We have had some *gorgeous* fall weather here lately- 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! :) We decided to take advantage of it this weekend and drove up to Ft. Payne, Alabama to do some hiking in the Little River Canyon / Desoto State Park area.
This is honestly one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been- I absolutely love it here! :) It’s only about 1.5 hours from our house, so we try to come here often. :)
The falls were really powerful this weekend- this is probably the most I’ve ever seen them running!
I love this place because it’s so interactive- you can walk right out on top of the falls, climb on the rocks, wade in the creek…
There’s even a nice trail to the bottom of the canyon, and when it’s warmer you can jump right in for a swim- right underneath the falls! :)
It was such a beautiful day to be out there- the mist in this picture is coming right up off the falls. :)
Best of all, it’s a great place to bring the whole family. ;)
This picture cracks me up! Miley and Howie are always so excited to go hiking. :)
After lunch, we went over to Desoto State Park and hiked the Azalea Cascade trail. We ran into a couple of cute little falls on this trail. :)
We stopped for a break by the creek and Howie couldn’t resist finding something to play with!
There were these huge, awesome rock formations along the trail! We had to climb them, of course! :D Miley and Howie loved it. :)
Couldn’t resist stopping to get a few family pics too. ;)
Thanks so much for looking! :)
Loved the pictures…such beautiful scenery. I also loved the dogs. They are so cute! Y’all make a great looking family. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Found you through pinterest, but I was drawn to this posting. I went to summer camp every year in Mentone for 10 years, and I consider this my home away from home. I went back this summer to bring my daughter to the same summer camp, and it was if time stood still there. I truly think it is one of the most special place I’ve ever been! Thanks for sharing :-)
born in Ft. Payne it has always been hard to convince anyone how special the falls and canyon are. Thanks for the photos and war eagle.
You have some awsome photos. We live in Birmingham, and go to the falls at least once a year. We love it there too.
Thanks for sharing your pretty pictures!
Beautifull nature!
Greetings from Holland!
Excellent pictures. Thanks for sharing them.
I love your site! I have a Boston Terrier too so I loved seeing the photos of Miley and Howie – especially that one of them climbing! So Cute! I love their website too! :D
Amanda,
I so enjoy your blog/pictures/fonts! I have to say I spend a lot of time looking at your blog. I’m a teacher, so I don’t have a ton of time, but the time I do have, I enjoy playing with pictures and improving my own blog. Thanks for the inspiration! I’m looking into a new “fancy” camera for Christmas, but I have a lot to learn! Keep up the good work. I LOVE your site! (I myself also have two doggie babies that are a huge part of my blog too)!
WAR EAGLE! Fabulous pics! Just found your website… it is great :)
Loved the pictures!!! I live in Huntsville and need to go see these falls! I have never been!! And I have to say WAR EAGLE!! Hugs, Laura
Love Little River Falls – used to go there all the time with the scouts when I was scout master
Wow I love to get to see where you have been it is beautiful and thank you for letting us enjoy along with you both and Milie & Howie.
Gail & Henry Evans
Wow! The pics are gorgeous! We’re from Alabama too, and last time we went to Little River Canyon, a couple of summers ago, it was really dry. It looks beautiful now!
Love the photos :) Thanks for sharing them — the poches look like they must have slept well that night!
Beautiful photos of the landscape, the “kids” and you guys!
edyB
Beautiful pictures.
Holy smokes!!! I haven’t been her for a bit and a half and I concur with all the wonderful comments about your pic skills and how great your family is. BUT…I MUST comment on how fab you and your honey look! I’ve searched and searched and am assuming you are on some fabulous weight-loss regime? You both look wonderful!!!
Off to check out the fab digi-scrapping stuff!!
This is gorgeous! Absolutely LOVELY!
what a beautiful place and i love the family pics!!! dogs are too cute :-)
Hey Amanda! Love these pics…they are sooo good. Thanks for sharing!
I don’t know what settings you use but I love how the water looks on those pics. It’s gorgeous. BTW you guys are looking really slim. What’s the trick? Lots of peanut butter cup cake? LOL Hey…a girl can dream, right?
hey. this is soo funny, do you no the writer of “by his design” well thats my mom. me my sister my mom and dad went on the exact same hike!!!lol its so funny.im gonna follow you btw, sorry if i miss spell im in 6th grade. lmbo!
