Oklahoma

Leaving the delicious foods of New Mexico was a tough one for us, so we decided on one last blue corn pancake & Christmas enchiladas brunch and to hit the road with our eyes on Oklahoma. We were a little excited to start our journey back east, and figured we may as well take one long day of travel to get us into the heart of our next state.

The weather decided to swing back towards “sweltering” and we both were really missing those cool Idaho mornings with snow-capped mountains. We struggled through our first few days in Oklahoma, first trying to secure a relaxing day to beat the heat at Roman Nose State Park. When we arrived, the park had little to offer by way of hiking, and even less for kayaking - the lake had been drained since the spring. It was overly crowded and with no space to sprawl out to cool down, so we continued on towards Oklahoma City. We found the charming Cole Creek Winery on Harvest Host, which allowed pets inside the tasting room and offered us an air conditioned reprieve. The wines were tasty, our bartender was a lovely conversationalist, they allowed Reese to destroy one of their pet toy offerings, and the space was charming. We had a lovely afternoon sampling wines and since we were the only people there so early in the day, we had a nice time chatting with our bartender. She even let us know we could let the boys run in the field where we were parked, which was a nice way to let us all stretch our legs after a day and a half of driving. We cut the running around a little short, since the day was approaching 90 degrees, and spent the rest of our day flopping and moving as little as possible. As frustrating as it was running into these unbearably hot days without an AC, we were lucky to only have a few to deal with on our journey. Didn’t expect one as we approached mid-October… but at least it led us to a tasty winery!

The next day we headed into Oklahoma City, and since it was still a scorcher, we aimed for a shorter day of exploring. This ended up being a challenge, since OKC was an adorable city! We started off with a walk through Scissortail Park, and it just so happened to be Farmers Market day. This park really had it all - rain gardens, playgrounds, little ponds with paddle boats, a variety of gardens, a dog park, and to top it all off, the Farmers Market had local musicians providing dulcet tunes for our morning walk.

As we traversed through the park, we realized the trendy Bricktown neighborhood was only a few blocks over, and decided to walk over to check it out. The old industrial brick buildings made for a gorgeous neighborhood, and running through the middle, was a beautiful canal that had painted water taxis puttering along and transporting people up and down the canal. It was such a stunning place for a walk, so we followed along the canal for a while, taking in the sights and energy of Bricktown. The heat was starting to creep up, so we decided to wrap up our day in Oklahoma City, even though we were immensely enjoying our walk along the canal.

As we were heading out, we saw that the American Banjo Museum, which was located in Bricktown, was having a multi-stage Banjo bash throughout Bricktown! We passed a few stages as we backtracked our way through Bricktown and stopped to enjoy the variety of banjo-centered musicians and bands and the different styles of music they embraced. It was hard to want to leave Bricktown after such a magical day exploring the canal and bopping along to banjo music! But I could tell the pups were getting officially tired of being in the heat, so we headed back to our little home and found a nice Cracker Barrel to relax at and try to keep cool.

The next morning, we were leaving Oklahoma City to head south, but we squeezed in a morning run on the gorgeous Lake Hefner. The lake provided lovely views as well as a nice running path and even a comprehensive workout station. I love seeing cities that provide beautiful parks and outdoor spaces for the citizens, especially greenways and waterside paths. There’s nothing quite like running in peaceful, natural spaces alongside lakes and rivers.

After our morning by the lake, we headed south to Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge for a few days of relaxed camping at Doris Campground. Well, our first night was anything but, as we were treated to our first Oklahoma tornado warning! I guess we really got the full OK experience, but it was definitely funny comparing our level of concern with the natives’. My cousin Missy gifted us an emergency radio for our roadtrip, and so we spent the evening listening to local weather stations and following the tornado trajectory on a map. And all the while, fellow campers were out and about walking their dogs and enjoying their campfires. It certainly was a novel experience for us, and I can’t imagine regularly living with that kind of impending worry. I don’t think it helped that we had recently watched the iconic 1996 film Twister.

