Category Archives: Parks

We went camping for Christmas! ~Sequoyah State Park, OK

We stayed at the Seminole Campground in Sequoyah State Park from the weekend before Christmas until Christmas Eve.

I tried to make the camper a bit more festive.

We were for in for a bit of surprise when we got there.

We were told that all trails were closed for the weekend for an open hunt.

I had already booked in advance and had no clue so it left me scrambling a bit to find things to do for two days.

Thankfully the nature center was open so we went there twice.

Since our main reason for staying at this park was to hike I was a bit disappointed and wished we had been told beforehand.

We filled our first full day with driving to the Sequoyah Bay State Park and driving to Muskogee to see Christmas lights.

Sequoyah Bay State Parks trail was very muddy and hard to find since the trail is not kept up well so we did not hike long.

The lights at Honor Heights Park were so pretty!

Great display!

I was excited to try to take some dramatic Christmas light pics with my kids…

Then I remembered who my kids are.

Pretty pics were not on their bucket list.

ha

I really liked making instant oatmeal in the camper.

After eating, we made another trip to the nature center and traveled to the J.T. Nickle Wildlife Preserve.

What a beautiful place to visit.

They have a scenic drive as well as hiking.

We had a beautiful spot on the lake.

Monday the trails opened and we decided to make up for lost time.

Our plan was to do a giant loop around the park but that proved difficult with several parts closed due to winter and flooding.

We did finally figure out how to park so that we could hike back to our camper to eat lunch and then hike a different way back to our vehicle for around 8 miles total.

I was smiling pretty big because our girls came running when they saw we were about to get a pic alone…

We had a few flooded parts of the trail we had to work around but we did mostly a loop.

The next morning we tried waffles for the first time in the camper and it was a huge hit! We hiked the fossil trail for our last trail before heading home.

If is a great short trail if you have a fossil lover.

Do you camp for the holidays?

 

 

Turning 36

I hesitate to put my age out there, not because I don’t want you to know but because I am often wrong…

I am pretty sure that I am 36 though, maybe.

And here is how I spent my first day.

First stop was Mt. Magazine on our way home from our campsite. If I had it to do again I would have skipped this because it ended up being a long detour but I loved being on that mist covered mountain. Beautiful.

We went on the trail to the highest point in Arkansas.

The whole hike was so beautiful. Made it! Next up was the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge. This one was pretty close to our route home already but I was still not sure we should add even more to our trip especially with the weather turning cold and rainy.

But it ended up being stunning. So many birds! And the cloudy skies were so pretty for pictures. Can you believe this is in Oklahoma?

We did go for a walk on their walking path which was beautiful as always and freezing. We saw that one of my favorite bridges was broken.

Yikes

It was a pretty day.

What kinds of things do you like to do on your birthday?

We went to a different country!

We decided while we were up on the North shore we should go ahead and cross the border into Canada!

It would be a first for everyone in my family.

First stop was the Grand Portage National Monument! It is right near the border and we had gone several years ago.

It ended up being a great stop because we got the early history of the Northwest Trading Company here and then at our next stop we got the what happened when they moved to Canada. I have been reading several historical novels about fur trading around the time of the French and Indian War and early fur trading in America so I found all of these stops fascinating. The boys looked the part! Such a beautiful area! Next we crossed into Canada and went to Fort William!

It is a giant fort and the tour is pretty amazing.

It was a little long for some of my kids but Nick just took them to walk around some.

The man giving the tour acts the part the whole time and was very interesting! He even had the boys act the part! The twins favorite part was the barnyard.

They let you help with chores!

Chicken lovers.

While at Fort William one of the workers told us about a giant waterfall that we really should go see so we looked it up and went, not really knowing what to expect.The Kakabeka Falls was breathtaking!It was a total surprise and was the biggest waterfall I had ever seen!We did not really have any other plans other than make it back over the border and hopefully stop at High Falls on Pigeon River which is at Grand Portage State Park.

What I did not realize was how close to the border it was!

I was a bit flustered from the border patrol questions and totally missed the park so we had to turn around!It ended up being totally worth it though!

It was a beautiful stop and was another part of the history we were learning.

 This is the reason for Grand Portage, this giant waterfall.

Best field trip ever.