Little Bluff Cabin cam April 29 - these are heirloom iris - at least 100 years old growing on their own at the pioneer homesite a couple hundred yards from the gallery. We hike past this site many times a day going from cabin to gallery. Seems to be a lot more varities of flowers blooming this year. There is nothing left of the homesite excecpt the lower part of a stone root celler in the ground. AND all the flowers! HAPPY TUESDAY TO YOU!

Print Of The Week (above) - click here for info

04/02/25 We are in the light blue "10.25" area on this map, surrounded by many colors with predictions of from 8-10 inches of rain the next five days. I'm hopeful, but skeptical - they keep moving the map to the northeast. I'm READY to hit the ground running, but will continue to dance.

04/03/25 DAY ONE of the great April Flood. We knew it was coming - an early Christmas present for me since I really needed a LOT of water for several days in order to get out and photograph some particular waterfalls that needed more water than others to look good. Fact - most waterfalls look much better in person than any photo, partly because when you are standing there all of your senses are firing (sight, sound, touch, small, and the feel of your surroundings). All of these can fire up your endorphins, which basically make you feel good, happy. Negative ions produced by waterfalls whenever water collides with itself, also increase your happiness - proven fact that is sometimes prescribed for stress, depression, and general unhappiness (negative ion generators are available). In other words, a simple flat photo can’t compete with all of that, haha! So sometimes I gotta stack the deck and make a photo as appealing as possible.

BUT, I’m NOT a fan of bloated, muddy, obscenely flooded waterfalls like you see so many photos of after a big flood like we had. I like photos of high water but after all the mess has pushed through and calmed down. When there is big water, that water drains out really fast so there is a small time window to get the photos.

It rained a bit the first half of the day, but not nearly enough to get waterfalls up and running well. By early afternoon I decided to head on out to a couple of waterfalls I’d heard about but had never been to, just to document them - figure out where they were, distances and directions, then measure the height, etc., knowing I’d have to return once there was more rainfall.

The first waterfall I headed towards was an easy hike along a level bench for a while, and then I found myself descending into another world of giant moss-covered boulders strewn all about - and the sound of falling water - that was good news since I really didn’t even expect this falls to be running at all yet. As I climbed up, over, around, and through more boulders I landed on a dry, rocky creek bed - but just upstream was a 71’ tall double-decker waterfall - YIPPIE!

The waterfall was really nice even though it was not flowing much. But just the location of this was magical - with all the mossy boulders and the hight of the bluffs. This instantly became a favorite spot, a major SSS (special scenic spot). It’s the kind of place you could just sit down at first thing in the morning and not leave until darkness chased you back to the car. But I had work to do, and would put this on the top of my “to return” list once we got some heavy rainfall in that area.

I explored a bit downstream and then scrambled around the side of a steep hillside and into a drainage on the other side, but didn’t find any other waterfalls of note. I climbed the hill and hiked back above the big waterfall and eventually back to the car. One kind of funny note - some of that level bench I hiked along was SO clogged with greenbrier and other vines - all with SHARP thorns - several times I would get tangled up in the vines to the point that as I struggled to charge ahead the vines would wrap around me tightly and sometimes would throw me to the ground. The earth below was pretty soft so nothing more than a few scratches. BUT when this happened my watch would sometimes think I’d taken a bad fall - and in fact would tell me so - and I had 30 seconds to tell it I was OK or it would automatically call 911 and dispatch search and rescue. I’m grateful for this technology my watch has, but every time that happens I’m mortified that I might not get it turned off in time - I sure don’t want to make a false call to 911 - YIKES!

