Tag Archives: state park

Camping, Hiking, Parks

Alabaster Caverns State Park ~Freedom, OK

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On the way to Alabaster Caverns State Park from Pawnee just happened to be Gloss Mountain!

This is one of my favorite spots in Oklahoma so of course I decided that we needed to get out and stretch our legs there!

Quick stair climb to the top and you can see for miles!

That is my idea of a great travel break!

When we got to our spot at the park I was a bit worried.

Although it was nice and close to the bathrooms and playgrounds (a really nice thing for 6 kids), it was also right next to the main park road and visitor center.

This is a very small park so there are not many options but this time it worked out okay since we were the ONLY PEOPLE STAYING AT THE PARK!

Thankfully their were very few visitors also because I felt a bit like we were in a fishbowl when anyone else was there.

I would not want to stay in this spot in the summer when it is filled with people.
Because we were right next to the visitor center it was really easy to go on the first cave tour of the day!

Which means it was only 5 kiddos and me(Nick stayed back with our youngest) with the tour guide.

I was not sure how interesting the tour would be(especially since I DO NOT like caves) but it was actually really fun!

We saw hundreds of bats!

A lot of them were super close also!

One entrance is not open right now so instead of going through the whole cave you go part way and turn back.

But the kids did not seem to mind because we got to see the bats again!

They were definitely the star of the show.

They got more snow than we did so there was still a lot of snow on the trails! There is not very much hiking available here because it is such a small park so keep that in mind.

And some of the trails might be short but they have steep drop offs, which are even more interesting when it is covered in snow and mud.

We had trouble finding one or two of the trails and I am not sure if that is due to poor trail markings or just being harder to see in the snow. These views were worth all the extra work though!

Such a pretty place!

 

The playground was a big hit and really helped keep the kids entertained. It always helps to bring a friend also 😉

 

One of the things I ended up loving about this park was it’s small size.

I felt like I could watch the sunset from this beautiful lookout while still keeping an eye on the kids.

Win win
I walked over to this spot over and over while we were there.

So peaceful(even with my wild kids screaming in the background).

My spot 😉

Western Oklahoma will always have a special place in my heart.

The wide open landscape always brings me peace and a smile.

Camping, Hiking, Parks, Wildlife Preserve/Reserve

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

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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?

 

 

My Family, Parks

3 more state parks checked off!

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Nick made the mistake of mentioning the fact that his Grandparents liked to visit every state park in MN.

It kind of lit a fire under me to visit all the Oklahoma State Parks and on our last trip we get to hit up three more!

We have about three state parks left and some Grand Lake Areas to go before we have been to them all since we have moved here.

So here are some of the parks we stopped at and what we thought.

Hugo Lake State Park The Bois De Arc Trail was a nice paved trail but pretty run down looking. We did not see much else for us to do there since we mostly like to hike and go to playgrounds. The kids liked watching birds at Hugo Lake Dam. Raymond Gary State Park was a nice small park. It was definitely not a place we would drive hours to camp at but the playground was a nice stop to end our day. We also stopped at Clayton Lake State Park but I could not find anything to do there so I did ended up not even taking one picture!

So if you have been to that state park let me know what you like to do there.

Do you have a goal to see all of something?