Click here for Part I.
Our arrival at Hot Springs National Park culminated with a
beautiful sunset. So I decided to tempt fate the next morning and see if we could catch an equally beautiful sunrise.
Taryn and I got into the park before 6 a.m. to hike to Goat Rock. The skies looked promising en route, with a crescent moon peeking through the trees along the trail.
We were once again rewarded with wonderful colors in the sky, and a vantage point that provided some nice top framing from overhanging branches. I eventually reached up and snapped off the one in the upper left without any needles that sticks straight down and ends in a little "Y." I wish I'd done it sooner -- it distracts me a little in this otherwise nice shot.
We waited as the colors faded and the sun emerged over the hilltops so I could get my obligatory solar flare shot, then headed back.
I'm honestly not at all sure how Goat Rock got its name. It looks nothing at all like a goat to me.
Blooms were emerging on a few hardy plants here in late winter. Not surprising given the warm temperatures this season.
Taryn agreed to clamber up this tree trunk for a portrait, though I ended up preferring this candid shot of her "in action" to the ones where she ended up posing.
The clouds had thickened by the time we got back to the trailhead. So I didn't get nice golden light on
Gulpha Creek like I had right after sunrise.
Clouds or no, I'm always going to stop to shoot waterfalls and cascades. They're like
pretzel bites on a restaurant menu for me -- pretty much irresistible.
So we were 2 for 2 on sunrises and sunsets to start the trip. I promised Taryn that with that sort of success, I wouldn't make her get up that early again over the next few days. Seemed like a fair deal for a 12-year-old girl who agreed to spend half her spring break driving around Arkansas and Oklahoma with her dad. :)
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