ARKANSAS -again.

Needed a good roadtrip- something that can always be had in the Natural State. My mother and I left from KC last tuesday for Hercules glades. We were able to find the Glade top trail for sunset and became lost in the dark before we stumbled upon hwy 95 with an empty tank. I ran onto a glade opening for sunset - enough time for the one glade and about fifty photos of flowers, clouds. Some kind of coreopsis, I think; and some Indian Paintbrush below. Some cool pensteamons, including the giant cabeae (large purple) and common digitalis (beardtoungue), spiderwort, verbena, vervain, sensetive briar, and a cool succulent with giant, pink arms for flowers.

Sunset over hercules wilderness. There is lots of very recent storm damage in the area- looks like it may not be the last of the season! We drove by two mother/baby bison in the woods and my mother had a frightening (though harmless) encounter with a wild boar!
We spent the night in Mnt Home, ARK., and drove down to mount ida the next morning. It became cloudy in the early morning and by the time we reached Harrison, a nasty fog had begun to develop. From Harrison to Russelville, along the steep ozark hwy 7, we we in a fog that limited visibility to as little as 30ft. It made things interesting!

The fog muffled sounds and created a surprise out of every car we encountered. We stopped at a picnic area for photos.

In dardanelle, we stopped to take a look at the Arkansas river. Here, it is about the size of the MO in Kansas City, and even more busy. One tug pushed three full barges and another carried a heavy load of sand. PORT Dardanelle sits across the river from the park we visited and was always docking boats. The shore is moch sandier than here and the gravel bars were of a finer stone.
The river is flooded. Below was a bass on the shore of the river.
In mount ida, the sun began to show. We hiked in a national forest area off of hwy 27 south of the town to an abandon quarry. I searched the ground and found many small points. The Ouachitas are vast pine forests with a few glade-type openings; the birds were awsome! I have never seen so many diffent songbirds.
I climbed to the top of the quarry and found an undiscovered quartz vein. I brushed it off and began to excavate. The larger points were loose in the vein and everything was packed tight- I removed each piece individually like a puzzel as to not hurt the crystals. Some of the broken points near the start of the vein were razor sharp and sliced my hands. I went through a pocket knif- digging into the rock. By the end of it all, we carried down about a quarter of a five-gal bucket and another 30lbs on our backs. I stopped to take photos of the flowers along the trail.

A Venus' looking glass flower(above) peeks out of a mess of ferns near Mt Ida, and some kind of cool milkweed is blooming all over the state- I think they may be four-leaved milkweed?

A katydid of some sort perches on the flower of a tickseed coreopsis.

Once cleaned, our crytsals revealed all kinds of beautiful and magical facets, rainbows, phantoms and ghosts. though most of the points were under 1inch, we had several dozen that broke the two inch mark and two beauties that exceeded three inches in length. The majority are very clear. Some have a rust-coloured crust.
We got clusters and sharp points like this one (left), that showed little imperfections.This crystal is about two inches in length and sits on a cool base of smaller points.
Ive kept a dozen larger points and a handful of small ones and piled the rest at the edge of my garden next to March's crystals.

Cant wait to get back here! If anyone is interested, Ive got maps and books to the area we explored- Its quite the adventure!
On the way back to Mt ida we found a roadrunner roadrunning across the road.- I guess thats what they do. Weve seen the bird in that same spot every visit.

From mt ida, we went north on 27- toward Jasper and the Buffalo National River, though we ended up hitting Petit Jean SP, about half way to Jasper. I fished for a few minutes- caught two smaller bass before I snapped my pole. Walking back to camp, I found a snake in the water- theyve got a large lake on the property- The snake was completely submerged and looked more like some kind of rat snake than anything else. We had a good campfire and woke in the morning to those same ouchita birds. I fished for an hour- caught 13 largemouth, but none of the crappie I found the first time we visited the park. I watched a giant something surface ofr a second below the small dam. It looked long and slick- maybe 4 feet. I saw no dorsal fin, though I was not paying a whole lot of attention to the details of it- maybe a gar or sturgeon. The creek that the lake feeds is deep and runs directly to the Arkansas river, into the mississippi- couldve been anything! I'll have to go back and catch it.
We hiked down to Cedar falls- It clouded up upon our decent.

cedar falls rapids and a six-spotted tiger beetle.

I took some photos and chased a tiger beetle at the bottom. The falls are gushing- The area has had many nasty storms this week. One such storm, just two days before our arrival, ripped many trees out of the ground and littered the now empty campgrounds. The lake is also flooded. We drove towards Jasper and ate lunch at the Ozark cafe. It was sunny and getting toasty.


After food, we visited Emma's meuseam of junk- an older shop just next door. Emma has lived in Jasper for about 30 years and holds a fine shop. I bought a handful of marbles and upon telling her that we'd come from KC, heard a whole 10 min on why we should buy land in Jasper- Im sure convinced, but I didnt need her to tell me it was a nice place to live. The town has a population of 500, an antique(though still in use) jail, and a beautiful, tiny downtown located just miled from Ozark Nat'l forest and buffalo Nat'l riverway. Its a popular stopover for bikers and paddlers.

Petit Jean and beyond- view from martha Lodge

We missed our exit- hwy 74 W- and ended up in Harrison. We got onto hwy 62 W and went through a handful of cool towns. The most intersting- Alpena- was completely deserted and it's 1930's downtown was ghostly and cradled among the last few residencies of the area. It would be a cool stopover sometime.- for photos anyway.

Once we neared Eureaka springs, we found our selves trapper by two oversized loads carying pre-fabed houses. A last-second manuver landed us on some little Hwy headed north for 86. On 86W we found roaring river SP. It was like 4pm and I bought a fishing tag. The park seemed very busy-especially for the middle of the week.

I tied on a tiny flashback nymph and took a few casts. The fly- a roaring river favorite of mine- is supposed to mimic a smal mayfly in milky water. No fish- I tried a large white glowball- not a single bite-

I overheard the park ranger talking about the fish not biting well.

I tied on one of my own patterns- a small gold/beadheaded thing with a thick collar of muskrat dub and a long copper body. The fly is very heavy to get into the rapids and has worked well in just about every place Ive used it. It kinda looks caddis-y, but more like a mayfly with its' thick thorax part.

I started catching them immediately. Several small trought, and a shiner. Then I caught a keepr. The fish was about 13 inches- little on the small side, but I kept him anyway. en minutes went by on the same rapid and I hooked a larger fish. it stripped me across the small river and jumped many times- several feet in the air.

My mother watched- it took me into a heavy current and I feared loosing the fish. A few muntes later I had the fish in shallow water. I bent to grab it and the line broke. I snatched it up and ended up pushing it onto shore with my feet. I caught it- 18inches. It made the other fish look very small. I lost three others and bagged my kreel at four fish by 6:30. I cleaned them and we drove toward cassville to get cell reception. Back we went- to RR. we got a campsiite for the night,. it was busy and there were few sites left. The park was full of parties- it didnt do justice to the rest of our trip. In the morn, we stopped by Cassville walmart and bought a change of clothes for work. My mother drove me over to independence and continued her trip back to KC. From Carthage top Independence- on 96/160, there is little but fields of golden hay and small farming communities.

Petit's Tiger beetle (and my dirty fingernail)- I think he's smiling. He was so happy and excited about the camera, he accidently bit me- sure it powerful for bein so small.