OK, back to the car and onto the next potential waterfall. This one was in Accord Hollow, just downstream from the main waterfall there I last photographed probably more then 20 years ago. I knew there might be another waterfall, but had never been to it. The last mile of road leading to a small parking area along the Ozark Highlands Trail was always kind of sketchy and mostly “jeep worthy” so I wasn’t sure if my toyota minivan would be able to handle it. As it turned out when I arrived at the turnoff the sky opened up and it began to POUR buckets right on top of me! This was GREAT for the waterfall, but not for my comfort level of the road. To add to my insecurity there was a sign that talked about a “penal colony” just ahead and so not to pickup any hitchhikers. Hum.

After the downpour ended I decided to leave my car at the turnoff and hike the extra couple of miles in and out and hope the car would be ok. Everything was really wet after the downpour - EXACTLY how I like it - and the hike in was pretty easy. As I descended into a side canyon I passed a nice waterfall, and then a REALLY nice waterfall (that’s already in my guidebook), and then I got to the main canyon of Accord Hollow. I had already plotted where this new waterfall probably was so I crossed the main creek, climbed up the opposite hillside, and hung a left at the bluff line, following it downstream and then up into a side hollow that headed back towards the penal colony. Oops, maybe not the best choice for me there alone?

Soon a beautiful triple-decker waterfall came into view, and it was actually flowing! I really hadn’t planned to be able to take photos, but as I stood there admiring the view the sky opened up once again and a hefty downpour camped out on top of my head. OH MY it was raining hard! Since I was really just going to this falls to record its statistics, I hadn’t bothered to bring my trusty umbrella with me to shield my big camera from rain. OOPS. (I was not a very good boy scout and am often unprepared, even after all these years.)

I ended up spending probably an hour at this waterfall, rain off and on, me struggling on the very steep hillside to find a really good spot to take a photo. As it turned out it was raining enough to get the waterfall looking pretty good so I was glad to have my big camera with me instead of just a cell phone. Oh yes, there was a beautiful redbud tree right next to this waterfall - yea!

The only problem was that as I first approached the falls I could easily see three plunges of the waterfall, but the view from that point was really cluttered with a lot of trees and vines and I had to move up closer to get a clean view and photos. In that spot the upper part of the falls was out of the view - BUT the redbud WAS in the view - so that’s where I spent my time taking photos. I was a happy camper. Only problem was that just as I had packed up and started out I got hit with another BIG downpour. Should I wait this one out and maybe get more water flow?

NOPE, I elected to move on and that was probably a good thing since it was getting pretty dark and I had a good hike UP and out and back to the car.

But WAIT. As I headed out I decided to go have a look at the main waterfall - that I’d not seen since 2001 - and along the way I came upon a beautiful and much taller waterfall (I’d listed it in the guidebook back then as a “small w” - that means not the main waterfall but one you might notice if conditions were good). Guess what - CONDITIONS WERE GREAT so I stopped and took a few photos. This waterfall seemed a LOT taller than I had remembered - and in fact I measured it and it WAS really tall (58’).

By this time the main waterfall upstream was really gushing but I already had a great photo of it from 2021, so I crossed over the creek and started to head back to the car. BUT there was a big, really beautiful redbud tree right there in front of the waterfall that was just gorgeous in the light. I spent the next ten minutes trying to take a picture but there was just too many trees in the way - and the sky was pouring down on my head to I packed it in and headed out.

Even though each step back to the car was UPHILL, for some reason it was a delightful hike back and went really fast - despite the fact it poured on me all the way. I’d forgotten all about the penal colony but that was fine - as was my car. This would be the very first of many events where I return to this new van totally soaked and muddy and not fit to crawl inside. I apologized to my car in advance, and I throughly enjoyed the drive home in the dark.

By the time I got home it was obvious we’d had a LOT of rainfall in the area (3”) and things were pretty flooded - I’d be helpless now until daylight though when I hoped to hit the ground running.

04/04/25 DAY TWO of the great April Flood. There were several waterfalls I was aiming for today. I already visited all of these and collected data, so all I really needed was good water flow without MUDDY waters. We’d had a good bit of rainfall overnight and a LOT more predicted during the day, so I would probably get some muddy water, but perhaps not.

