As the weather cools I am always inspired to get out more.  The heat has melted away and the pesky bugs have gone into hiding.  Camping is our outing of choice this year.  We always say we are going to go more but have never found the time or actually made the plans.  But not this year.  This year I made reservations at a state park each month till the end of the year.

With two kids in college we have found it to be impossible to get everyone’s schedules in the right alignment.  So the only choice was just to make the dates and hope for the best.  Petit Jean State Park was our first foray back into the camping scene.  It’s only a 45 minute drive from our house so it makes it a very easy trip.

And it was on that Saturday while the rest of my family enjoyed the comfy environment of the CCC room at Mather Lodge to watch the Alabama football game that I decided to hike down the Cedar Falls Trail.  This trail leads down the walls of the Cedar Creek Canyon along the floor to a 95 foot waterfall.  It was the waterfall I was after.  I wanted to sketch it.  I wanted to illustrate more of the famous natural beauty of our state.  And here I was with one of the most recognizable ones right at the doorstep of my camping tent.  I was going.

I’d heard tales of the trail.  That it was a doozy.  Of all the people the rangers have had to assist out of the trail because it proved to strenuous. Of tragic wrong steps.  But I am one of the most cautious people I know.  I’d take it slow.  Because of course I’d be stopping to take pictures of everything along the way.  I packed a backpack with a bottle of water and some art supplies.  You know, the essentials. (Check below for my supplies.)

Trees and rocks and delicate undergrowth surround you on the trail.  It reminded me of my treks into the woods behind my house as a kid.  Visually it was everything I had dreamed it would be.  Deciding to go on a beautiful early fall Saturday left the dream of a quiet walk in the woods back on my pillow in my tent.  While I had decided to hike down into the canyon alone, I was far from it.  There were a bazillion other couples, families, and youth groups parading up and down the trail.  I spent most of the hike in either speeding up of slowing down to escape the noisiest and most obnoxious ones. I am sure that sounds very high handed but I usually visit the park during the week and am not used to that many people be there.

Once I reached the waterfall, I hopped out onto rocks in the middle of the water.  At this point I didn’t care who’s “turn” I was jumping in front of.  It was every perfect view searcher for themselves.  Pulling out art supplies in public can be odd sometimes.  It can attract more attention than you want so planting myself out on rocks in the middle of a creek is actually a very safe spot.  All I could manage was a quick drawing in my watercolor sketchbook.  There were just too many people crawling around for me to enjoy the whole process.  I packed up my supplies. being careful that nothing ended up in the water and headed back the way I had come.

Climbing in isn’t the real challenge.  It’s climbing out that seems like it will kill you. Once you reach the wall of the canyon its a straight up zigzag that hadn’t caught my attention on the way in.  This was how I came down hadn’t reverse engineered itself in my mind that climbing back out would involve a lot more gravity, a lot more oxygen, and a lot more praying.

“I am not going to die in this canyon! I am NOT going to die.  This will not kill me.  This will not kill me.”

I didn’t care about who my surrounding hikers were.  We were all in the same boat.  Well it was most of us and that one shirtless trail runner guy that almost flattened us wheezing masses as we attempted to drag ourselves up the wall of the canyon.

“I will not die on this hike.  This is not going to kill me.”

*Gasp*

“This is not going to kill me.”

*GASP*

*GASP*

*GASP*

And it didn’t.  I am sure it was my over reaching stubbornness that kept me going.  My reward was lunch and beer at the lodge with an amazing view over the canyon I didn’t die in.

I finished my illustration of Cedar Falls Waterfall with my favorite drawing pens and watercolors.  I am looking forward to finding other beautiful spots around the state to illustrate.  It’s not hard to do in Arkansas.