5-1 Blanchard Springs

We had a birthday party to go to in the morning, so we were going to leave from there and go hunting.  We decided to head north of Conway, up Hwy 65 to hit four waterfalls in a row that looked to be real close to the road and real easy to get to.  When we stopped at a convenience store to get a road map, the only ones available had plastic covers.  I looked at Jessica and said "Never get a map that you can't look at first."  But, we got it anyway.  It turns out I was right. 

We drove around northern Arkansas for a while because the map had roads and intersections in the wrong place.  We finally got to where we were going about 5 o'clock.  There was a car parked there so I figured we were in the right spot.  As we were unloading and getting our shoes on and my camera gear together, we spotted a guy who was drenched in sweat heading back to his car.  We asked him how it was.  He said that they had been wandering around the woods for four hours looking for the first one which they never found and that the woods were very difficult to get through due to ice storm damage from the year before.  He looked at us and said "I wouldn't recommend taking those young kids down there."  It took us all of about 4 seconds to change our plans.

I looked at the map and the guidebook and decided to go to Blanchard Springs.  I knew that the trail to the spring was paved, so it would be fine for Grant.

On the way to the springs there was a nice view of the creek.  It was at this very moment that I discovered that you have to turn the circular polarizer to get it to work! (0.8 sec, f-11, ISO100)

It was getting late and the sun was going down behind the hills, but a little bit peeked out and lit up the two rocks in front of me. (1.3 sec, f-11, ISO100)

I turned around and got a shot looking downstream. I started having problems with my lens fogging up because of all the humidity. (1.6 sec, f-20, ISO400)

Off to the left of the springs is a nice cascade that wanders down from the top of the ridge.  It had some good water in it. (20 sec, f-22, ISO100)

Always look at your feet, you never know what you might find! I liked how the water was flowing smoothly over the log. (13 sec, f-13, ISO100)

Here, my lens fogging was getting bad, but I liked the dreaminess of this one. (2.5 sec, f-14, ISO800)

My ever present subject Daniel really likes this spot.  The drop in the upper left is probably twenty-five feet. (0.8 sec, f-9, ISO800)

If you look reeeal close at the bottom of the cascades you can see Jessica's red shirt. (1/5 sec, f-3.5, ISO800)

I wasn't sure if my lens was fogged when I stopped here on the way in, so I stopped and took another shot at it. (8 sec, f-25, ISO400)

It was another great day in waterfall hunting!  The boys slept all three hours on the drive home.  It's good to wear them out like that!