Wonderful pics, Amanda! I awarded you… come see my blog (http://jewelsbyjulia-lauren.blogspot.com) for details. :) Not sure if you do awards or not, but I just had to award you because I love your blog! :D
Julia
your pictures are FABULOUS… did you have someone take them of the family or did you have a tripod and a timer? i’m enamored with them… the color and clarity!
Amanda, You are truly a talented photographer. Such beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous family pics you have taken again. How did you get Howie to stand on that rock behind you and pose? Wayyy tooo cute. Thanks for sharing, Becky
Gorgeous!!! (Photos and family!)
Your pictures are beautiful…thanks for sharing :)
Loved all your pictures! How do you get such great pictures of all of you and how do you get the dogs to look at the camera??? Did you use a tripod and timer?? I can never get the dogs to look!! Those pics would make great Christmas card material!!
Hey girls! Thanks so much for all your sweet comments! :) I have the Canon XTi and I used the 24-70 2.8 L lens for these pics- Here’s a list of the rest of my camera and equipment info if anyone’s interested! :)
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/contact.html#camera
To get the soft look for the waterfalls, I just set the shutter speed to 1/4 – works every time! :) You pretty much need to use a tripod, but if you can steady the camera on a rock, tree, fence, etc, and have a pretty steady hand, you can probably get by without the tripod. I was hand-holding the camera in this pic:
I love the pics! I want to take the kids up there. We went north of Cullman saturday and it was a beautiful drive out in the country! I am going to show the hubby these pics! Love the Auburn shirts, War Eagle!
Those pictures are insane! They look unreal I love your camera, i think i need to go get me one!
OMG Amanda!! I love all of these pictures!!! Amazingly beautiful and serene! :) I’m jealous hahaha. Did you do any HDR on some of the pictures with just waterfalls? Wish we had a place like this close by our home in California.
I love the pictures! Fall is my favorite season. That is, until Spring arrives. Ha! What settings did you use on your camera to get the soft effect of the falls? Those should be blown up and framed on a wall. Gorgeous!
Hi Kevin & Amanda!
Just gorgeous….absolutely just gorgeous!
I had to chuckle tho, I am from Michigan. In our Upper Pennisula area we have the Tahquamenon Falls, and the lower falls are very much like you described. You also were wearing a Tigers shirt….had you not mentioned you were in Alabama…you could have passed for being in Michigan!!! hehe
Go Detroit Tigers! (sorry had to root for our home team!)
I thought exactly the same thing! Amanda’s pix reminded me so much of Tahquamenon Falls!
Beautiful location, great family photos…thanks for sharing with us that can’t be there in person.
Beautiful beautiful pictures! I love the motion of the falls in the first few pictures!
Looks like a beautiful place.
Amazing pictures, they are so clear and beautiful! What camera are you using? Please let us know, especially w/ Christmas coming up:) I need to find a spot here in Dallas somewhere for our family photos!
WOW! I love, love, love the photos your camera takes! They are SO vivid it appears that I could reach out and touch the beautiful colors of the landscape! Want to give us a little hint as to what cam that is??! *Ü*
Kevin, Amanda ~ you have a gorgeous family ~ and what *beautiful* photos you got!! Would that by chance be an Auburn University T you have on? As in Alabama? I lived in B’ham several years quite a while back! I’m now in the gorgeous mountains of VA and most color is gone up here ~ well, up here on the mountain tops! Down in the cities there’s still some gorgeous colors.
I could not believe what vivid colors WE got this year! I believe it was the rain we got right before the colors began to change.
Anyway, I *HAD* to let you know that your photos are absolutely stunning and I KNOW you MUST be totally proud of “Your Family Photos”, Autumn 2009!
Hugs!
Joni
*Ü*
Great pictures, what a beautiful place to go for a day outing!! Love Howie and Miley, my daughter has a Boston named Logan!
These pictures are Really Pretty!!! Love em!
Like the way u & Kevin look so happy 2! Too many times it isn’t that way! :)
I LoOoVe these pictures! In Texas we don’t have near the Fall colors that you do, so I am envious! Also, the pics with the mist remind me of “Pocahontas” – tee hee. Thank you for sharing! :)
These photos are gorgeous! I want to hike there. :)
I love that you took photos of yourselves too, that’s awesome (and you 4 are totally adorable!)
