Tag Archives: hiking

Black Fork Mountain Trail, Ouachita National Forest ~Day 3

After three nights at the non-electric site we moved to one with electricity.

camper

It was kind of crazy that we had the whole area to ourselves!

Have you ever stayed in an empty campground?

It is odd.

And a bit creepy.

But also nice.

trailhead

We did the Black Fork Mountain Trail on our third day.

It is a pretty difficult trail for about two miles but then you are hiking along a ridge and it has a lot of nice views.

hiking

blackfork2

moss

tickles

windy

The wind here was crazy!

It tried to blow us off many times.

view

rocks

The boys loved it!

windyfamily

cute

This man makes me so happy.

climb

30!

I told Nick to take pictures of me on my last day of being 30.

For some reason I feel like the day before my birthday is a bigger deal than my actual birthday.

cooking

We cooked everything on this little stove.

sticks

It is nice because it only needs little sticks to burn.

stove

stove2

creek

skip

I went down to the creek near the campground to take pictures.

And skip rocks…

Is it odd that I felt like it was a great day before my birthday because I successfully skipped multiple rocks?

I was pretty excited.

creek2

I am usually a horrible rock skipper.

joker

This tree was begging for a photo shoot.

This kid cracks me up.

He was humming and swinging his hips the whole time…

leaves

Cedar Lake, Ouachita National Forest ~ Day 1

We just got back from a birthday trip to the Ouachita National Forest!

hotchocolate

We stayed at the Cedar Lake Recreation Area in the Ouachita National Forest for six nights!

Three nights in a really nice wooded campsite with no electricity and three in an electric spot since it was going to get cold and we had a space heater.

oatmeal

Oatmeal.

cook

Nick’s little stove is so nice for cooking on!

lake

We started off our first morning there with an easy hike around Cedar Lake.

It was 3.9miles all the way around after taking a spur.

cedarlaketrail

We saw some blood from a wounded animal on the trail.

The boys of course were set on tracking it.

cedarlake

This is a beautiful lake.

cedarlake2

us

growth

trees

dock

boys

This was a great easy hike to start off our time there.

I had decided we should do two hikes that day.

Of course my second choice was not as easy…

horsethief

The Horsethief Springs Trail is around 11miles and definitely fit it’s “more difficult” rank.

woods

The terrain varied.

Sometimes it was not too bad and sometimes I think it was trying to kill me.

firegrass

climb

It was also overgrown in parts and not always the easiest to follow.

sign

Mostly we ran into fading light more than anything.

It gets dark so early that this should have been our first hike of the day.

beautyberries

American Beauty Berry were everywhere!

silly

We made it back before dark (barely)!

The next day I decided to take it easy and drive the Talimena Scenic Drive.

I will share more picture from our next (and much easier on my feet) day Monday!

Keystone Ancient Forest ~Sand Springs, OK

We decided to head out to the Keystone Ancient Forest Saturday to hike the Wilson Trail again.

We did not realize until we got there that they were hosting an event called “A Walk in the Forest”.

Keystone Ancient Forest

help

They had people from the forestry dept. and volunteers out teaching people about forests.

signs

They also had signs with information about the trees and forests and a book about them.

signs2

sign3

chitt

pers

wilsontrail

Our trail was not busy at all!

We only saw two people on it.

trail

lake

family

In our natural environment…

trail2

him

snail

My youngest wanted me to take a picture of some of the treasure he found since we could not take them with us.

Most parks and especially preserves do not want you to take anything with you.

They want it there for everyone to enjoy.

acorns

rings2

I need to work with my boys on the proper way to ask questions at events like this.

They interrupt.

I also realize that they do not handle evolution well.

They simply told them they do not believe in millions of years so of course the person stopped talking.

My husband pointed out that they would learn so much more from listening and asking questions versus telling someone they are wrong.

rings

The people handled this graciously and with kindness but I am going to work with the boys on how we learn from others more.

Why am I writing this down?

I use this blog as kind of a journal.

I am hoping to come back some day, read this, and realize that I have accomplished my goal.

How do you work with your children on being good listeners?

I really do enjoy this place and hope you will go check it out!

There are nice easy paved paths, easy gravel and dirt paths, and a difficult trail for people like us.

Something for everyone.

Check out Sand Springs website for when they are open.