Category Archives: Hiking

Black Mesa State Park & Nature Preserve ~Kenton, OK

This is my second time visiting the Black Mesa State Park. I went during the middle of the day the last time and had a hard time seeing the beauty of the place so I wanted to spend a couple of nights there this time.

I have found that most places are beautiful at sunset and sunrise and thought this park might shine the brightest at those times. I was right, I fell in love the with the open spaces and desert landscape.

Some of my kids learned the hard way that you need to be gentle with the plants. And that the plants will defend themselves…

I was sad I could not make it to Oklahoma’s Highest Point.

I am just not at the point I can hike that far yet.

We did find the dinosaur tracks that are right across from the preserve though!

My dinosaur loving second oldest loved that and the dinosaur pit!

The pit was harder to find but he was excited to find it.

My kids were a lot more excited about this spot near the park where you can be in three states at once!

My favorite thing to do on trips is keeping moving and see everything.

So my lists for our trips of things to do is CRAZY looking!

Ha

Anyone else do that?

We saw a bat!!!!

Keystone Ancient Forest is a great place to hike near Sand Springs! They have several different hikes, from easy paved trails to more difficult trails. My favorite is the Wilson Trail which is one of the more difficult trails.
It has a lot of up and down and uneven terrain but it is beautiful. My daughter yelled out “there is a bat on the trail!” I was shocked to see she was right!

I have never seen a bat in the wild before. My husband scooped it up with a leaf and put it up in a tree so it could take off.

This is a fun place to hike even without the bats but make sure you check their facebook page before you go.

They are only open on certain Saturdays and limited times.

It is free to go though and worth the extra work to hike in a different place.

I got cocky…

That was my first mistake.

Nick had just been gone for a whole week earlier this month so one night seemed almost too easy.

Then 4 kids got colds and the weather turned nasty.

On Tuesday after dropping him off at the airport I decided to take advantage of being in town and went for a hike at Oxley Nature Center.

We took the Bird Creek Trail.

Tuesday actually went okay but the next day I decided to do a normal school day and we stayed home. Apparently we do better when we only do fun things all day.

Who knew?
Next time he leaves I am running around like a crazy person again and doing ALL THE THINGS.

Plus, being in the woods just makes me happy.

I should just hike the whole time he is gone.

Or I should live in the woods.

Ha

Wednesday was cold and overcast with freezing drizzle off and on all day.
All this energy should not be kept inside all day… At least our puppy is cute. Glad we are back to 2 adults per 5 kids.

These cuties wore me out.

Ha