What a beautiful area! :) Great pictures – the family ones are the best! It looks like you all had fun.
Beautiful photos….I love waterfalls!
Oh wow, your photos are amazing. Love how you’ve captured the waterfall in slowmo. You must have used a very low shutterspeed. The surroundings on this hike is absolutely breathtaking. TFS.
Hugs
Desire
Beautiful pictures. I especially love your T-shirts. Go Tigers, War Eagale Baby. The dogs look like they are having a blast there. Thanks for the pictures.
Beautiful nature! Glad to see you enjoying it! Be blessed.
Fabulous pics! Love your dog pics and I love waterfalls- they are my favorite thing to photograph. You have lost weight, haven’t you? You are looking soooooo skinny!
Fabulous Photos, beautiful scenery and two very cute couples:0)
You look amazing. I am another who wants to know what camera you were using please?
Thanks for sharing.
I love your website.
Sheilagh
Such a beautiful landscape! I love waterfalls and I’m lucky because here in the north of Spain, where I live, there are a lots of roads for hiking and you can see a lot of waterfalls too. I think I have some pics from the last year autumn, so probably if I decide to post them I will leave a comment here. You are having a good weather there in Alabama. Where I live we haven’t stopped to see the rain since two weekends. Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures.
Wow, great pics! Your doggies are such posers! hee hee How cool is that!
Your photos are gorgeous – I have been following your site for a couple of years but have only just subscribed – so glad I did – sometimes life gets a bit busy and I forget to check our your site, but now I get reminders so it’s great – what a wonderful area you live near :)
I LOVE your pics and enjoy seeing them when you post! Wonderful waterfall and fall colors images. Which lens/settings did you use? The pics with your dogs are so fun to see. How did you get them to pose so nicely for your family pics? We awoke to 6″ of snow on the ground, our first snow of the season. It’s that time of year here in AK!
So cute! I really like the one of all four of you guys sitting in front of the misty water. ;0)
rach
Your pictures are absolutely fantastic. I live in AZ and we don’t have anything here that compares to this! I am so impressed by your camera that I want to go out and purchase one now!
Amanda and Kevin, looked like a wonderful fall day..beautiful scenery and you have a beautiful family! hugs!
Barb
Amanda,
Great Photos! BTW: I’ve been following you blog for the past few years, and I have to say you look great! How have you lost your weight. Keep up the hard work!
These pictures are fantastic! What kind of camera do you have? Thanks for sharing!
I am so glad I came across your website. You have such fun stuff and the fonts are great. I love the waterfalls, they look amazing.
I LOVE THE FALL COLORS AND THE BEAUTIFUL WATER SCENES.
Oh, I love the pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scenery is breathtaking and your family is so handsome :) Your babies are almost as beautiful as my two Boston Terrier babies ;)
hugs,
Shayna
The quality of your photos is just SUPERB! They are a joy to look at…………..especially LOVE the pic of Miley and Howie racing up the steps; it cracks me up too!!
Looked fun and relaxing, what I would not to be there right now…lol All your photos look wonderful but the 5th photo from your last is just breath taken. You are so talented. Wish we had some place near us like that, would have to go visit even if only for a hour. I have to pack a our house and find a new home all before Jan 1st…lol So stress is pretty high right now after packing all day today while waiting for realtors to call.
I love that you have earrings to match your school colors! Love it! What fantastic photos. There aren’t too many falls in MN. Next time in in AL to visit family I might check those out, what fun :)
LOVE the photos!! Did you have someone with you taking the family shots or do you have some trick up your sleeve?
Great pictures! How lucky to have such a beautiful place nearby.
What great pictures I felt like I was there through your lens. What a great little family you are :)
LOVE those pics! What kinds of camera are you using?
Wow gorgeous photos!!! TFS!
Hi Amanda!
Love the pics!
Left you a comment on FBook page!
What kind of camera did you use to takea these photos?
So clear!
Love your blog!
XXOOXX
Your photography skills are great! Love the waterfall shots.
I especially LOVE the pic of the dogs running from the behind. How adorable! These dogs are like your children! Keep the pictures coming. You are amazing!
I love your camera; the quality is insane! :D
Those waterfalls are beyond gorgeous!
Those are stunning photos!! :)
<3 your pictures! What an adorable family!