Seven Hollows Trail

Before starting the Seven Hollows trail, I made a quick stop at the old pioneer cabin at Petit Jean. The cabin sits at the trailhead for the Cedar Creek trail, which I intend to hike again sometime soon (no time that day). The cabin was built sometime around 1845.


I had to try to find a way to avoid getting a few signs in the shot. Ones gives the history of the building. The other sign warns against people being a-holes and leaving graffiti there (I paraphrase that part), since the building is old and historic and whatnot.

This was taken looking through some of the old boards of the cabin:


And then it was on to the Seven Hollows Trail. Oddly enough, the Seven Hollows Trail actually only visits four hollows. But there are a few interesting sights in the hollows that it visits - including a few waterfalls, a natural bridge and several caves. Most of this area burned in a wildfire in 2000, and while the forest is slowly recovering it still does look a bit well-done in places.

The trail starts out and drops down into the first hollow, running alongside a small creek. There are several caves along the bluffs there, this is the view looking out from one of them.


And the same cave from the outside:


Petit Jean Mountain is known for its romantic history (hey, Valentine's Day!), and for it's scenic beauty. I think one of the coolest things about the park are the rocks there. The rocks along the trail had some interesting designs, which were married with a different mixture of moss or lichen.






About 1.5 miles into the hike, you reach the "natural bridge." Now I don't really think this counts as a natural bridge, it's more of an arch. It's not like you could drive or walk across it, but oh well. The bridge or arch is about 30 feet tall..






From the "natural bridge" the trail continues on, running alongside the creek. That creek does create a few waterfalls, and I stumbled and walked across a fallen tree to get in position to get these shots of some small waterfalls.




There is another waterfall along the trail, located in a grotto along one of the hollows. It isn't the tallest of waterfalls around, only 18 feet. But I have made this hike a few times and have found this waterfall not running. With all the ice and rain we've had lately, I thought I might actually get to see it running. So after two miles or so of hiking, I finally made it to the hollow to find the waterfall there...




While taking pictures there I heard something odd in the distance. It took me awhile to realize that it was thunder. While it was cloudy and overcast, it hadn't rained on me while I was out on the trail. Now it sounded like a storm was making its way towards Petit Jean. It was bizarre weather - we just had an ice storm a few weeks ago, now we're getting thunder storms. What's next, a hurricane?

The Seven Hollows Trail is 4.5 miles long and rated as a "medium" level hike. I was about halfway through it while a storm was approaching. I hurried along the trail, walking as fast as I could and trying to get the hike done before the worst of the storm hit. Looking back, it probably would have been wiser to have stayed at the grotto, since it had a nice little cave-like area to take shelter in. Instead I hiked in a rain that started to get heavier. I did have an umbrella with me, but since it had metal in it I thought it would be best not to open it in a thunderstorm (especially since I was carrying a metal tripod at the same time). Luckily the camerabag is waterproof.

After walking about a mile, the rain started to fall heavier. The lightning and thunder sounded like it was getting closer. I decided to take shelter under a bluff, which seemed a bit better than hiking alongside tall trees. As I sat and rested, I saw some lightning flash across the sky. I had some time to kill, so I took this dorky and soaked self-portrait as I waited out the storm.


About 30 minutes later, the worst of the storm seemed to have moved on and it wasn't raining that much. I started back on the trail, looking forward to getting to my car at the end of the trail.

Mile 4...Almost finished!


A bit later I finally made it back to my car, where I was pleased to find some spare and dry clothes to change into. Although I was soaked, I've been on worse hikes. This trip through Seven Hollows doesn't even compare to a trip taken about this time last year while trying to reach Twin Falls at Richland Creek (for that adventure, click HERE).

Petit Jean in the fog

On Tuesday I left in a light rain for another visit to Petit Jean Mountain. I was pleased to see that the top of the mountain was shrouded in a thick fog, so I quickly headed over to the overlook by Petit Jean's gravesite. While there wasn't any view there thanks to the fog, it was really pretty up there.


This is the old CCC lodge at the point, nearly obscured by the fog:






As my cousin Jon would tell you, I'm a huge sucker for pictures of roads leading off into the distance. So naturally the road and the fog drew me in and I spent a good amount of time just taking pictures of that...


Luckily, there wasn't much traffic that day...


These two oak trees were growing up right next to each other, creating a sort of tree sandwich...


I had a plan to hike the 4.5 mile Seven Hollows trail, so I decided I better head on and get that hike started. But it was hard to resist stopping to get a few more pictures. This was taken from the passenger side window of the car.


And this from the driver's side window:


I was sad when I drove out of the fog, I would have liked it to have been along the trail too. But that wouldn't be the end of the wacky weather up there. As I drove off to the Seven Hollows trailhead, there was a thunderstorm coming closer and closer to Petit Jean...

Eureka Springs

Last Thursday I traveled up to the Ozarks not to take pictures really but to help my Aunt clear away some tree limbs that fell in her yard after the big ice storm. The ice never hit Little Rock, but as we drove farther north it was easy to see the large amount of damage caused by the storm. In some places it looked as if every single tree had been wounded by the ice. Fallen limbs littered the ground, and many trees had just toppled over completely.

On Friday, with our work finished, we decided to drive the short distance over to Eureka Springs to have a look around. Eureka Springs is one of the more unique cities in the state. Now with a population of around 2,350, Eureka Springs was once a bustling resort city built around the healing powers of the springs found there. The downtown area of the city is lined with fine old Victorian buildings, and the entire city is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These buildings have been preserved and it is a great place to visit and take pictures.