I started at the closest waterfall to me - just a 20-minute hike, and soon I was standing at the bottom of this great 71’ tall beauty. With much more water and everything saturated today the moss-covered boulders and giant blocks of sandstone scattered about the lush landscape was magical. It actually took me an extra 30 minutes to try and capture the landscape around this falls - so LUSH and beautiful!!! I probably would have stayed there all day but the sky opened up and began to pour, so I packed up my gear and headed back to the van.

Next stop was a group of four falls I’d been to previously, so again all I needed to do was make the easy hike over to them and spend a bit of time getting good photos. It rained most of the time but I was using a special (cheap) “chair-brella” that’s attached to the upper part of my tripod to keep the camera dry. The camera and lens were mostly waterproof, but what you really need to protect is the FRONT of the lens from rain or splatter - a single small drop of water on the front of the lens can ruin a photo. So I took great pains to protect it - and spent a good bit of time checking and wiping off any drops - and there were a lot of drops.

As I hiked along the base of the big, beautiful bluff line I was taken in by the mystic feeling of the saturated layers of rock and foggy airwaves. I spent a bit of time trying to capture the sense of this place where the big bluff curved on out of sight in the fog. I shot all four different waterfalls in this area, then packed up and headed back to the van.

Note about my camera gear. For these types of waterfall “snapshots” I do for possible use in a guidebook I often use the smallest camera I have to help with my ailing bad back. But recently I’ve been feeling a little bit stronger and coming home with my back not so sore. The small camera I’ve been using is sometimes painful to look through, so I decided to test bringing my big camera along instead - one reason being that any of the photos I take would be high enough quality for large prints, calendars, or in a picture book. But the BONUS is that I’m much more comfortable using my big camera due to a special tilting viewfinder that allows me to look deep into the scene with incredible details. I also decided to haul my BIG tripod that just makes life a lot easier, though it weights several pounds more than my LIGHT one I normally carry for waterfalls. Today was the first big test for this camera/tripod setup - so far, so good.

The next location was a bit of a drive to reach, and I was concerned about not only the long county road part (12 miles of gravel/dirt), but then a 2.5 mile sketchy jeep road - especially with the pounding heavy rainfall.

As I headed up the mountain on the county road the sky got really dark and the landscape disappeared all around me. The fog was SO thick that I literally could not see both sides of the road (no guardrails on these back country dirt roads either). I was in kind of a race against time - getting dark - yet also didn’t want to drive too fast since I simply could not see but a few feet around the vehicle ahead or on either side. I slowly plowed on. And while doing this I could hear, feel, and sometimes see explosions going on behind me in the Arkansas River Valley - there were some hugs thunderstorms and worse building back there and heading my direction.

After what seemed like an eternity I made it to the jeep road turnoff, a route that many folks describe as quite terrible and almost impassable in all but a certified high-clearance 4WD DUDE mobile. My low-slug soccer mom mini-van felt kind of sheepish on this road, but I decided to just push on and see what would happen. There were a few questionable spots but my little van purred right on along and soon we landed at the first parking spot. The rain had stopped and I could see a little better skywards, and there were lots of giant storms bearing down on me - and it was getting late.

I jumped out of the van and sped off into the woods, just sort of pointing in the right direction of my target, leaning into the landscape, and going as fast as I dare. Soon I landed at the base of two thundering waterfalls that allowed my to slide down the bluff between them. I really needed HIGH water for the best shot of the waterfall I was after, and these smaller falls showed me the water was indeed just right.

The big waterfall (61’) was in a special location, an SSS, surrounded by HUGE blocks of sandstone that had broken off a big bluff, and it was pure joy just getting to the base of the waterfall. Five minutes to take a good photo and I was done and off headed back UP to my van. It continued to get darker and I still have another location to drive to and hike into.

