My friends, Jennifer and Eric, are rock hounds. You know, they like to dig around in the dirt and look for random rocks and minerals. I do not understand this AT ALL. I do try to be supportive and generally like all things outdoors. I told them my trail guide mentioned a place that has quartz crystal and ended up being their tour guide for the day.
Winona Forest Drive is near Perryville, Arkansas and carves through a portion of the Ouachita National Forest. It's nearly 26 miles of fairly decent dirt road that connects Highway 9 to Highway 7.
If you travel from the East to West the first stop is the Nancy Mountain vista.
After that you can stop and do a short trail up North Fork Pinnacle. I didn't find much of interest through Eric found a fossil that's apparently pretty old. The only thing I spotted was a massive spiderweb.
Our next stop was the quartz crystal stop - Crystal Mountain vista. This is where we managed to get a creeper story. We hiked the short 0.2 miles up to the vista. A few hundred feet from the end of the trail I started hearing things. I stopped to figure out what direction it was coming from and who it might be. I realized it was definitely a radio but one set to talk radio. We got closer and spotted a trunk parked deep in the brush, doors wide open, no one inside, and a church sermon blaring from the speakers. I decided to ignore it, since there was three of us and two dogs. I knew the dogs would probably alert us of trouble. I got this shot from the vista while Eric and Jennifer tried to figure out where the quartz would be.
By this point a storm as moving in, and we were thinking it'd be better to rock hunt on a cooler day. Suddenly an old guy tromps through the brush towards us. "Y'all looking for crystals?" I said we were but didn't know where to go. He pointed at a very overgrown path and ran along the side of the hill. He said the crystals where that way. Jennifer and Eric weren't really prepared for a trek through bushwack. We ended up deciding to go and come back in the Fall or Winter.
The next stop was the Forked Mountain vista. Forked Mountain is probably the most famous mountain that you can see from Winona Forest Drive.
The final stop before ending up back on paved road is the Oak Mountain vista. This one was probably my favorite. It could have been the light and the new storm clouds that made the view, but I liked it the most anyway. :-)
After that we got back on Highway 10 and headed towards Little Rock. I was majorly preoccupied with the mist/fog created by the rain and requested that my friends make a few stops.
We actually turned around at this cool old barn I had shot once before (back in the point and shoot days). I was pretty excited to see it in better light conditions.
There's something about railroad tracks I will probably always be drawn to. The fog really gave it a creepy feel I think. Also check out the holga-like edit.
My final stop was trespassing onto some shooting range to grab some shots of hay bales. I wondered if I'd be shot, one being on a shooting range and two for trespassing. However, it was raining and NO ONE seemed to be around, so I took a risk and stayed near the road for a few quick shots.
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