Once we got over our evening scare, the next morning awarded us lovely weather, albeit still quite hot. We headed out first to explore The Holy City of the Wichitas, a complex set meant to recreate ancient Jerusalem where Biblical performances are held around Easter. It was certainly an oddity, the makings of an entire Biblical city atop a hill in this wildlife preserve. And to top it all off, there was a bison who seemed to be sauntering around like the mayor of this anachronistic stone village.

A strange start to the day. Next up was a drive up Mount Scott, a prominent peak in the Wichita Mountains that offered stunning 360° views of the park,the surrounding towns and Lakes Lawtonka and Elmer Thomas. Once we got views of the place, we were ready to attempt a hike. We headed out on the Forty-Foot Hole loop, but thanks to the heat and the general drought conditions, the river was pretty dry and we were all getting uncomfortably warm. We explored enough to enjoy the last of the desert lizards and prickly pears, before heading back to a lovely relaxing evening at our campsite.

Our site at Doris Campground ended up being a real winner. The campground was generally pretty empty, so we had no neighbors, and our site backed up to Osage Lake. It was a spacious campsite, so we really sprawled out with our hammock and camp chairs and dog beds. There’s nothing quite as relaxing as having a comfortable outdoor space and the time and nice weather to enjoy it. We spent the afternoon reading and crafting and exploring, and we found out we were sharing our campsite with a pretty big spider! She was high up in the trees and didn’t bother us at all, but we liked keeping an eye on her and rooting for her to catch all those pesky bugs. We were never able to determine what kind of spider it was, since we could only get a good look through binoculars, but we liked our guest.

Before dinner, we headed out to explore one more spot on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge map - Prairie Dog town!! I absolutely love prairie dogs, and this was now the second community of them we found on our trip. They had a nice, safe fenced in area and we could see them scurrying around and popping up out of their burrows to say hello. These two in particular were real jokesters, hanging out and barking at all the visitors. But these cuties weren’t the only fun wildlife we saw here! Seeing roaming bison is continually a treat, but we also saw Texas longhorn cattle! The refuge is home to many types of grazing animals, since the rocky land of the mountains saved the mixed grass prairie from being plowed and overdeveloped. This makes it a perfect place to nurture and preserve many endangered species and allow them to thrive under their natural conditions. As evening approached, we had dinner by the fire and even had the pleasure of hearing the coyotes howling as the night approached. It was a perfect end to our few days in this beautiful refuge.

The next day we had some dreary weather, so we handled some errands before trekking eastward across the state to Robbers Cave State Park. We made a last minute campsite reservation, and arrived after dark to plan our day at the park. The next morning, we woke up to find our campsite was next to a babbling river in a quiet campground, but also to find that the weather was shifting towards storms and threats of flash flooding. Not optimal, so we rushed to squeeze in at least one hike to the titular Robbers Cave, named after the outlaws that took to hiding inside of it, including Jesse James. The park was gorgeous and sprawling, and offered us our first real signs of fall. The trees were just starting to get some color, and the dreary, rainy morning only helped make the greens and the colors pop. We made it to the cave in time to do a little loop up to the cave and back down, and to explore the surrounding land a bit. This park was genuinely stunning, and we were both disappointed that we hadn’t set aside more time to explore here. It very quickly made its way onto our “to return” list.

The rainy day picked up, so we took a slow drive up north towards Tulsa. As we made our way east, we were finding less and less luck finding dispersed campsites, but we were able to find the free Tullahassee Loop, provided by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was a little crowded, but we found a nice open spot by the water and figured it was only one night. Well, Oklahoma was about to make us glad we found such a nice free spot!

Our spot was outside Tulsa, so we planned to explore the city. The first stop was The Center of the Universe, an acoustic phenomenon in downtown Tulsa. In the middle of a pedestrian bridge lies a spiral of bricks, with a solid concrete circle at the center. If you stand on this circle, your own voice echoes back to you louder than the sound was originally made. At first, we thought that outside sounds were supposed to be the ones affected by this mystery spot, so we were a little unimpressed. But then Craig said something to me, and his face immediately lit up as he realized his own voice was loudly echoing back to him. I gave it another try and was totally fascinated by the sound resonating back to me. It was such a silly little oddity stop, but WOW, was it really cool to experience!

