Haw Creek Out ‘n About

PhotoHunt: Heavy

We saw these two heavy-duty offroad recreational vehicles in September 2007 at Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Check out our RV pages at Haw Creek.

Delicate Arch is one of the popular destinations in Arches National Park. We had seen it on our one previous visit to the park in the early 90s, but it was on a relatively short and moderately strenuous trail to the rim of a steep canyon across from Delicate Arch, so we weren’t able to get very close.

On September 24th, 2007, we took the longer trail that goes right up to the arch. The trail is slightly over 3 miles round trip and the arch is out of view for almost the entire length of the trail. Starting from the parking area of Wolfe Ranch, the first half mile is easy and well defined. After that, however, the trail goes out over open slickrock, but is relatively easy to follow as its path is marked with rock cairns.

The easy part of the trail is readily seen in the picture below. The slickrock part of the trail goes across the image from about 1/3 down on the left side of the picture diagonally across towards the upper right side. Hikers going across the slickrock can be seen in the picture on the right above, which was cropped from the original of the photograph below.

It was a good hike and the day was cool. Even though it was cool, one bottle of water each was NOT enough. The National Park Service recommends at least one quart (litre) of water per person. In the heat of the summer, it would be prudent to carry more.

PhotoHunt Old Fashioned

This photo was taken August 15, 2007, inside the Great Platte River Road Archway, near Kearney, Nebraska.

Tags: Photohunt

PhotoHunt Important

Arkansas State Trooper cruiser at Russellville, Arkansas, Downtown Fall Festival car show

 Woolley Hollow State Park — Located in the rolling hills just to the south of the Ozarks and 50 miles north of Little Rock, the 370 acre Wooly Hollow area was established as a state park in 1973. (read more)

PhotoHunt Skinny

              The first time I went down this track,
                     Was as a kid in the early fifties.
              The last time in September ‘07,
                     To see a lady now in her eighties
              She lives alone at the end of this road
                     In her “home on the range” from the forties.

Photo-hunters - delicious

This my first Photo Hunt posting on Haw Creek Out n’ About

When we were in Montana this summer, we visited with some folks that had a tradition of banana splits when they had company. It was delicious and we had it more than once!

I have cleared my time significantly for the next several weeks so that I can focus more on the portion of my online material that actually generates some income. This website and blog are a significant part of that. As a result, there will be a number of changes and improvements here, some of which have already taken place.

My goal is to provide information that may be useful as well as links to other outdoor related resources in areas that I am interested in. Along the way, I will share photographs that I have taken and things that I have learned about places that we have been. On occasion I may share an anecdote or two.

The income that is generated on this site comes from the advertising that you see here and from affiliate sales through merchants such as Amazon.com. My primary focus will be on developing free outdoor related resources related to things I am interested in and that I hope many others are interested in. Changes made to improve the site’s income will be secondary to that.

One of the things that I will be doing in the weeks to come is going through the archives of this blog and deleting old posts that are minimal value. Some that are of marginal value will returned to draft for possible future articles. Some of the better one’s will probably be moved to an article page on the web-site.

Devil’s Walking Stick

We spent Saturday morning of our late autumn camping trip just lazing around the camper. Having spent somewhere around 90 nights in various campgrounds around the country in the last year, sometimes it’s nice to just have a lazy morning.

After lunch we decided to try a trail that we hadn’t hiked since the late 80s or early 90s. Seven Hollows Trail is 4 1/2 miles long loop trail that is rated moderate to hard. Despite its name, it actually only goes through 4 of the 7 hollows.

At this time of year, streams along the trail and in the hollows are normally either dry or just a small trickle. In the spring, though, water flows through at a pretty good rate at times. If it is raining, some parts of the trail could be a bit treacherous.

One of the things we both were looking for — though neither of us realized the other was looking for it — was a plant called the devil’s walking stick. It’s a woody plant that grows very straight — straight enough to make a good walking stick — and has very devilishly sharp thorns on it. We found quite a few. There are more images in the flikr set gallery for this trip.

A sign at the beginning of the trail warns not to take the trail during periods of high wind due to the potential of falling trees — dead trees killed years ago in a forest fire that burned through the Seven Hollows.

The summer of 2000 was hot with minimal rainfall. Just before Labor Day, a trash fire on private land outside the park got out of control and spread up the south side of Petit Jean Mountain towards Seven Hollows. As it burned in the hollows area, it primarily burned downed leaves and undergrowth. Along the ridges, though, strong winds pushed the fire along into a crown fire — where the fire moves at the top of the trees from crown to crown — a rarity in Arkansas fires. Trees along the ridges were decimated, while trees in the hollows for the most part survived.

On the trail, we saw several instances of trees having fallen across the trail. Several times we had to go over trees and in other instances, we had to go under — a couple of times we actually had to crawl under the dead trunks. The worst area was a place where the trail goes through a notch in the rocks about ten feet deep and several feet wide for a couple of hundred feet. Several trees had toppled across and into the crevice. To get past them we had to climb over and under the fallen timber. (See image below)

We were worn out by the end of the trail and, even though it was a cool day, probably should have taken more water with us. We had originally not planned to do the whole trail, so, though we were tired, it was a good feeling to have completed the whole thing.

All of the photos from this trip to Petit Jean are posted in my Petit Jean 2007 flikr set for those who may want to view them.

November 16, 2007 - Petit Jean State Park

We are on our final camping trip of the year — just a short one over the weekend. The weather will be changing on Monday and we need to get the camper home and winterized before the temperatures drop below freezing.

We got here in the middle of the afternoon and hadn’t thought to make a reservation in advance. We wanted a spot with full hookups and didn’t really think it would be a problem, even though it’s a weekend, as late in the year as it is. However, when we got here we found out that there were only 3 or 4 of the full hookup sites available. I guess we lucked out.

After we got everything all set up, we took a short walk along the shore of Lake Bailey over to the picknic area and then back to the campground along the road. The temperatures were just about right for camping, hovering in the upper fifties, though the sun was getting low in the sky. When we got back to the camper, I walked over to the shore of the lake, thinking I might get a few more photos and was treated to the sight of a small airplane doing aerial acrobatics. There were about a half a dozen small planes on the end of the runway of Petit Jean State Park Airport, which is situated just across Lake Bailey from the campground. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll be treated to some more fancy flying.

One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was try to publish material, including photos each day. All of the photos have been reviewed and the better ones have been cropped, edited and posted to flikr –It’s time for bed.