If you live within driving distance of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, you really must check it out.  It is AMAZING.  The building itself is worth the visit.  Since it’s opened in November, I’ve been 3 times, and although I’ve seen all of the current collection (400 works…there’s another 2k in storage!!) I’ve just started to stratch the surface of the audio tours and the trails surrounding the museum.  I’ve been to MoMA in New York, and I had more moments of art nerd-dom at Crystal Bridges.  It really is spectacular.  I’m so excited that such a significant museum is in the community that I live and work.

For the uninformed, you can check out this recent review by the New York Times.

All pics below are from the recently acquired Fuji x100.  I’ve been on a tare lately looking for a compact camera that has the quality I want but is easier to carry than a big heavy SLR.  Like the third bowl of porridge, this one is just right.

Have you been to Crystal Bridges yet?!  Tell me what you thought about it in the comments!

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Lost Valley, © js|Photo

Back in October, Meg and I took a wonderful trip to the Buffalo River National Park in the height of fall color.  We actually are in the area pretty reguraly . . . it’s within a couple hours of our home and we spend quite a bit of time climbing at the  *incredible*  Horseshoe Canyon Ranch which is in the area.

In our first year and a half of marriage, we’ve learned that for most vacations, we would rather go somewhere suited for adventuring rather than big city.  Most cities are pretty much the same, but there is so much variety and beauty in the world.  If I want to see a mall, I can go down the street.  If we want to see Garden of the Gods, we need to go there.

We’ve talked about taking a Buffalo River vacation for a while, but continued to put it on the backburner.  There are so many areas here in the continental US that would be awesome to go to (Cannon Beach, Yellowstone, and the Tetons to name a few.)  We originally wanted to do a Pacific NW trip, but we’re in the process of knocking out debt, and decided it’d be better to do something a little closer to home.

WE HAD A BLAST.  We are so incredibly blessed to live so close to such a wonderfully beautiful and diverse area here in Arkansas.  Arkansas nature photographer, Tim Ernst, calls Buffalo River National Park the Yosemite of Arkansas.  We’ve not been to Yosemite (yet!) but the Buffalo River area is wonderfully beautiful and diverse.

Our first day didn’t go quite according to plan, but it was still great.  We had planned to go to Round Rock Mountain Trail, which is south of Jasper on Hwy 7.  The guidebook said that there was an old bomber plane that had crashed in that area and was featured on the trail!  Unfortunately, we found out after talking to a local that the trail had been closed for quite a while due to a landslide and there were no plans to restore it.  BUMMER.

We then decided to check out Sam’s Throne instead.  Sam’s Throne is known nationally for amazing traditional climbing.  I’ve been wanting to go for a while, so we decided to make a hiking trip out of it and scout the location.  We really enjoyed the area.  We’ll have to come back sometime with the intention to climb.

Day 2 was rainy, but the color was amazing.  We decided to check out Mystic Caverns which is north of Jasper on Hwy 7.  It was a good stop, but it’s probably a “good to go once” kind of thing.  They feature two pretty spectacular caves, but unfortunately, they’ve been built out with steps and lighting to make it a commercial enterprise.  I had mixed feelings about it.  If the cave hadn’t been touched, we wouldn’t have gotten to see it, but the spotlights and stair rails made it a little cheesy.  Would have been cool to go with a group, repel down and ascend out.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Lost Valley, which is close to Ponca.  Beautiful trail with some pretty spectacular features.  First time I’ve been there in the fall.  I think it was our favorite location on the trip.  We’ll have to come back in the spring when the wildflowers start to bloom.

Day 3 was Buffalo Outdoor Center’s zip-line tour.  Overall, the experience was good, but I think my expectations were a little too high. I imagined ziplining from one bluff to another over the Buffalo River.  Not so much.  Mainly zipping from this tree to that tree over there.  That said, the staff were awesome and it was an enjoyable experience.

We spent the afternoon hiking to Big Bluff via the Centerpoint Trailhead.  It’s a nice, challenging hike.  3+ miles  (6+ roundtrip) down and back up a pretty steep grade, with a payoff getting to walk along a bluff line several hundreds of feet above the Buffalo River.  It was a little more stressful hike with just Meg and I.  I think I prefer that one with a group of folks due to the fairly dangerous bluff portion at the end.  You do not want to fall.  We did get to sit on the bluff and watch hawks swoop down from the ledge directly over us.  *wwwwWWWooooshhh*  Pretty cool.

We wrapped it up with a day of clmbing at Horseshoe Canyon.  Would have loved to have another day.  There is just a ton of stuff to do in the area.  It was a wonderful trip.  If you’re planning on visiting, I’d highly encourage you to pick up one of Tim Ernst’s guidebooks.  They have great info on the trails, and of course, Tim’s  wonderful photography.   We used the Arkansas Nature Lover’s guidebook.

BTW – all photos in this post were taken with the Sony Nex-3 with 16  f 2.8 lens.  We brought the big camera, but it was so convienent to carry the Nex that the Nikon never came out of the bag.  You can check out an awesome field test of this camera over at our friends Photography Concentrate.

We’re always looking for a new place to adventure.  Do you have a favorite place close to home?  If so, drop a comment and let me know!

Hope you enjoy the pics.  ~ Joshua

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Just click a photo to enlarge and use your arrow keys to navigate.

Hope you all enjoy the pics.

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Matt and AB are owners in the local chapter of Happy Feet and Legends Soccer here in Northwest Arkansas.  It’s a really cool program that teaches kids as young as preschool the fundamentals of Brazilian style soccer.  You can learn more about Happy Feet here.

Hope you guys enjoy the photos.  The format is a little different than the old blog.  Just click a photo to enlarge.

If you haven’t seen the site in a while, take a look around!  Lots of new stuff!

Take care,

~ Joshua

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Thanks to my wife and the magic that is Pandora, I’ve gotten really into independent, singer-songwriter types. Put in something you like, and Pandora (or any number of competing music services) will faithfully serve up other gems.   My music choices end up being a little obscure, so I thought it would be fun to let you all know what I’m listening too.

Anyway, a while back, Pandora picked up a song by “The Tallest Man on Earth.”   This guy is an incredible guitar player and makes really musically interesting choices.   His voice is a little raspy, sometimes venturing towards harsh, but overall, he has a really unique sound.

Some of my favorite tracks include:

Where do my Bluebird Fly from the Album “Shallow Grave”

Burden of Tomorrow from the Album “The Wild Hunt”

Steal Tomorrow from the Album “The Tallest Man on Earth”

Here’s a concert for NPR’s Tiny Desk series:

Do you have a favorite artist to recommend?  If so, leave it in the comments!

Have a great Monday!

~ Joshua

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If you’re looking for the old blog, you can check it out here.