Leaving the van again I headed DOWN a steep hillside towards my final target for the day the massive storms from the River Valley were getting much closer, but it wasn’t raining yet so I was hopeful to be able to photograph an elusive shot that included four or five waterfalls in the Sand Cave area. By the time I got there it was even darker, and was one of those times you could just FEEL the storm about to erupt all around. I literally slid down the hill and landed at a spot with a view of several thundering waterfalls before me - and not knowing how much time I had to get into position, I decided to stop and set up my camera right there.

BOOM!!!!! The first of several giant storms had arrived. I quickly set up the tripod and camera, leveled it, adjusted the exposure, and took a single frame when BANG I started to get pelted with dime-size HAIL. YIKES!!! And it got really dark.

And then it started to POUR about as hard as I’ve ever experienced. No doubt I was done taking pictures, and I went into safety mode, scooping up all the camera gear and running for cover. Luckily one of the waterfalls at the edge of the frame had a nice overhang behind it so I charged up the hill towards it. And I made it, safe and sound, yet dripping but thankful to be there.

While standing there behind the waterfall as the world erupted all around I realized there was a terrific waterfall scene right there before me, so I set up the camera gear under the protection of the overhand and spent the next 10 minutes taking pictures (the same picture, but always trying to get better). I really LIKED this scene, even though I knew one of the waterfalls I had wanted in the same scene was not visible. Oh well, when life gives you a FLOOD you make lemonade!

Then I realized the darkness was not only from the storm but also from actual DARKNESS approaching, so when a break in the downpour arrived I packed up and headed back out. BUT WAIT, that other waterfall was only right over THERE, so I slipped and slid on down the steep hillside towards it hoping to still get a shot that included all of the waterfalls. Long story short, as another powerful storm broke loose on top of my head I realized that with the creek now in major flood mode, and me needing to CROSS that flooded creek in order to get the photo I had really wanted, I could hear my lovely bride in my head telling me to STOP, TURN AROUND, DON’T DROWN! And so I did - turned around and headed back up the steep hill back towards the van, clawing my way since it was SO gosh darn steep.

As I climbed the pyrotechnics continued above and behind me, but I could see a bit of lighter sky in front so I pushed on. Needless to day I was one drowned rat by the time I got back to the van, and SO HAPPY I had not stayed back down in that canyon. BUT, I still had 2.5 miles of nasty jeep road - now certainly flooded - to navigate with my little van. Three, four, FIVE trees had fallen across the road in the storm, but I was able to get them out of the way (I carry a very large hand saw) and threw some pretty deep areas of flooded roadbed, and back up the hill to the main county road - YIPPIE COYOTE, I had made it!!!

WOW, that was all a bit scary. Driving home was no fun as the storms continued, followed by more of that terrible thick fog, but made it home by 11.

04/06/25 DAY THREE of the great April Flood. More rain overnight - YEA! I’d been waiting for high water at a tall waterfall that was not too far away from us and it finally came. 'Twas an easy hike DOWN an old road and then horsetrail, and then a bushwhack UP towards the waterfall that I’d hoped would be flowing well.

But first, there was a small waterfall below it I didn’t have a great photo of either, and it looked just great when I got there. And as a bonus the much taller waterfall can be seen in the background. This was a prime example of why I lug my really tall tripod with me on these hikes - I was already standing on top of a large boulder and still needed the camera to be about seven feet in the air for the view I wanted. I was able to extend the four-section tripod legs and a 14” tall center column to get the camera up high enough for the perfect view. Although I could not see through the viewfinder with the camera up there over my head, I was able to use the tilting back screen on it to point the camera in the right direction (having already set the proper exposure and zoom location). After each shot I had to reach up and unmount the camera from the tripod head so I could bring it down and look at the photo through the viewfinder to make sure everything was in focus. GOTIT!

