Tag Archives: Wildlife refuge

Labor Day Vacation 2017 ~ Day 3~ Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

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These cattle roam free on the refuge.

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Elk!

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Elk Mountain hike!

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It’s a lot of up…

ha

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Beautiful place.

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I like to hike in the morning and evening.

Beautiful light and cooler temps.

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As a photographer I think it is totally acceptable to ask that we only hike in the golden hour…

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Nick took the big kids to finish the hike to the top.

Little bit and I hung out in this amazing spot with awesome views.

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She thought pretending to eat me was giving me kisses.

Ha

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The tiny specks on the top of the ridge are my kids.

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Rabbit!

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Nick took this from the top!

aontop

Headed down.

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After this hike we ate lunch at the camper and went into town to go the Museum of the Great Plains.

Since this is already a long post, I will do a seperate post from the museum.

After visiting the museum we had vehicle trouble!

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We hung out in a car parts store parking lot for a while and had no clue if we would be able to drive home the next day.

Let alone make it back to the campground.

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We stopped at a nearby park to let kids run off energy and so Nick could research(our campsite did not have any cell service).

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After none of our efforts to find a shop to repair it or a reasonable rental that fits a family of 7 we headed back towards our campsite.

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It was an interesting twist to our vacation but gave me a glimpse into what full time travel might be like.

If you break down, you don’t know anyone around to help fix it.

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I was thankful for Nick offering to stop at a spot on the way back to the campsite.

Our vehicle was running rough but we made it back(it was a holiday weekend so our options were limited).

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This place just shows off at sunset.

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I had no clue what the next day would hold but loved ending a somewhat stressful day on such a beautiful note.

Labor Day Vacation 2017 ~ Day 2~ Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and camper Tour

We made it to our campsite and they still had three spots left!!!!

YAY!

I chose the one most secluded and it was beautiful.

We dropped the trailer, paid, and went to see some of the refuge.

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The Prairie Dog Town was a favorite of the kids.

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They would get so close!

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How they felt about my kids…

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Our first hike we went for was really easy since we had our dog with us and she is getting old.

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We saw a lot of wildlife at our campground!

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The visitor center has a beautiful museum.

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This next pic shows why museums start to wear me out quickly though…

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Too much energy to be inside for long.

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On top of Mt. Scott.

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Most of my kids loved jumping from rock to rock!

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Such incredible views!

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These two goofs love mountains.

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Boulder jumping.

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Sunset’s were my favorite.

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The camper made bedtime so much easier!

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The boys slept in the two high bunks and little bit slept in the low bunk.

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The twins slept closer to our room, on the couch, and fold down table.

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We only had eclectic so we did not really use the bathroom for much but little bit fits really well 😉

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I really like that there is less room in our room so that we have enough beds out in the other spaces.

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The next day brought more great views, amazing places, and some obstacles to overcome…

Digging for crystals at the Salt Plains ~Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge

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You can dig for selenite crystals at the Salt Plains during the summer!

More info on crystal digging on their site, here.

Although we have visited the area several times, this was our first time digging.

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One of these days I will get to watch a sunrise or sunset here.

It is on my “bucket list”.

I am not organized enough to write it down, I just keep telling myself someday.

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I was not sure before we got there if the kids would actually enjoy doing this but they were crazy about it!

I should have guessed.

They think looking for rocks in our yard is exciting.

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They kept yelling “we’re rich!!!!”

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You will get muddy so be prepared.

And it was crazy windy!!!!

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Shortly after I took this pic Little Bit smeared the mud all over her legs…

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Treasure!

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She was super proud of how muddy she was, until it started drying…

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You will need a shovel and plenty of sunscreen!

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There are several overlooks around the refuge.

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We went on the wildlife drive in the refuge and I was surprised when we did see quite a few egrets.

Usually we like to go on these at dawn and dusk since that is when more animals are out and about.

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They have some easy hikes that you can go on in the refuge also.

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We played at the beach in the Salt Plains State Park also.

It has a really nice sandy beach but the waves were pretty intense and the water was very dirty looking.

Not sure if it was windier than normal or not.

I did not take my camera swimming with us so not pics from that except on my instagram account.

I did take my gopro so maybe I can put a video together.

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I saw this pretty lake on our way to the salt plains and wanted to be sure to stop and take pics on the way home.

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Nick stayed in the vehicle with the kids and I walked down to a boat ramp to take pics.

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It was so peaceful after so many hours in the vehicle with 5 kids.

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If you have kids that like to treasure hunt than you should check out crystal digging at the Salt Plains!

It was so much fun and a lot easier than I thought!