Favorite Places

                        
                           

The Ouachita from Indian Lookout

                
The Ouachita River crosses the southeast corner and constitutes part of the boundary of ULM's Charles Allen Biological Station. This is the view from Indian Lookout, a point on the bluffs overlooking the river.

For those who are curious, "Ouachita" comes from two Choctaw words: ouac = buffalo + chito = large. The river rises in the Ouachita Mountain region of western Arkansas where herds of buffalo roamed the prairies. It crosses Louisiana at an angle and flows into the Red River.

When I first moved to Louisiana, I missed the brilliant fall colors of the mountain ridges in central Pennsylvania where I had been living for seven years and the brilliant fall colors of southeastern Iowa where I grew up. But the longer I am here, the more I appreciate the subtle winter colors of Louisiana, in this photo, the tree on the point with its copper leaves still attached, the blush of red in the bushes below, the tinges of red and green in the trees on the other side.

This January day a cold wind came off the river and numbed my nose and fingers. It's hard to take pictures with gloves on! Looking forward to going back when the weather is balmier.