OK, high water also sometimes has another issue besides being muddy and weird looking - some waterfalls will also create their own WIND, and along with that comes SPRAY, spray that can instantly cover the front of a camera lens - making sharp photos impossible. That was the case for the big waterfall - I was unable to set up the camera where I wanted it due to excessive wind and spray, although I already had a good shot of it as medium flow a couple years ago that would work, but as always, wanting something better!

After I got a good shot from off to the side, I crawled into the back corner of the big bluff this waterfall was flowing over, back into a cave or hiding place of sorts. The view from back in there was quite unusual, and I spent the next 30 minutes seeing what I could do with the composition. I love this place (was my fourth trip to photograph it). And I’ll be back again I bet!

The only other waterfall I wanted to shoot was a couple of hours drive away, so after a steep hike back to the van I was off and headed west, to another waterfall I’d photographed before but wanted to return to with a little more flow.

Also in the meantime I decided on a name for this new waterfall and so wanted to photograph it with a little more purpose. As I was scrambling down a really steep hillside dropping into the canyon where the waterfall was located, I remembered that I had wanted to bring a second lens with me for this particular shot - but left it behind - OOPS! Being too lazy, and also worried about darkness creeping in, I pressed on ahead and soon arrived at the base of the waterfall. Turns out I didn’t need that other lens anyway, and the waterfall was flowing just perfect! (not too much flow, just the right amount)

One odd note about this hike - about half way down into the canyon I came upon a normal house dog - out there in the middle of nowhere. He seemed as shocked as I for another critter to be in this area, turned and ran up the hillside and out of sight without saying a word.

Another late arrival time back home, but it was worth it, even if I only got to photograph three waterfalls. The heavy rainfall had been good for me this past few days and much appreciated!

04/07/25 DAY FOUR of the great April Flood. Today is day 5 (and last) of the great April flood/waterfall event and I was up at 4:30 and headed out the door. It was going to be a bright, sunny day, which is not good for waterfall photos, so I knew I would only have a short window to take a picture of a particular waterfall I was after. Luckily it was only a 90-minute drive and a mile hike and I reached the waterfall quite literally just moments before that bright sunshine appeared - and I was able to get the photo I wanted, yippie! A few minutes later a bunch of fog rolled in and softened the light - that gave me more time to have a look around the place.

This was a side creek at the really popular Kings River Falls Natural Area, but most folks never make it up this little creek, only to the main Kings River Falls. I used to take photo workshops here 40 years ago, but not much since. Back then we all shot film, and the owner of the Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville (Scott Crook, R.I.P.) would meet us a couple hours into the workshop, collect everyone’s film, and ferry it back to Fayetteville where the slide film would be processed and the slides ready for us to view and study later that evening (these one-day workshops usually lasted until midnight or later).

Native American Thong Tree Falls

Anyway, today was the first time I’ve spent much time in this little side canyon while not workshopping, and I was happy for the fog to give me more good light - not only for the pair of waterfalls I eventually photographed, but especially for the striking scene that met me on my way out - the brilliant sunshine was burning off the fog and backlighting the beautiful moss-covered stream bed. This would be the last photos I would take during my marathon waterfall event, and it was a time for me to sit down and smile a bit and simply enjoy rather than surge ahead full speed to the next potential waterfall location (well, after I stopped and took about 30 pictures of this scene, and having to improvise with a special dark filter that didn’t fit my lens which allowed me to take a longer exposure to get the water smooth).

Sometime this week I’ll make notes on the missing days to share here, but I will say that we got a total of 12.5 inches of rain at our cabin, and I enjoyed three days of really nice weather and light. My feet are kinda tired, but it was a terrific, often frantic, and physically challenging few days that was all I could’ve hoped for!

