Category Archives: History

Camping, Hiking, History

Hawthorn Bluff Campground ~Lake Oolagah

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We did another week of living life in the rv while Nick went to work! This time at Lake Oolagah!

I thought we would be staying in a lakeside spot like last time but the site map for booking ended up being a bit off and we were just on the otherside of the road.

It ended up being a blessing because I was not sure if I wanted to worry about kids near the cliff all week anyway.

I had lots of plans to visit the surrounding area while we were rving starting with day one!

Then I realized I had left my purse in my husbands vehicle…

It ended up being a perfect low key day though!

We hiked at the Skull Trail and took the longest loop which follows near the lake mostly.

It’s about 1 mile long for the longest loop
These guys and pill bugs were all over the trees!
We went swimming later at the swimming area near our campground
It rained a lot for the whole week but we were able to go to Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch still.
The kids liked all the animals
I wanted to hike the next day but it was going to storm so we quickly checked out the Teaching Garden in Claremore and then headed to the Will Rogers Museum
All the rain meant the dam near us was overflowing and had lots of birds.
This little guy blocked our trail on our way back from the swimming beach to our campground one day!!!!!! My youngest son almost stepped on it!
We checked out the Summerfest at Collinsville and it was a beautiful way to end the day.
They have it on the second Thursday of the month through the summer and show a movie in the park also when it gets dark.
Such a beautiful campground!

Had a great time and I am already planning when we can go again!

Camping, History, Parks

A Fort, White Sand, and Sand burs.

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After Wind Cave we headed south to Fort Robinson, all of the buildings were closed but we still enjoyed walking around and reading the history of the place.

We had learned while at the Crazy Horse Monument that this is where he was killed.

This place has a lot of sad history including being a POW camp during WW2.

That being said it was a beautiful place to camp for the night and the wildlife loop was pretty.

The horses (I think they belong to the fort) surrounded our vehicle and even stuck their noses in!

There were actually a lot of trails and I would not mind going back to this area to check out more of it.

The next day we continued our journey south and stopped at Lake McConaughy.

As we got closer I realized there were a lot of campgrounds around the lake and I started panicking on picking the right one.

I ended up choosing the one where all the sand burs go to party.

Do not walk on the grass was our mantra the whole time.

Our poor dog made that mistake several times.

I was pretty sure this was the fail of the trip, it happens. They can’t all be winners.

It was windy and the sand would get in your eyes, the vault toilet was not super clean, sand burs were everywhere and on everything, and it cost more than most of our stops.

It was pretty though.

And than we went to Kansas…

Animals, Camping, History, National Forest

Crazy Horse and Wind Cave

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After double checking that we had ALL of our children, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

I was not sure how interesting it would be but it was pretty facinating!

I would totally recommend going and learning this important part of American history.

The next day we moved to Wind Cave National Park.

It was a beautiful campground for a wonderful price.

Again no water (which we expected) and only vault toilets.

Something I had not expected was the mountain lion warning on the bathroom doors and my youngest deciding that meant they were seen in the bathrooms.

She would not step one toe outside without an adult right next to her, sure that the mountain lion was lying in wait.

My twins concern was our dog.

They did not want him sleeping in the tent, never mind their brothers were in the same tent…

But even though I acted like it was no big deal, him being in the tent with them made me feel better so he was staying.

Ha

I thought the cave tour was interesting but you did not see much of the cave at all.

I finally took the plunge and washed my hair outside with water I warmed up on the stove.

It worked fine and I felt like I had earned a camping merit badge or something 😉

I bought bath wipes also from Amazon that work great when you can’t shower.

We did see a lot of animals while driving around here but no mountain lions thankfully.

Driving around in the evenings, looking for wildlife was one of my favorite parts of this trip.