And honestly, it was the highlight of Tulsa, as there wasn’t much to see, even in the up-and-coming Blue Dome District. We didn’t feel like pushing ourselves to explore the city much more, so off we went on a short hunt to find Hanson Brothers Beer. As a childhood fan (as well as a continued fan of both Hanson Christmas albums), I was really looking to get my hands on some MMMHops. However, our hunt was in vain, since most beer retailers we asked weren’t sure where they even sold that beer. We planned on heading out of Oklahoma the next day, so we headed back to Tullahassee Loop without any 90s gimmick beer to get ready to head to Arkansas.

We woke up bright and early, ready to swing through Natural Falls State Park before making our way into Arkansas. As we were cruising down the road, I suddenly heard some weird noises and we pulled over to check it out. Well, what are the odds, we had BOTH of our rear passenger side tires flat. We couldn’t find anything on the road that would have caused a double blowout, so it was truly a mystery as to how we lost both. And as a result, we couldn't even limp our way to a tire shop. Thankfully, our RV insurance offers roadside assistance, so they helped us orchestrate a tow truck and Craig hunted down a local tire shop that had 2 of our needed tires ready. We were all set, so we just had to wait out the tow truck. When he arrived, we began the hassle of getting big, bottom heavy Charlotte up on the lift. The first challenge came from the kayaks and their platform, so Craig had to remove those. As the lift kicked on, it became clear that because Charlotte is so cantilevered in her rear, we were dragging the back end, no matter how much wood we used to prop up the back tires. Craig resolved to sacrifice our tail end of the exhaust pipe, and she started her ascent. Unfortunately, this particular tow truck was having some hydraulic issues, and Charlotte was just too heavy for her lift to get her all the way up. Up until this point, we had both kept our calm and good humor, but I have to say, seeing her sway as the lift struggled against her weight was the scariest moment on our trip. Our new tow truck driver friend admitted defeat, and called for backup.

Thankfully, Charlotte was easily lowered back to the side of the road, where we waited for our next truck. This time, we were more prepared to deal with the issues, so she got up on the lift no problem when he arrived. But because we didn’t think things through, we had a bus up on the lift, with no room to put our back platform or kayaks. It’s lucky Craig has supernatural strength and climbing skills, because he was able to scramble his way up to re-install the platform and kayaks. With the boys nestled safely in bed, our driver graciously allowed us to ride with him to the tire shop. Cue reversing the scene of loading up Charlotte, and she was safely in the shop getting herself some new tires. The people at the shop were kind, and allowed me and the pups to sit inside the shop while we waited, and the woman at the desk and I had a wonderful conversation on Earthship houses. They patched her up for us efficiently, and we were on our way back to Tullahassee Loop to drink wine and eat pizza to help us decompress after our wild day!

The next morning, we cautiously headed back out towards Natural Falls State Park, our last stop in Oklahoma, and successfully made it! It was a small park, so we were able to explore just about all of it. We took the winding Bear Trail down to the dam, and the Fox Trail back up to the 77-foot waterfall that is the park’s centerpiece. We looped all the way back on the Ghost Coon Trail, and had covered almost all of the trails at this point, so we bid our adieus to Oklahoma and hit the road for Arkansas.

We were both sad to be leaving Oklahoma, it was our first taste of colorful leaves at Robbers Cave and we knew we were leaving behind the bison and prairie dogs of the western US. It was a fascinating state to traverse - we started in the desert and midwestern American grassland climate and ended up with hardwood forests, just starting to be kissed by autumn's colors. It felt like somewhere in the middle of the state, we crossed a hidden line that differentiated West from East, and it felt like we were officially in the return half of our journey. Thanks to the weather, we didn’t get to do enough exploring at Wichita Mountains or Robbers Cave, and there were several other beautiful looking parks in Oklahoma we missed, so it's safe to say this is a place we hope to return. And hey, maybe next trip we’ll finally find some MMMHops!!