Lake Catherine State Park

November 19, 2016. Off work for the Thanksgiving week Donna and I took a three night trip to Lake Catherine State Park. Lake Catherine is located in Hot Springs county in the Ouachita mountains. After a November week with 80+ degree highs fall finally arrived. Daytime temperatures had dropped to 50's with lows below freezing. Below are pictures Donna took on Highway 9 south of Williams Junction as we first got into the national forest.

 

Being a retired Entergy employee the history of the Ouachita River and its dams has always been interesting to me. The 1940 acre Lake Catherine was formed in 1924 when Arkansas Power and Light (now Entergy Arkansas) constructed Remmel Dam on the Ouachita River for hydroelectric power production.

Sunday we stayed in the campground and took a hiking tour around the entire campground. 

From the lake front camping area you can see Entergy's Lake Catherine Powerplant.  Lake Catherine Powerplant is a four unit oil and natural gas fired plant first constructed in 1950.

Lake Catherine Powerplant

Monday we took a drive into Hot Springs for lunch and some shopping. On the return trip we stopped at Entergy Park at Carpenter Dam. Upstream on the Ouachita River from Lake Catherine is Entergy's Carpenter Dam built by Arkansas Power and Light in 1931.

In the evening it was campfire and burgers on the BBQ grill. It seemed appropriate that on our Thanksgiving weekend trip we spent so much time enjoying things that Entergy has provided us. Beyond flipping a switch and expecting that lights come on, we are starting our Entergy retirement. Our Heartland camping trailer and the GMC we use to pull it are the rewards of a 37 year career at Arkansas Nuclear One. Then there are the lakes where we have enjoyed so much time that were built by Arkansas Power and Light visionaries who understood the benefits of diverse power sources including hydroelectric, natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear power. 

Nana and Pops Rock!

Waveland Park Campground

On October 21, 2016 I took the short drive to Waveland Park Campground on Blue Mountain Lake by myself to setup for a four day weekend. The park is south of Waveland Arkansas just west of Havana off state highway 10. Blue Mountain Lake is an impoundment of the Petit Jean River.  Water from the reservoir is discharged via a tunnel through the mountain at the southeast end of the lake. The tunnel emerges at Outlet Park which is divided into Outlet Park Left and Outlet Park Right with a steep canal between that is the entire volume of the diverted Petit Jean River. 
I setup campsite #27 by myself and enjoyed a quiet Friday night. Nighttime temperatures were in the low 40's with a low reported at Boonville of 38 degrees. Donna came around noon on Saturday with Brayden and Hannah.

Sunday morning Brayden and I went fishing and caught nothing from the bank of the lake so we went to Outlet Park (Right Side over the mountain). The water flow was very low, but we were able to find a small pool out on the rocks of the canal where I caught only one small catfish. 

By Saturday afternoon the crowds started to arrive for the weekend and by evening most of the campground was full.

Sunday morning while Brayden and I were fishing the girls were back at the campsite making Play-Doh art.

 

Hannah and I took a walk to the edge of the lake and she took the pictures below with my Nikon SLR camera. The cypress trees were starting to show some fall color that Hannah captured pretty well.

After returning from fishing Sunday morning we all took a day trip to Mount Magazine State Park for lunch. Blue Mountain Lake can be seen from the south side of the Mount Magazine State Park lodge.

Sunday afternoon Jessica, Juan and their friend Teresa came up for the evening. Donna left late in the evening with them to caravan back to Russellville. Not having to go to school on Monday, Hannah and Brayden were able to stay with me Sunday night. 

Monday morning we got up, had a big breakfast and took a ride down to the lake for another attempt at fishing.  We came away with the same results as the previous day (empty handed). Brayden and Hannah enjoyed the fishing all the same.

Hannah and Brayden were a big help breaking camp on Monday morning. Hannah even helped me dump the waste tanks at the dump station.