Most of the historic downtown is built along the steep hillsides, and the winding roads through town are curvy and meet at odd angles. In fact there isn't a single intersection there that actually meets at a right angle, and none of the crosswalks are perpendicular. This shot is taken from under the Basin Park Hotel, which was built in 1905.


I wish I knew more about the city and its history. But there are several signs along the way with little bits of information about the old buildings. This one made me laugh like a 12 year old kid:


And a few more views of the historic downtown:




Eureka Springs is an amazingly diverse little town. It is a refuge for artists, who have established several galleries there. It is also the only city in the state that recognizes domestic partnerships. On the other side of the coin, it also the home of the Great Passion Play, a large outdoor play that follows the last days of Jesus. The seven story Christ of the Ozarks sits on a hill and overlooks the town. It's amazing how diverse this little mountain town is.


It was warm that day (in the 60s), but there was still some ice left in some of the shaded areas. This sidewalk still had about an inch of ice left. It must have been awful to try to get around Eureka Springs during the worst of the ice storm.


I've been up here a few times before. My Aunt doesn't live that far from here, so we would go into Eureka occasionally for dinner while I would visit. I spent a few days here when my college roommate (who is from Eureka Springs) got married. I haven't really explored the town yet. A lot of the roads were still coated in ice so we didn't drive around as much as I would have liked. I'll have to head back up there again soon.

This is the county courthouse, which was built in 1908.


On the way home, we stopped by the Buffalo National River at Tyler Bend. There was some tree damage at the higher elevations, but there wasn't any damage along the river. The Buffalo was running high, and it made me want to make a camping trip soon. I can't wait to head back up there again.

The Ruins of Fort Chaffee

After leaving Charleston, there was one place I really wanted to visit, which I thought would look neat in the thick fog that was still hanging around. That place was Ft. Chaffee, which is still used by the Arkansas National Guard but was once a large army base. It was established just before the start of World War II as a training facility for soldiers and also as a POW camp, housing about 3,000 German soldiers. In 1958, the fort was the temporary home of Elvis Presley, who had his first army haircut there.

The main part of the base that you would always see from the road was the huge number of army barracks - you'd pass by rows and rows of old barracks and buildings while driving toward Fort Smith. In the 1990's, the government gave the base to the state, which declared the old barracks and land to be excess property. They had been sitting empty since World War II, used occasionally as processing centers for Korean and Cuban refugees. The old buildings were also used as the backdrop for the movie Biloxi Blues, which was filmed there.


All of the old buildings are slated to be demolished, but that has been delayed since they contain asbestos and lead paint. The land they sit on is now a redevelopment district, with a proposed freeway near the old base. A large fire last year destoyed a lot of the old buildings, about 150, and is thought to have been caused by high winds knocking down a power line. The high winds carried the flames from building to building, and now all that remains of them are brick chimneys. Luckily, the building where Elvis got his haircut did survive the flames, but a good number of the old barracks are gone.

With the desire to develop this land for commercial purposes, the future of the rest of the base is in doubt. I'd love to see the state step in and preserve some of the buildings as some sort of museum, preserving just a bit of what remains. It'd be a shame to lose these great historical buildings so they can only be replaced with strip malls and gas stations in the name of "progess."

But anyways, the fog that morning was still thick, which gave the ghostly ruins of the burned and still-standing buildings an eerie look. The overgrown grass had a sheen of frost on them. Looking at the charred chimneys and old buildings, it felt more like I was taking pictures of Dresden during World War II or Atlanta after the Civil War instead of an old army base in Arkansas.
















The old buildings that still stand are fenced off with signs saying something like "hazardous material, do not enter." I was tempted to jump the fence to get some pictures inside the buildings, but thought I could get in trouble for it, since it's still next to an army area.






These were taken at the edge of the base, near some buildings that had been rennovated and converted to commercial use. They housed a few random buisnesses, like a pest control company and even a massage place. As I was out there taking pictures, a large dog let it be known that it did not like me being there. It barked loudly and started to get walk closer. But as it got close, it decided I wasn't a threat and that I was its new best friend. It tried to jump up and lick my face. After that it stood nearby on guard duty, wagging his tail and happy to next to a new friend who would tell him it was a "good dog" and pat it on the back.






The cold icy weather left some frost on all the plants out there. This tree branch was covered in frost.


The ruins of Fort Chaffee still stand, but who knows for how much longer. I hope that the remaining buildings here will be preserved somehow. It is a shame that we allow so many of our historic buildings to be torn down and destroyed, only to replaced with parking lots and empty fields. The soldiers and heroes who lived and trained here deserve better than that.

Singleton Family Cemetery

I was in Charleston a few days ago visiting family, just a few days after the big ice storm passed through. This area wasn't hit as hard as the northern part of the state, and most of the ice had already melted away. It was a cold morning, and the views outside were hidden behind a thick shroud of fog. Since I was awake I grabbed the camera and headed out to take pictures at the Singleton Family Cemetery.


The cemetery is actually maintained by my family, and is the final resting place for many generations of relatives. Since it's maintained by us, I did my part that morning by carrying away some branches that had fallen during the ice storm. There was a coating of frost along the ground and in the trees, with the thick fog still lingering.


The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places a few years ago because some of the people buried here were important to the development of this part of the state. Also, the oldest graves are surrounded by low limestone walls, a type of funerary architecture that is rare in this part of the country.


The cemetery is surrounded by pasture land, and the barbed wire fence was covered in a tiny bit of ice and frost.