Beaver Lake and Leatherwood Lake

Today I went for a very pleasant hike at Leatherwood lake , a short distance from Beaver Lake, where I am staying. A lot of the trails around the much larger Beaver Lake are closed in the winter, as is Pivot Rock State Park . There is no particular reason for anything to be closed currently as the expected snow conditions are non-existent. But it seems that the winter closures are inflexible.

Although most of the trails around Leatherwood Lake were open (one crossing the dam was closed), some would have required wading through water where the level of the lake had risen, so were effectively inaccessible. Fortunately, there was enough choice to organize a nice loop, both next to the lake and through the forest. The photography was an exercise in - as Art Wolfe would say - making order out of chaos. I will let the reader be the judge as to wether I succeeded.

I stopped on the way back to grab dinner at Angler’s Restaraunt . I had to order the Arkansas State meal of fried catfish and hush puppies, with a side of pickled green tomatoes. It did not disappoint. Ronnie and Kelly took good care of me. Kelly turned me on to a local musical group that will be playing at a bar in Crystal Springs (20 minutes from my lodge) on Monday night. Apparently it is not to be missed. Stay tuned to see if I make it and how that turns out.

Additional images can be found in the Gallery.