Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Richland Creek

We had not been to Richland Creek in years. When we were nearly there Jeff mentions that there had been a landslide in the Spring of 2008. He hoped that the road was open. WHAT.. your telling me NOW! We have been on the road for hours, and your telling me now.
Well here is the South road into the campground.


I didn't get pictures of the signs on the road that stated the campgrounds were closed until further notice.
So we look at our handy dandy Topo Map of Arkansas. We saw another campground at the point where the Buffalo runs into Richland Creek. So we drive for about an hour. Apparently, we missed the turn to the other campground and end up at the North side of the Richland Creek area. Cool, huh? This is what we found.

Did that keep us from camping. Nah, we found a way to drive around the barrier and camp anyway. The campground looked fine.

Well this was short lived. The next morning the boss of the Rangers came by with his son and said that the Rangers would be by later giving tickets to campers in the campground. Thankfully we were not the only violators. So we quickly packed up and moved. Not what you want to do first thing in the morning.
The next site was not quite as cozy as you will see. Notice in the picture above it is grassy and flat. Our new site was rocky and on a slight slope.


We had a great time fishing and watching the weather change over the mountain. It rained off and on Saturday.

Jeff and one of his small mouth bass. This is his favorite fish to catch.

Adam caught a couple of fish too.


Big spooky black clouds moving in.


Kids swimming in the freezing cold water.

Jeff caught a big crawfish and boiled it. We even served it on a silver platter.

We had planned on staying until Monday, but the weather got worse. Sunday morning it rained and and rained. We got up and were packed and outta there by 8:10am. It rained nearly all the way home (4-5 hours of driving).

Now we are in the planning stages for our trip to Wyoming.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Home, Home on the Range....

For starters, because of rain, rain and more rain we have yet to go camping! The old wives tale that if it rains on the 1st day of the month it will rain for 15 days is holding true this month. Today is the 14th and guess what... it is raining! We are really hoping that we can go May 22nd.

Some exciting, too me, news is that I have made the decision that I will go with Jeff to Wyoming this summer. Nearly every summer a group of men young and old make the LONG drive to Pinedale, Wyoming. From here they put on some backpacks and take off into the back country. They spend several days hiking, fishing, talking, eating, camping, etc. It is really a great time for them.
I have requested vacation time during their absence. My plan was to sit at home and wait for my husbands return. How boring would that be. I had plans to go and see my sister for a day or two and I was going to take the kids to Shreveport for a day. So we weren't without a plan, but still.
I have always wanted to go up that way and see the sights. I love the mountains!
I decided that we would just go and stay in town at a campground. We have a tent and sleeping bags and everything we need to make it our home for a week.
We leave on July 22nd and return around August 1st. While there we will visit Mammoth Hot Spring and Yellowstone. I am sure to take hundreds of photos :)