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!
They have a new exhibit every couple of months (I believe) and right now they have Osage Wedding Dresses.
The kids love doing the scavenger hunt.
Their exhibits are so impressive.
They have a nice nature center also but it was not open.
We did the Hendon’s Highway loop in the Clear Bay Area from an alltrails.com recommendation but it was a little boring for most of the kids.
Most of my kids do better with something to climb on.
We all fit!
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.
The whole hike was so beautiful.
Made it!
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!
We saw that one of my favorite bridges was broken.
