Texas Wildflowers TourEarlier this week, I completed a wildflower tour across Texas hosted by professional photographers David Cobb and Kevin McNeil. After flying into Dallas, we begin the tour in Ennis...about 45 minutes south of Dallas. With the end of February and start of March being colder than usual, the flowers were slower to start this season. The flowers were closer to peak in Central and South Texas than they were in North Texas. After spending only one morning in Ennis, David and Kevin decided that it would better to spend more time further south. So it was on to the Texas Hill Country west of Austin where the flowers were more widespread and especially colorful. Our first evening in the Hill Country was near Fredericksburg on the Willow City Loop. Here we were able to catch a nice sunset among bluebonnets.
Overall, the weather was quite cloudy for much of this tour. We rarely could actually see the actual sun rise or set. However, sometimes there was enough of a gap in cloud cover to catch a red glow for a few minutes. While spending two nights in Johnson City, we made two morning visits to nearby Lake Travis where there was a beautiful spot called Muleshoe Bend. The bluebonnets were especially thick here...some of the most widespread wildflowers I have ever seen.
While bluebonnets were the primary wildflower in the Texas Hill Country, there was more variety in color with wildflowers in South Texas. Texas paintbrush that was colored red seemed to be the most common in the area around Sequin, but there was many other species too. There were also a few small churches that were surrounded by wildflowers of many colors.
The timing and type of flowers can vary greatly from year to year. I want to again say thanks to David and Kevin. They did a lot of scouting before I arrived to ensure that great wildflowers would be seen on this tour. Texas Skylines At NightToday I am returning to Arkansas. Over the last week, I have been on Texas Wildflower Tour hosted by professional photographers David Cobb and Kevin McNeil. While the emphasis has been on finding great wildflower scenes, a couple of nights were devoted photographing Dallas and Austin after sunset. The first night after I arrived to Dallas, we went to an open spot near the Trinity River just southwest of Downtown Dallas. Dallas has a recognizable skyline including Reunion Tower, which has the round top that lights up and also the Bank Of America Plaza which is lighted up green at night.
On the last night in Texas, we made a stop in downtown Austin. This picture was taken from the south side of the Colorado River about 30 minutes after sunset. A cloud drifted over at the right time to create the right balance of blue and gray colors over the skyline.
Ouachita Mountain Waterfall HuntSpring has come and April is one of my favorite times of the year to be in Arkansas. The trees are beginning to leaf out and after a nice rain there can be numerous waterfalls. I recently spent a couple of days in the Ouachita National Forest. This section southeast of Mena is one of my favorite places to explore in Arkansas. There are numerous cascades and waterfalls in this region of the Ouachitas. There are some well known cascades, such as Little Missouri Falls and Cossatot Falls, and also some hidden waterfalls within a short walk from a dirt road, such as Blaylock Creek Falls pictured below. You can see below the environment is lush and green and has an almost tropical appearance with the moss and ferns clinging the cliff. Not only the 40 foot or so tall waterfall is nice, but in front of the waterfall is an attractive large pool in Blaylock Creek.
I met up with William Rainey, a photographer in Mena who knows these mountains better than anyone else I know. He showed me a couple of places that I have not seen before. All of these pictures are within a short drive of the Albert Pike Recreation Area of the Ouachita National Forest. He took me to Crooked Creek. In the upper reaches of Crooked Creek, a beautiful stream begins. Here the water is not wide and the falls are not tall, but the water is crystal clear and the slate rock that is carved out has some interesting square patterns.
Further down Crooked Creek, the falls get bigger but the water is just as clear!
William also took me to some unnamed waterfalls. This one was near Statehouse Mountain.
Oh yeah, and the wildflowers are coming out too!
Wintry Weather In ArkansasIt has been an active week of weather in the state of Arkansas, especially in the Central & Southern part of the state where they have seen more snow than in the Northwest corner of the state, where I live. So within the last week, I made a couple of trips down to the Ozark and Ouachita National Forest. I thought I would share a couple of my favorite pictures of the beautiful streams with snow on the rocks next to beautiful water. The top picture is Big Piney Creek in the Ozark National Forest. This picture was taken from the Longpool Campground. The bottom picture is Jack Creek, located south of Booneville in the Ouachita National Forest.
The Dunes of Death Valley...and Joshua Trees TooYesterday, I returned from my 13 day trip across parts of Nevada, California and Arizona. My favorite area to explore was Death Valley National Park. There are a few sand dunes in the park and there were pros and cons of the two sand dunes that I visited. The most accessible is Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, which is near the paved California Highway 190 that runs through the central area of the park. The upside to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes is that it is an easy drive and a short walk from the parking area. However, it is also the most visited dunes in Death Valley, so the sand is not as pristine with some footprints in places. There were a few other photographers on other nearby dune tops that I was taking pictures from, so I had to work around them. I still had some nice shots, especially just before sunrise with great color in the cirrus clouds floating overhead.
Another dune field is Panamint Dunes. I personally preferred these dunes a bit more, but they were not easy to reach in time for sunrise. To reach Panamint Dunes, one must first drive to the trailhead on a dirt road for about 6 miles off the paved road. Then one has to walk about 4 miles from where you parked the car, so not many people visit Panamint Dunes. Because of this, the sand was very pristine with no footprints to be seen...other than my own. To my surprise, there was another car parked at the trailhead as they were car camping. They probably were not too happy with me showing up at 4:40 am and waking them up as I pulled into the trailhead at such an early time while it was still dark. After about 4 miles of walking in the dark with a headlamp, I arrived at the dunes as the sky was starting to lighten up. Despite the extra effort to reach these dunes, I thought it was totally worth it. The clouds at times would obscure the sun. However, when the sun did shine, it made for spectacular pictures that highlighted the dune shadows and fine lines within the sand. Here a few of my favorite pictures from Panamint Dunes that morning:
While Death Valley is not known for its joshua trees, there was a nice forest of joshua trees in the Lee Flats area of the park that is considered to be high desert. This forest of Joshua trees located in the western area of the park was at an elevation of at or just above 5,000 feet above sea level. This was another lightly visited area of the park, but accessible by a dirt road without having to walk. I did some night photography with some light painting on the unusually shaped trees. With even just a half moon, it was amazing to see how much moonlight showed up in these images. The breeze was blowing in this remote area on a moonlit night. So it had a surreal, almost eerie, feel to being out here.
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