Great Salt Plains State Park | Danielle Huddleston Photography

We had a great three day weekend at the Salt Plains State Park and nearby Wildlife Refuge for our 16th wedding anniversary. We stayed at the Sandy Cove campground this time and it ended up being a great site.

The campground is right next to the swimming beach which worked out great with the 100 degree temps.

If you are going to visit, there were a LOT of ants and no soap in the bathrooms. Also, the bathrooms had those half doors that are basically useless so keep that in mind.

My kids basically wanted to just live at the beach. It has a nice sandy beach but is very shallow for a very long time (I never found any water above my waist), it also turns to mud as you get further out. The sandy beach and shallow water would be great for little ones though! We mostly stayed at the state park so we could go crystal digging at the nearby Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge! My kids loved it so much the last time we went that I knew it would be a hit. It is such a breathtaking place to visit in Oklahoma.

Definitely worth a visit, even if you don’t want to dig.

If you do want to go digging, you will need sun protection, a shovel, and a bucket. Also clothes you don’t mind getting salty and muddy would be good!

As with most trips we had a few fails.

Trying to hike in the mid-day crazy heat (my idea), oops.

The water tank started leaking in the rv so we could not use the water in there, thankfully we have plenty of kids that can haul water 😉

And I had brought beach towels so we could clean up the mess.

Even the hot temps were okay.

We just tried to go out and do things in the morning (except for my attempt at hiking) and evening.

The beach in the evening was so relaxing and beautiful. I still went out at night after kids went to bed to take a picture and listen to the quiet.

One night, I thought I was going to take picture of the sunset and ended up stumbling upon this guy.

He finally got annoyed that I kept taking his picture and slithered off into the woods.

It was fun to watch him weave all around the picnic tables though.One morning we got going early (well as early as you can with 5 kids) to hike at the wildlife refuge.

It was a beautiful hike.The kids loved all the bullfrogs they saw on the hike, they were huge! We have hiked here before but this morning hike was my favorite. The kids played tablets in the heat of the day.

It ended up being a great trip and we really enjoyed this campground location!

Have you been to the Salt Plains in Oklahoma?

Check out our video on youtube of our time in the Salt Plains!

We camped at the Great Salt Plains State Park and then went on a crazy long drive through some beautiful country.

Watching the sunset at the Great Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge was on my “bucket list” or it would be if I had written one.
Camping with our 5 kids can be rough but these views make it all worth it.

The next morning we headed west to the Alabaster Caverns State Park.

The drive was beautiful!

The park was very pretty also! I am not a fan of caves so we did not go on the tour but there was a cave you could go inside yourself. I know we followed the bear trail signs but I am not sure of the name of the trail. It went to Owl Cave though. My oldest four love caves.

Next stop was Boiling Springs State Park.

This park was a bit of a dissapointment.

The spring is interesting to read about and the history of the park is interesting but the spring itself was not very impressive.

I was hoping to go on the hike down to the river but it was closed.

If you are in the area it might be an interesting quick stop but I would not plan a trip just to go there.

We went from Boiling Springs all the way to Enid.

Usually we would have stopped at Gloss Mts. State Park because it is one of my favorites but the museum we were going to was going to close soon.

If you make this trip I would recommend stopping at Little Sahara State Park and Gloss Mts. State Park though.

So, something like this.

It would be a way to see a lot of interesting things in Oklahoma.

Our next stop was the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.

It is a place I have wanted to go for several years.

And we have an Oklahoma Historical Society Membership right now so we can get in for free.

We got there in time to tour the outside village.

The guides were friendly and very knowledgeable about Oklahoma history.

It was a nice museum and I am glad that we went even though it made for a long drive.

We dug for crystals that evening!

Are trips are rarely relaxing.

The girls put up with my crazy picture taking more than the boys… The next morning we let the kids swim at the lake at the park and then went one more time to the crystal digging site.