04/16/25 Time had come for me to make a run at doing what I consider one of the most scenic - and most difficult - waterfall loops in the state. I’ve photographed these for decades, but never included them in a guidebook (the area yes, but not the specific waterfalls). So I met up with bushwhacking expert Fireman Jeff early yesterday to see what we could do. The last time we did this loop trip it was an all-day, 11-mile bushwhack hike, and we came slinking out of the canyon just before dark (I was plum tuckered out!). I had planned to label the entire loop hike as a “Triple Black Diamond” difficulty rating. This time we would begin at first light, AND I would not be packing my camera gear, which would save us a lot of time. I just wanted to record an unbroken track of the entire loop that includes 12 waterfalls and figure out the most direct route to include all of the falls.

We made to the first waterfall with ease, then worked our way up and over into another drainage and started near the top, where we found the first of four waterfalls in the drainage. This top one is three small waterfalls going over the same ledge, though not very tall. What makes this one so interesting to me is the fact that the ledge is almost 100 feet wide, and the opening goes back under the falls almost 60 feet! Well worth the effort.

The next falls downstream was easy to get to and just OK, but the next two below it were both rather difficult to reach the bottom of, and also quite SPECTACULAR! I’m not sure how to describe this in geological terms, but the bluffs there were just DIFFERENT than anything I’ve seen before, and actually probably were more of a scenic part than the actual waterfalls - although the waterfalls were pretty darn nice too!

We got to the bottom of this drainage and crossed the main creek below and rock-hopped our way downstream a ways until we came to the next drainage, where we hung a LEFT and headed up into a STEEP ravine. There’s a large and powerful double-drop falls just upstream. Last time I was there I had to shelter the camera beneath a house-sized boulder at the base of the falls in order to get a good photo - which ended up in one of my wall calendars.

We had to claw out way out of the canyon to get up beyond this falls, then rump-slide back down into the canyon for our next waterfalls, also a double-drop falls but this one not so powerful but quite beautiful with all the boulders and bluffs around being lush moss-covered.

Next up the canyon is a smaller but favorite of mine - flat rock falls. And then one more waterfall above it - which I don’t have a name for. Hum, I need to come up with a name for that one. That’s nine waterfalls for far - three more to go.

We made our way along the base of a large bluff heading back up into the main drainage. I remember making a note in the tape recorder to tell folks that 'when you come to a giant mound of dirt stacked up against the base of the bluff and you start to ask yourself “Do I go ABOVE or BELOW this mound to get around it?” - go ABOVE it - you will thank me!’

The bluff was so nice that when it started to curve into a side drainage and away from our intended route, we decided to stick with it and see what else we could find. Turns out there were several more waterfalls in this drainage but most smaller ones - I’ll leave them for others to explore.

We turned and went on down the side drainage to the two main waterfalls - both are quite spectacular and also unique - and both named after boulders - “Lazy Boulder Falls” and “Square Boulder Falls.” Both have been in my picture books before, maybe a calendar. Jeff found a very unusual pile of fossil-packed shale layers at the base of one waterfalls, and while he examined them I took a much-needed break, haha!

Back to the main creek and then we rock-hopped quite a ways upstream until we came to a giant block of sandstone blocking the passageway - AND the most magnificent waterfall in the entire area - YEA! I’m sure I’ve got many more than ten of these, but I consider this location to be one of the Top-Ten most scenic waterfall locations in all of Arkansas (Terrapin Branch Falls - snapshot of the pool below it).

After a bit of time at the falls we climbed on out and followed the bluff on the other side of the creek upstream until it disappeared. Then it was a short climb back up to the trailhead and the end of a might-fine hike for the day - total less then five miles - a much easier hike without camera gear and when you know where you are going! I’ll probably rate the full loop hike as Difficult +, although there are some sections that are worthy of a Black Diamond rating.

BUT WAIT, I still had a lot of daylight left so I decided to make a quick trip to a different area with a beautiful tall waterfall that somehow I had failed to record the height of (been there several times). Actually I did measure it, I just can’t find where I recorded that height. I probably would have had to hike back to it anyway since there are two different ways to get to this waterfall (Antenna Pine Falls), and I had never been via the second route.

