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During the first weekend of October I had the chance to ride shotgun with my brother during one of his Jeep off road trips. This was a last a minute trip to the Hot Springs Off Road Park and only a few of the guys were able to go to the event. In all there were four rigs that were part of our little group. The plans were simple, several guys had a bucket list of 4 and 5 diamond trails (difficulty level – Higher the number, the harder the trail) and more to conquer.
Friday night we all met up and setup camp. We then planned to eat dinner and then do a late night run if the trails were open. Then get an early start Saturday and run as many trails as we can. Then do another late night run before bed. On Sunday we would run for a few more hours before packing up and leaving around lunch time.
Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned. My brother rolled his Jeep off the trailer to find is breaks were gone. A Toyota Tacoma started over heating , one of the other guys split his drive shaft on the trail, then broke it a few hours later, and finally the same guy had to leave Saturday night after his guys at work couldn’t figure out how to fix a problem that needed to be fixed before Sunday morning.
Overall it was a great weekend. All rigs were fixed and went home in working order. I learned a lot about off roading in the mountains of Arkansas. I even got to meet Ian Johnson of Extreme 4×4. I found some great hiking/camping spots for family trips, and the chance to visit with my brother next time he’s at the park. Its only four and half hours from me.
A Weekend at Hot Springs Off Road Park – Future Plans
After the trip I realized that I not only had a lot fun riding and hanging with the guys, but I love photographing and filming the off road rigs crawling over the rocks and through the creek beds. In the future I plan on bringing some better gear and working with the guys so I can get better pictures and video. At some point want to start selling images to the group and possibly getting hired out by other groups to document their off road adventures.
About the Images
Most of the images were shot with an old iPhone 6 and LG G4. Several pictures were taken with a Sony A6000 with a Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 Lens or a Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8 Wide-Angle Lens. The images were then edited using Adobe Lightroom to crop, straighten and clean up the images. I used Google NIK Collection (and sometimes Topaz Labs Clarity to help give some of the images that bit of extra details) to add detail, add contrast, and sharpen/remove noise. As always my images are for sale with or without the watermark in digital and prints. Please contact me via the contact page for more information.
About James
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