Artist Point
April 11 & 16, 2005
More often than not we have these small
weather systems come through and only drop rainfall in isolated
areas, so I pay a lot of attention to the radar images on
television and the internet to see where the waterfalls might
be running. It looked like northern Crawford County was the
place to be following some Sunday night and Monday morning
rains, problem was there weren’t any waterfalls in that
area that were on The List. A quick check of the waterfall guidebook suggested Artist Point. I had this (incorrect)
notion that the waterfalls were small and not worth a tough
hike, but it was a short drive so I took the afternoon off from
work and headed that way.
As it turned out, the steep but short hike
down a good trail wasn’t that bad, and the waterfalls
were really nice. I didn’t have too much daylight left
and had to walk right on past a bunch of stuff I normally would
have stopped and enjoyed, including wildflowers, a small
natural rock bridge, and indian carvings. I first spent about a
half hour at a series of falls above where the trail ends.
There were at least three more levels of
falls below the trail’s end. It was getting pretty dark
by the time I shot pictures there. The falls are on the east
side of the mountain and in shadow at sunset.
It really bugged me that I came away from
the Artist Point trail with nothing but waterfall pictures, so
the following Saturday morning I returned to photograph the
other stuff. I took in the sunrise from a nice deck beside the
Artist Point Gift Shop. You never hear the term “spring
foliage” but it’s almost as nice as fall foliage,
especially when it’s lit up by the early morning or late
evening sun.
Back down along the trail, I found the
Crested Irises had started to bloom. There hadn’t been
any blooms earlier in the week. The small pink Rue Anemones
were still putting on a show, and the drooping yellow Bellwort
flowers dotted the hillside. I also saw a lot of purple Wood
Violet but didn’t get any good photos of them.
The natural rock bridge was a single
block-shaped boulder spanning a small feeder stream. There were
indian carvings in two different rock formations along the
trail. The carvings had been highlighted with paint to make
them stand out.
Before leaving I wanted to get a
picture of the gift shop especially for this web page. I shot
pictures from several different angles and distances, and
picked the one that best shows how this landmark is nestled in
the Ozarks.