The first part of this hike was all downhill (not my favorite - I usually always prefer Uphill, especially on trails), then several miles of almost level walking along a rocky old bench road. As I got close to the turnoff from the old road, there was no road - a giant tree had fallen over and taken a large chunk of the road with it, along with a creek the road crossed. Took me a few minutes to figure it out, then a sharp turn Uphill and away from the road, and a very steep climb up to a quite spectacular and colorful bluff line, with a gigantic house-sized sandstone block just for fun. This is one waterfall that looks and feels much taller than it really is (I would have guessed at least 60’, but it’s really only 39’ - measured three times to be sure.)

Just beyond this waterfall is a magical area where the bluff has split apart and you walk right through it with towering bluffs on both sides - it’s just simply amazing! (shh, don’t tell anyone, but once I was there during a monster thunderstorm and literally like magic a big waterfall appeared just a few feet away - I crouched beneath part of the bluff and took pictures as the waterfall roared to life and grew and grew. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out, and not only did the waterfall fade quickly, but was replaced with a rainbow! It’s a very unique SSS for sure.

OK, measurement recorded, and back to my van - total of about seven miles.

BUT WAIT AGAIN, there was still some daylight left and yet another item on my long to-do list that literally was only one turn off the highway away! So I made my way on over to Broadwater Hollow and headed out on another hike, my third of the day. Over the years a social trail had developed from Boradwater Hollow on down to the Cecil Cove Loop Trail below. After a large landslide took out part of an access trail to reach the popular Thunder Canyon Falls, this social trail became the preferred route to get there, and I needed to include it in the waterfall guidebook. It was only a mile to the connection trail, but oh my what a beautiful mile it was. Not only do you get to see all of Broadwater Hollow, but also a good bit of Cecil Creek - and all of it bathed in evening light.

Along the way I passed a group of hikers that were camped right on the edge of Cecil Creek - a terrific camping spot! (In most parks you are not allowed to camp right next to water, and shouldn’t - but in the Buffalo National River Park you are not only allowed to but are encouraged to, which opens up some really terrific spots for camping. While on my way back I passed the campers again and they waved me on down to their campsite - “come eat some of our food - we’re grilling steak tacos on the campfire and have plenty!” That looked and sounded might tasty, but the light was fading and I wasn’t able to indulge (but THANKS guys!).

That was it for my day. I continue to take bites out of the big elephant that’s sitting on my plate, and today was a good day...

04/17/25 Our area remains without water and our little camper van* is our only source (we are allowed one pack of bottled drinking water per day from the National Guard, and can fill up any water jugs there too - they have been TERRIFIC!) This photo is looking into the bathroom and shower area of the van, which at first might seem odd to have this at the very back of our 21' long van, but it is really GREAT! The water tank only holds 18 gallons though (previous had 35 gallons), so it's a quick Navy shower only when really needed. That 18 gallons also covers the sink for washing dishes, and the toilet (I mostly use the great outdoors but sometimes you just gotta, well, you know, go. As expected I'm still way behind with the rest of the Waterfall Flood posts, but I still hope to write it up soon. In the meantime, HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU!

*Last fall, after putting way more than 100,000 miles on our (third) Roadtrek camper van, we decided to downsize and traded it in for a smaller rig. It's very weird, but this new van only has about half the storage space as our previous ones, yet we actually like that way. For instance, instead of taking multiples and backups we only take one of anything, and each has a special place tucked out of the way when not in use. We've done several overnight trips and two multi-night trips and so far, so good. It's a Dodge Ram Promaster commercial delivery van (upfitted for for camping with small but full kitchen, wet bathroom and shower, twin bed that make into a king bed, uses gas instead of diesel, and gets pretty good gas mileage vs. our old vans. Gas is much cheaper than diesel so we save money every mile! And this van is really easy to drive - so much so that I expet to be able to take a nap when on long drives and have my lovely bride take the wheel - she is very comfortable driving...

