The Chickasaw National Recreation Area was once Platt National Park and is a beautiful little area in South Central Oklahoma.
There are beautiful springs and waterfalls on an easy trail by the nature center.
We only stayed one night there because our plan was to stay at a Wildlife Management Area for most of the trip.
So we did not have much time to explore but I would like to go back, preferably when it is not the week of spring break.
My kids want to go back in the summer to swim!
The sites are nice and not too close together.
It was nice to have power and water in the new rig also! We did not run water into our tanks still though, we tend to wait until all danger of freezing is over for that.
We basically stayed here because we needed to dump our tanks and it seemed a better value to pay for a night of camping then to just dump our tanks at most places.
We left right after our walk around the springs and headed to a spot called Blue River.
It was a beautiful area but very popular and pretty full so we checked out another spot and hit the jackpot!
Our tire also shredded on the way to the blue river spot!
Thankfully there was enough room to pull over and fix it!
I will share pics of where we ended up staying next!
We did it one other time but I had to stop before going to the top so I was pretty excited to make it all the way to the top this time.
This is definitely my favorite hike we have done here.
The view is definitely worth the hike up!
It was very windy and chilly up there!
So my husband had to go back up to where they had gotten off and bring them back.
After that we drove to the other side of the refuge to drive to the top of Mount Scott.
My kids favorite area is the Baldy Point Climbing Area to the west of the main area of the park.
There are places for serious rock climbers but thankfully there are giant boulders that are fun for my kids to climb on also.
And the views are beautiful.
We went to a less challenging area after that so all the kids(and the dog) could make it to the top.
See those specks?
I was pretty determined to make it to the top, even though it felt like I might die in the attempt…
Thankfully you can’t tell in the pics that I was gasping all the way up.
These cactus caused problems on our way back down.
I am so glad we did!
Wouldn’t this be an breathtaking place to swim!
I usually avoid this area in the warmer months because I am a bit concerned about rattlesnakes but I might have to go back just for a swim here.