We camped at the Great Salt Plains State Park and then went on a crazy long drive through some beautiful country.
Watching the sunset at the Great Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge was on my “bucket list” or it would be if I had written one.
Camping with our 5 kids can be rough but these views make it all worth it.
The next morning we headed west to the Alabaster Caverns State Park.
The drive was beautiful!
The park was very pretty also!
I am not a fan of caves so we did not go on the tour but there was a cave you could go inside yourself.
I know we followed the bear trail signs but I am not sure of the name of the trail.
It went to Owl Cave though.
My oldest four love caves.
Next stop was Boiling Springs State Park.
This park was a bit of a dissapointment.
The spring is interesting to read about and the history of the park is interesting but the spring itself was not very impressive.
I was hoping to go on the hike down to the river but it was closed.
If you are in the area it might be an interesting quick stop but I would not plan a trip just to go there.
We went from Boiling Springs all the way to Enid.
Usually we would have stopped at Gloss Mts. State Park because it is one of my favorites but the museum we were going to was going to close soon.
If you make this trip I would recommend stopping at Little Sahara State Park and Gloss Mts. State Park though.
So, something like this.
It would be a way to see a lot of interesting things in Oklahoma.
Our next stop was the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.
It is a place I have wanted to go for several years.
And we have an Oklahoma Historical Society Membership right now so we can get in for free.
We got there in time to tour the outside village.
The guides were friendly and very knowledgeable about Oklahoma history.
It was a nice museum and I am glad that we went even though it made for a long drive.
We dug for crystals that evening!
Are trips are rarely relaxing.
The girls put up with my crazy picture taking more than the boys…
The next morning we let the kids swim at the lake at the park and then went one more time to the crystal digging site.
It was not easy but it was beautiful.
Check out the video I made of our time there.
They did have nice bathrooms and a playground but they were not in the campground but a little ways away from it.
The Missippi was incredable to see this close up.
Another bonus of this park was the Museum at the visitors center.
A deadly crossing happened near the park on the Missippi.
This was the trail I was using to test out if we wanted to go on a longer hike while at the park and I decided not to.
This park does have some pretty views of the Missippi though.
This overlook was amazing also.
I saw pictures like this when I was looking for places to stay and it convinced me to stop there.
I went to the office and tried to explain the trail I remembered to the ranger.
She finally did make sense of my crazy memories and recommend a trail that she thought the kids would like as well.
The Jackson Creek Trail
Narrow means you are brushing up against folliage.
Little bit has the hardest time on these kinds of trails because she gets hit in the face from all the plants.
I was pretty sure this was one of our fail hikes of the trip.
We were going to try to find a place to boondock in Hoosier National Forest but I panicked about not being able to find a place and we stayed here.
I like that I am one of those super organized camper/rvers.
I did like that zero hookups meant spending more time outside the rv.
This was a really pretty site.
We only stayed one night so we packed it all back up and headed farther south to Hemlock Cliffs and Hoosier National Forest the next morning.
Have you ever tried to keep five kids from brushing up against poison ivy when it is all over the trail?
Still, it is a beautiful forest.