Wichita Mountains NWR - OK - 4/27

[nautachris]

This past weekend I took a brief yet intense 2 1/2 day trip to Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. It was originally designed as a self-guided storm chasing trip, but the storms ended up in Arkansas, which isn't exactly a great place to try tornado chasing alone for the first time due to lots of hills and trees. My backup plan was to sample the outdoors in a part of the country that doesn't exactly get much in the way of attention when it comes to outdoor recreation: the Southwestern Great Plains. I made it to 4 different places worthy of a trip report, and this is the first one.

After landing in OKC, I decided to head to southwest Oklahoma because I had previously seen pictures of mountains around there. I knew there were mountains in eastern Oklahoma, but the thought of mountains in Southwest Oklahoma was something that needed to be confirmed with my own eyes. I spent the night in Lawton, which is a relatively depressing adjunct to a large army base (Fort Sill), but gateway to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, which protects about half of this small mountain range. I don't really know enough about the area to go into much detail, but here are some pictures that I found to be surprisingly beautiful for Oklahoma.


You can drive up to the top of Mt. Scott, around 2,400 ft. This was on Saturday afternoon, and there were sustained winds up there of at least 45 mph in advance of the storm system that ended up causing all of the tornadoes the next few days.


Looking east toward I-44


west toward the rest of the Wichitas


the next morning, on the road to the Elk Mountain Trail, I came upon a wild bison, who seemed nonplussed by my presence


scenery on OK 49 westbound


considering I still hadn't decided whether to drive the 8 hours to central Arkansas, I decided to take the only short-ish trail that goes to a viewpoint in case I changed my mind. This is the beginning of the Elk Mountain Trail


there are trees in the Sooner State!


view to the west


all the boulders reminded me of the flintstones


top of Elk Mountain


southwest view


the last of the clouds associated with the upcoming severe outbreak moving out to the east....so close yet so far!


view toward the trailhead


you have no idea the severity of the internal debate going on - storm chasing or hike chasing!


bunny


one more shot of the departing clouds

It was only around 3 miles round trip, but I had other places to get to and lots of driving, so I didn't get to explore any more of the park. However, it definitely made for a nice start of a whirlwind few days.

Thanks!

Chris Saylor
Lebanon, OR

[sgyoung]

Wow. Honestly, I never would have guessed that this is was Oklahoma. Nice work finding such a pretty spot out there (I can only assume there is a bustling Wichita Hikers forum that I've just never come across).

[Roy]

Nice tr the Midwest is not flat every where the mts are just smaller but a lot of history there. And you can get the feel of wilderness more than here on crowded popular trails.

Ok is the bulls eye in Tornado alley normally. Its a bit early for the mid west tho I think?

Hope you send us some storm photos they are a force of nature take care of your self to.

[HenryG]

I lived about 50 miles west of the Wichita Mt NWR for 2 yrs in the early 70's. Its a fascinating place and was usually empty on trails or just cross country even a mile from the road. The refuge was created out of the outlying part of Ft. Sill in the early 1900'sm to preserve a small buffalo herd that had had survived there with the help of the remnants of the Kiowa tribe in the area. The refuge is fenced (cattle guards on roads) so the buffalo and longhorns can have the run of the entire area We had stopped at a picnic site next to a shady creek one hot afternoon and were just unpacking when we heard a mild rumble. Everyone at the site grabbed their stuff and were jumping in their cars. The one next to us said "get in the car"!. As we did a group of 12 to 18 buffalo galloped over the hill, and through the parking lot to stop at the creek and drink for about 10 min. They finished, ambled to a small area with green grass near the creek a few hundred feet away, and grazed for the next half hour while we and everyone else finished our picnic.

If you are ever in the area I recommend it.