Exploring the Louisiana Landscapes
The weather the last few weekends has finally felt like fall, so my husband and I have been seizing the opportunity to pack up the car on Sundays and drive off to some remote hiking location with zero cell service, and truly enjoy our lives for the day. Between these fun excursions and soccer games for my three beautiful godchildren, I haven’t had much time to do some extra work for the studio like I had planned. Which is fine because this weather is scarce and fleeting here, so we must take advantage of it whenever we can. Just like how Mr. and Mrs. Cullen pull the kids out for camping in sunny weather. Ha!
Now that the 70 degree breezy days are a thing of the past here for the next few weeks, I am taking the opportunity to do some catching up. Like writing this blog post! And I promise the point isn’t to complain about the weather the whole time. While on these little adventures I was able to capture some really beautiful photographs of the Louisiana landscape. And let me tell you, when I’m not sweating profusely and being eaten alive by mosquitos, I truly have a little more admiration for this state that I’ve been itching to get out of for the past 8 years of my life. So I thought I’d share some of that admiration with you guys!
Kisatche National Forest, Valentine Lake Day Site
The first weekend we visited Kisatche National Forest. This is a hidden gem in north Louisiana that my friends and I found for a senior year camping trip in high school. When we first visited in late November, the air was cool, crisp, and the leaves were all shades of red, orange, and yellow ( something these south La kids had never seen in their state because it stays 90 degrees until December down here). It was truly the best camping trip of my life, and I’ve been a frequenter of the forest ever since. So this time I dragged my husband out to the Valentine Lake site to not only enjoy the weather, but to also do some astrophotography!
Astrophotography can be really tricky, you have to know how to use your camera settings and be able to adjust and troubleshoot on the fly, but it’s also the most rewarding form of photography in my opinion. Maybe it’s because I have a strong love for physics and a want to understand the world beyond our planet, but I think everyone should be stopping to look up at the night sky a little more often.
Spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy
If I could, I’d sit here and talk to you about astrophotography all day long, but that’s another blog post so lets move on.
The next location we visited was Chicot State Park, a local favorite down here and a fantastic place for hiking. There are tons of great trails all over the park, but I always like to make it a point of visiting the Louisiana State Arboretum, and my husband had never been, so that’s where we went! The Arboretum is comprised of several beautiful trails and we were able to explore two of them before the sunset, and the mosquitos, were upon us. This is were my beloved mushroom prints come from, as well as my most recent cypress grove picture that I shared (if you haven’t seen these, check out our social media!) We had so much fun that we decided to go back the next Sunday and bring our friends.
We woke up bright and early at 5:30 am, and were on the road by 6. It was cold enough to need a jacket, the bugs were non existent, and we were some of the only people in the park. This time, we explored a few new trails both in and outside of the Arboretum. It was a great morning of hiking and catching up with friends, something we’ve greatly missed in the past almost two years.
Louisiana State Arboretum, Pawpaw Loop Trail
Chicot State Park
Chicot State Park
And that’s all I have to share with you today friends. I promise to share more of my favorites spots in the future, and once the weather is nice again, I hope to run into some of you out there!
Until then take care, and know that I’ll be dreaming about nice, cool weather with you while we wait for winter to fully descent upon us.
