What could be better than a father/daughter weekend?  Well, for starters, you could spend it taking photos, assuming you are both into that.  Lucky for us, we are.  Even better, you could spend the weekend on the Buffalo River.  Better still, you could get lucky and in addition to finding some natural wonders, you could stumble across a couple of culinary marvels.  We hit the jackpot. 

After a late start on Saturday morning, we hit the Glory Hole first.  The hike in is not bad at all.  It’s down hill most of the way.  More on that later.  Despite rain during the week, the water flow was not ideal.  That’s OK, we now know how to find it and plan on coming back during a rainy fall weekend.  We did manage a few shots.  Some of mine are posted in my Arkansas Gallery.  Remember how I said it was downhill the whole way in?  A twist on the old saying is that what goes down, must come up.  The hike out was more difficult, but doable. 

Glory Hole crossed off the bucket list, we continued on to Ponca.  After all, we were hungry.  I must admit, I was expecting more.  The sign at Buffalo Outdoor Center says, “Ponca, Population 13.”  I don’t know if that is accurate, but it can’t be far off.  A deli sandwich wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.  Off to Jasper.  It’s only 14 miles.  Who knew it could take nearly an hour to go 14 miles.  That road makes the Pig Trail seem like an interstate highway.  Luckily, we did find the road to our cabin along the way.

All  I can say is that I am soooo glad we went to Jasper for lunch.  Driving through the quaint little hamlet, we spotted a taco trailer.  Those of you that know me know that I am a sucker for a good taco.  If it is served out of a vintage trailer, all the better.  Who knew you could find gourmet tacos in Arkansas, let alone Jasper.  MC and I feasted on beef and zucchini tacos, avocado and cheese tacos and I even splurged and tried a quinoa and sweet-potato taco.  All topped with fresh cilantro.  As a bonus, we had fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade.  All I can say is that if you ever find yourself in Jasper, you owe it to yourself to seek out the taco lady.  You can find her on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tartstreetcart.

With bellies full of tacos, we set out for Twin Falls, even though there are actually three falls, sort of.  This was high on our list, primarily because it is only a .5 mile round-trip hike.  This is a hike that anyone can do.  It is also another waterfall that I will revisit in the fall after a good rain.  We only got about two and a quarter falls on this trip.  Again, there are some pictures in the Arkansas Gallery.

After Twin Falls, we checked into our cabin at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch.  Really neat place.  Great cabin, sketchy wi-fi.  I would recommend HCR to anyone.  Checked in, downloaded photos, did a little posting waiting for better light.  The side benefit was resting my tired dogs for awhile.  As the sun started going down, we made the short trip back over to Roark Bluff.  It was a little hazy but we managed to get a few decent shots.  I would imaging that the bluff is stunning in the fall when the leaves turn.  Not to sound like a broken record, but I can’t wait to come back in the fall and winter.

After photographing the Bluff, we were headed back to Jasper, maybe for more tacos, you never know.  It was late, and I really was not wanting to make that 14 mile trip again so we took a chance and stopped at the Low Gap Café.  Another pretty sketchy looking place, but there were a lot of people there.  We thought, it either good, or it’s the only place to eat for miles.  Lucky for us, it was the former.  Walking in, I’m thinking at least I can probably get a cheese burger.  You know I like them.  This is one of those times where looks can really be deceiving.  I had shrimp carbonara that was out of sight. The menu was mind boggling.  I know I sound like the Terminator, but, “I’ll be back.”  To boot, we get a live band, Whistling Dixie.  What’s not to like about old Hank Williams, Jr. and Marshall Tucker songs.

Back to the cabin, actually called the Appaloosa, for some more photo downloading, blog writing, Facebook posting and bed.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Appaloosa is a television poor environment.  All in all, we had a great day.

Day two didn’t start quite as early as we planned either.  I managed to hit the snooze button a couple two or three times.  That was OK because it turned out to be a hazy morning and we didn’t really want to venture off into uncharted, for us anyway, territory.  On the menu for day two, the Lost Valley and Eden Falls.

As we started up Clark Creek, I was more than a little skeptical.  It was, after all, West Texas dry.  For those of you that have never visited West Texas, that’s pretty damn dry.  I can measure annual rainfall in feet where I live, whereas my folks in West Texas measure annual rainfall in centimeters.  But hey, we were there and we pressed on.  I had read that much of the water along Clark Creek flows in subterranean channels except during periods of heavy rain.

Our first stop was the Natural Bridge, just past the Jigsaw Blocks, more on those later.  There is a small waterfall at the Natural Bridge, and to my amazement, it was flowing.  However, the more interesting feature of Natural Bridge is above the falls, where you can, if you are careful, follow the stream through a tunnel that is about 50 feet long through a block of limestone.  For me, the best part of the natural bridge was, however, the wild columbines growing out of the rock.

Columbine On Clark Creek

Back on the trail, which is fortunately rock steps, we headed further up the canyon to Eden Falls.  Luckily, there was a little water and we made it before the sun was spilling into the canyon so we were able to get some decent shots, a few of which are in the Arkansas Gallery.  I also took the time to bracket some exposures so I could try my hand at HDR.  We’ll see how that goes.   We did go to the entrance of the cave above Eden Falls with flashlights in hand, but we decided that we would probably enjoy it better when we didn’t have to consider our cold blooded neighbors.

On the way back down, the sun was filling the forest, waterfall shooting was pretty much done, so we took our time and enjoyed the well manicured trail back to the truck.  Also took some time to photograph Mary Claire on the Jigsaw Blocks.

After getting to the truck, we had trouble talking over the sound of our stomachs growling.  We also figured that we could probably get to Fayetteville in about the same amount of time as it would take to make it back to the Taco Trailer.  Go West my child.  As luck would have it, we actually made it to Springdale in time to each lunch with the whole family and catch Will’s semi-final baseball game.

What a perfect weekend with my daughter.  We had a great time doing something we both love to do, ate well and caught some lucky breaks along the way.