Shades of nature

This is the time of the year a when nature shows her true colors. I traveled with some friends to Little Rock AR Sunday to take a ride on the Arkansas Queen riverboat. We traveled up the Arkansas River to the Murray Locks and Dam. The trip took four hours and the scenery was spectacular.

I rode under many bridges on the trip. This is one of them.


Great scenery was everywhere.



Fire on the water! Look at the red tree in the middle and its reflection.



Big wheel keep on turning: The riverboat has a twin-screw propeller to drive the boat, so the paddlewheel is for show only.



Look at the reflection of colors in the water in this photo. It's so beautiful that Mother Nature wanted me to see it twice.



When the River Queen arrived at the dam, it entered the locks. Our boat was raised about 20 feet to continue our trip on the upper river.



West (and slightly north) of the dam, nature revealed more of her colors.



I cropped this one on a (horizontally) narrow basis. Look at the reflection in the river.



On the way back, we passed this on the north side of the river. It's called "The Big Rock." There's one on the south side that they call "The Little Rock," and that's where the city got its name. Look carefully and you can see that the moon has already risen.



This is the Little Rock skyline that I saw on my return.



Little Rock is the state capital. This is the state capitol building. (Did I spell those two words correctly?)



A trolley moves slowly, a speedboat travels fast.



They say not to shoot a photo into the sun, but I couldn't resist this one. Sunset on the river comes early with daylight saving time: