Shine Eye Bluff

Today, I drove to Mountain View, Arkansas, for several days of caving fieldwork. Tomorrow, I'll be underground monitoring one of two known populations of the endangered Hell Creek cave crayfish. It's been a while since I've been in this cave, so it should be a fun trip. On Wednesday, I'll be spending some time in Blanchard Springs Caverns looking for a rare cave pseudoscorpion and collecting soil samples for a fungi study. Thursday, I'll be visiting a few springs looking for rare isopod crustaceans.

Usually on my way to Mountain View, I stop at a place on the Buffalo National River known as Shine Eye Bluff. I love stopping here, because it's a beautiful place to sit and relax for a while. Today, standing on the gravel bar and looking at the river was a great treat. Here are a couple of pictures.

Shine Eye Bluff. This gravel bar is a great place to camp.

Looking downstream from Shine Eye Bluff.

Wild Sweet William was blooming in the woods along the road to Shine Eye Bluff. I can't remember seeing this wildflower in bloom so early in the year.