in the fencing that are just large enough for a camera lens to poke through. The only downside are the subway trains that rumble by every few minutes, shaking the bridge like an earthquake and messing up long exposure photos.

#7:

October 25: Buffalo National River, Arkansas.
I was standing in the river to get this photo (and the water was pretty cold). Luckily I didn't drop my camera in the water.

#6:

June 27: Hancock Tower, Chicago, Illinois.
The views from the observation deck at the Hancock Tower are great, but it is incredibly hard to get pictures from there. The windows are covered with a thick coat of smudges and fingerprints. And as it got dark, the glass was so full of reflections that it was like looking in a mirror. But I managed to find a little box by one of the windows, which could be used as a temporary tripod so I could attempt a few long exposure photos.

#5:

November 1: Near the Mulberry River, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas.
This old blacksmith shop sits along a quiet dirt road in the Ozarks. It's a bit of a hassle to get there (the road is muddy and steep), but it's worth the effort.

#4:

April 4: The Old Mill, North Little Rock, Arkansas.
It had stormed that day, and the little waterfall by the mill was roaring. As a native of NLR/Dogtown, I've been to the Old Mill many times, but I've never seen it with this much water.

#3:

November 19: Central Park, New York City, New York.
The view of Midtown Manhattan from the Gapstow Bridge in Central Park is pretty spectacular. But I was a little disappointed that I didn't bump into the Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2 there.

#2:

June 30: Mt. Baldy, Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana.
Indiana Dunes is often unfairly ranked as one of the worst National Parks in the country. But we had a great visit, and we were treated to an amazing sunset there on the last night of our visit. It's pretty amazing how you can see the Chicago skyline from the park, over 50 miles away on the other side of Lake Michigan.

#1:

November 12: Faulkner County, Arkansas.
Getting to see the Northern Lights in person was one of the most memorable experiences of the year, especially since it’s so rare that they are visible this far  south. And I was extremely grateful to share it with Jonah, and grateful that the pictures were in focus too!

And finally, a big thanks to anyone who is reading this. I truly do appreciate anyone who stumbles on this little blog, which will actually be celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year! Happy New Year, let's hope that 2026 is a good one.

Indiana Dunes National Park

I hate to admit it, but the internet algorithms have me figured out. On Instagram, the recommended videos are usually either about National Parks or the Legend of Zelda video games. A type of video that pops up quite often is something like a ranking list of "the WORST National Parks EVER!' And by now, I've seen enough of these videos to know that they will include stock-image (or AI generated) pictures of the parks, which suggests that the creators haven't actually been to the parks they're criticizing. And usually the same parks will appear on those lists - Gateway Arch, Congaree, Hot Springs, Mammoth Cave, Petrified Forest, and Indiana Dunes.

Indiana Dunes National Park is located about an hour away from Chicago, along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It protects about 15,000 acres of land, which includes many sand dunes and about 15 miles of shoreline. It's the sixth smallest National Park, but for being so small it contains a wide variety of ecosystems. Besides the dunes and shorelines, the park is also home to swamps, bogs, marshes, forests, oak savannas, prairies, and rivers. Over 1,100 native plant species can be found in the park, making it the fourth most biodiverse National Park.

Since we were so close, we rented a car and drove over from Chicago. I was curious to see the park, and if it truly was one of the WORST National Parks EVER!

We headed into Indiana and then checked into our hotel. Then we drove into the park and visited Porter Beach. The kids played in the water and in the sand, and I got the camera out to take a few pictures.



One of the coolest things about Indiana Dunes is that on clear days, you can see the Chicago skyline way off in the distance. Chicago is about 50 miles away, on the other side of the lake.



The sand dunes at Indiana Dunes are "wandering dunes" and always moving. At Porter Beach, the dunes here are starting to swallow up this fire hydrant.



And a nice sunset ended the day:





The next morning we headed back into the park and visited West Beach, which is home to one of the most popular trails in the park. Here the Dune Succession trail steeply climbs up to the top of Diana's Dune. The dune is named after Alice Mabel Gray, who lived here in the early 1900s when development was starting to encroach on the dunes. She was known as "Diana of the Dunes" after she worked to bring attention to the dunes and to help them be saved as a nature preserve. It is hard to hike on sand, but luckily a lot of the trail is along wooden boardwalks.



At the top you have a nice view of the lake and the dune, and then the trail drops down into a forest.



And then runs along the top of the dune before heading down to the beach:



Later that day we went to the small beach at the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk. It's a nice spot, even with a massive steel factory sitting nearby.



But there's also a nice view of a little lighthouse, and a fishing pier.







And then that evening, we got dinner at a brewery in the town of Michigan City. After we left, we drove by the sign for Mt. Baldy and decided to make a quick stop. Mt. Baldy is one of the largest dunes in the area, standing 126 foot-tall. We started the short trail, which went deep into a forest that was already getting dark under the thick canopy of trees.



And like the light at the end of the tunnel, we saw bright orange in the sky through the trees. Which meant there was a nice sunset brewing. We hurried to the end of the trail, and was treated to this view:



The bright colors really helped bring out the silhouette of the Chicago skyline, miles and miles away in Illinois.





We stayed there until the light began to fade out, it was a great way to end our trip to Indiana Dunes National Park.



The park isn't all that big, but we still didn't end up seeing everything there. We didn't hike all the trails, or visit all of the beaches. But it is still a neat park, and I'd say it's worthy of being a National Park. In our current political environment, when the Park Service's funding is under direct attack, we should seek to promote all of our parks. Even the ones that aren't as traditionally scenic as Yosemite or the Grand Canyon.