All posts by Danielle Huddleston

Camping, Hiking, Wildlife Preserve/Reserve

Labor Day Vacation 2017 ~ Day 3~ Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

09/11/2017 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

These cattle roam free on the refuge.

Elk!

Elk Mountain hike!

It’s a lot of up…

Beautiful place.

I like to hike in the morning and evening.

Beautiful light and cooler temps.

As a photographer I think it is totally acceptable to ask that we only hike in the golden hour…

Nick took the big kids to finish the hike to the top.

Little bit and I hung out in this amazing spot with awesome views.

She thought pretending to eat me was giving me kisses.

The tiny specks on the top of the ridge are my kids.

Rabbit!

Nick took this from the top!

Headed down.

After this hike we ate lunch at the camper and went into town to go the Museum of the Great Plains.

Since this is already a long post, I will do a seperate post from the museum.

After visiting the museum we had vehicle trouble!

We hung out in a car parts store parking lot for a while and had no clue if we would be able to drive home the next day.

Let alone make it back to the campground.

We stopped at a nearby park to let kids run off energy and so Nick could research(our campsite did not have any cell service).

After none of our efforts to find a shop to repair it or a reasonable rental that fits a family of 7 we headed back towards our campsite.

It was an interesting twist to our vacation but gave me a glimpse into what full time travel might be like.

If you break down, you don’t know anyone around to help fix it.

I was thankful for Nick offering to stop at a spot on the way back to the campsite.

Our vehicle was running rough but we made it back(it was a holiday weekend so our options were limited).

This place just shows off at sunset.

I had no clue what the next day would hold but loved ending a somewhat stressful day on such a beautiful note.

Camping, Wildlife Preserve/Reserve

Labor Day Vacation 2017 ~ Day 2~ Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and camper Tour

09/07/2017 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

We made it to our campsite and they still had three spots left!!!!

YAY!

I chose the one most secluded and it was beautiful.

We dropped the trailer, paid, and went to see some of the refuge.

The Prairie Dog Town was a favorite of the kids.

They would get so close!

How they felt about my kids…

Our first hike we went for was really easy since we had our dog with us and she is getting old.

We saw a lot of wildlife at our campground!

The visitor center has a beautiful museum.

This next pic shows why museums start to wear me out quickly though…

Too much energy to be inside for long.

On top of Mt. Scott.

Most of my kids loved jumping from rock to rock!

Such incredible views!

These two goofs love mountains.

Boulder jumping.

Sunset’s were my favorite.

The camper made bedtime so much easier!

The boys slept in the two high bunks and little bit slept in the low bunk.

The twins slept closer to our room, on the couch, and fold down table.

We only had eclectic so we did not really use the bathroom for much but little bit fits really well 😉

I really like that there is less room in our room so that we have enough beds out in the other spaces.

The next day brought more great views, amazing places, and some obstacles to overcome…

Camping

Labor Day Vacation 2017 ~ Day 1 ~ Arcadia Lake

09/05/2017 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

The first stop of our 4 night camping trip was Arcadia Lake in OKC.

We knew it would be busy so we hoped getting there on a Thursday would help.

We snagged the last spot with electric because I called earlier in the day and prepaid!

They filled up fast!

Which of course made me really nervous about finding a spot in our final destination, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

All the camping spots we stayed in were first come first serve, no reservations.

Our first spot was right next to the playground.

It was a pretty place but really close to a big city and the sites are close.

I was glad we were not staying more than one night.

They thought the pictures of their beads sticking out were funny and kept wanting to do it.

I found these boots because of youtuber’s that travels fulltime in an airstream with their daughter.

They a really sturdy and easy to clean!

This was our first time using the camper!

We wanted something that made camping in the Oklahoma heat easier, fits all our kids, but was not huge.

It worked out great for us!

Beautiful view early the next morning before we left to head south.

My cute tag along.

She decided she wanted to go back with the others and started slowly walking back to the campsite to see if I would follow.

3yr olds are a riot.

We mostly just slept in the trailer.

Eating and playing outside.

That helped keep everyone(mostly me) sane(ish).

I was so stressed leaving this site!

I had no clue if we would be able to find a place to stay that night!

I am so glad we took the chance though!