Category Archives: Parks

Animals, Camping, Parks

Kansas City Zoo and a castle

05/12/2021 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

This little bit turned 7 and I decided she should finally see her favorite animal in person.

So we drove to Kansas City Wednesday night to go to the zoo on her bday the next day to see the koalas!

They got to feed camels and goats, and pet stingrays also while there!

We stayed at the Blue Springs Campground in Jackson Park and it was great! Two playgrounds within walking distance and at different areas around the lake there were trails, elk and bison herds, and a historic town!

Next up we stayed at Lake of the Ozarks State Park! There is a nice trail system next to the campground but it does take a while to get anywhere else in the park so keep that in mind.

I basically just stayed there so I could go to Ha Ha Tonka State Park to see the castle! It was an interesting stop and the Colosseum trail nearby was nice as well.

If I did it again I would have gone into the Dutch Bakery and Bulk food store! Nick went in with one kid while I sat in the vehicle with the rest but I found out later it is a great place to stock up! The weather was pretty perfect except for a thunderstorm on our last night and we got to see Koalas so I feel like the trip was a success. Even though one of my children might have stopped sleeping and flip flopped all night instead which rocks the camper all night… I love the camper but also having a house that stays still is nice.

Hiking, Parks

Quartz Mountain State Park ~Lone Wolf, Oklahoma

01/21/2021 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

Quartz Mountain was just turned back to a state park last year.

So it is slowly getting upgrades and looked a lot nicer than the last time we visited. 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.My boys like to push the limits of what is safe and keep wanting to go higher. They were sure they saw a way to the top this time but I said no.

HaWe went to a less challenging area after that so all the kids(and the dog) could make it to the top.See those specks?

Those would be my kids, leaving me in their dust.

I was pretty determined to make it to the top, even though it felt like I might die in the attempt…I liked to stop and take in the view often and give myself a chance to breathe.

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.

Always at least one kid that puts their hand where it should not go.

After making it down we decided to check out the other parts of the park.
I am so glad we did!

This is a swimming beach! 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.

This is such a fun place to visit, glad we were able to go again!

Animals, Hiking, Parks

Scenic Drives and Sand Dunes ~Freedom, OK

01/04/2021 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

Since Alabaster Caverns is a pretty small park and I love western Oklahoma, we decided to drive around while there couple of times.

I have a scenic drive map for Oklahoma that we used as a starting off point and it was great!

Not the part where I tried to take us to a WMA after a lot of snow and we almost got stuck…

But everything else was great!

At one point I wondered why I thought trapping 6 kids in a vehicle with me would be relaxing and questioned my vacation choices but then we saw a BOBCAT!!!!

I joked with the kids that I would pay them a dollar for finding me a bobcat since I had never seen one in the wild and I ended up finding one! That made the loud car ride totally worth it! That and lots of beautiful wide open spaces! Right after we saw the bobcat we then saw a badger! Poor guy was terrified, ran to this whole, and began frantically throwing dirt out to get away from us…I get that. We are loud. We also decided to stop by the Little Sahara State Park one day. The kids were not sure about another ride to go see something but ended up loving running down the dunes. You can rent Off Road Vehicles to go out on the main part of the dunes but that is a bit pricey so we stuck to the nature trail and viewing area. The viewing platform is pretty far removed from the main part of the park so can be hard to find but it is worth it. Watching the sand blow off the tops of the dunes was mesmerizing.