04/19/25 LOTS of rain this morning, YEA! Yesterday I hiked in the front range of the Ozarks north of Clarksville and found the first wild mountain azalea bloom of the season. And also a giant bluff covered with "saffron" lichen - largest plot of it I've ever seen!

I've done five or six days of backcountry bushwhacking waterfall work this past week with tape recorder in hand recording the hiking route details. And then I LOST the darn thing! - went back to retrace my steps in the dark but cold not find it. Good thing I had just downloaded all the data on it before the day started so I didn't lose much, and I did record that last day's journey inside my head so I'm good, just need a new digital recorder. IF you happen to find this small, black recorder, please disregard all of my ramblings, haha.

Back to the hike yesterday - I'd been to these three waterfalls before and got good photos many years ago but wanted to return to record the hiking route data. It was an easy hike down to the top of a large waterfall located just beneath a beautiful big sandstone bluuff that runs through the entire area. Got my data then hiked on over to waterfall #2, then #3. I decided to take a different route back to the van, and fouund a better and much more SCENIC route iin the process. I've alwayys known there were many great bluffs in this area (Woods Mountain, north of Clarksville), but had not spent much time with the bluffs, mostly just with waterfalls. As with many of the waterfalls in my guidebook, I'll get to add a really nice "SSS" (Special Scenic Spot) to go along with this group - and in fact I will probably return just for the bluffs sometime! And maybe I'll even find my digital recorder, hahaha...

04/21/25 BIG storm rolled throuugh yesterday and got three big oaks in the yard - one of them so large I can't wrap my arms around it. Another one was 66' tall. One also smashed a bluebird box (see the eggs).

We finally have water flowing again inside the house and the National Guard has gone home (MANY THANKS TO THEM,!). HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU! (I'll be spending much of today doing storm damage cleanup...

04/24/25 My lovely bride has started a new job! She is now and official “Citizen Archivist” working with the National Archives in Washington. Along with more than 23,000 volunteers currently working to help make historical records more accessible to the public, primarily through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The specific mission that she signed up for requires working with documents created in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, written by or specific to the lives of American Revolutionary soldiers and their families. It’s really pretty darn interesting stuff for sure! Most of these documents have not been seen since they were written. They include accounts by the soldiers of their time spent fighting the war, conditions they lived and fought under, details of actual individual events during battle, and a ton of other amazing stuff.

Turns out there are a lot of problems trying to transcribe these original hand written documents - like the fact that they used a lot of different letters and words and spellings than we know today, and Pam has gone through a lot of training and investigations to enable her to figure out exactly what the words are. I’ve attached a page of a 33 page document she is currently working on to give you an idea. (I'll a close-up sample later)

The goal of this mission is to chronicle the soldier’s stories so that anyone will be able to view them as part of the 250th celebration of the founding of our country. Kind of a funny side about that. She first signed up with a specific National Historic Site in South Carolina that played a part in the war. About two-thirds of the way through her application and approval process about half of the staff at that Historic Park were fired, including the person that was in charge of the National Archives Revolutionary War project.

My bride persisted and found another small National Historical Site that was working on the same project and she was able to become part of the Revolutionary War team there. The first soldier she was assigned was 93 years old when he tried to sign up for a new War Act that provided a pension for Revolutionary War soldiers. By that time he was almost homeless, living alone, but was able to gather enough written testimony and facts about his story and was eventually granted $180. YEA for him!

I’m so very proud of my wife for caring enough about our country to make the stories and facts of those brave soldiers and their families come alive for anyone who wants to read them. Hopefully the project will become available next year - perhaps - if the entire project isn’t shut down first.

Volunteer Citizen Archivist - and I’M MARRIED TO ONE! (By the way, our daughter, Amber, is also signed up as a volunteer Citizen Archivist, but she is working on a different mission project in South Dakota…)