Mini Fall Break at Lake Texoma

Last week Nicholas' school had a Friday to Monday 4 day mini fall break. Instead of Lake Ray Robert, we went to Eisenhower State Park for a change, for a short camping trip with his friend Ben and family, Saturday to Sunday.

Foliage at Eisenhower State Park

Eisenhower State Park is a small park of 462 acre. It is on the shoreline of Lake Texoma, about 60 miles north from where we live. The 60 miles made quite a difference, where we live the leafs were still green, the foliage was on display already there.

Compared to Lake Ray Roberts Park, Eisenhower Park is quite hilly, and there is no biking trail there. We had to bike on the road way, sharing the narrow roads in the park with fast moving vehicles. So it is not an ideal place for recreational cycling.

It was a windy Saturday afternoon. We flied kite near our campsite for a while until Benjamin's family arrived.  Setting up tents, we started fires for grill. It was dark after we finished delicious BBQ. The night was breezy, pleasant but not with the crispy chill we expected. Kids roasted marshmallow and played fires by the camp fires, parents chatted.

It was a starry night, with a crescent moon in the sky. So we indeed "sleep under the stars, awaken to the cool dawn wind."

In addition to camping, the other main activities at Eisenhower Park are hiking and boating. Due to strong wind foretasted for Sunday, we planed to hike only. 

Around 9:30 am, we went on hiking, the boys and a girl led the way, adults followed. The trail is in a relatively dense woods for about 2 miles, we could barely see the lake on that portion of the trail.

On the hiking trail

Mushroom by the trail 

Autumn sky

Then we approached a cove, mistook it as the Ammoonite scenic point, our designated end point for the hike, we went off the trail, and headed to the rocky shoreline.

We watched two fishermen fishing on their motor boat.  The kids and Ben's dad skipped stones for some time - Ben's dad was really good at it - easily making a stone jumping on the water for 6 or 7 times. 

Caroline built a little statues Nicholas and Ben started throwing stones at it trying to knock it down, and after several tries, they did. They asked Caroline to build another statue and they knocked it down again. they had so much fun, the boys built their own "big" statue for targeting as well.

When they were done playing rocks, we explored the rocky shoreline along the cove; then we noticed that the Ammoonite scenic point is on the other side of the cove. 

It was really beautiful place - it backs up the claim the park made that the area's beauty is captivating!

A cove by Lake Texoma 

Building statues

Statues: Ben and Nicholas built the left hand side, Caroline built the other

Lake Texoma

We stayed on the rocky lake shore for over an hour. It was 12:30pm now, it was getting hot on the trail, the kids were tired. So the mothers took the children to nearby Marina store for snow cones, and the dads went back to the campsite, where Ben's dad started to cook lunch, I drove my car to the Marina to pick them up.

It was a fun trip. 

We only explored about two thirds of the park; the remaining 1/3 is claimed to have more captivating beauty, and some wildlife. We did not kayak or boat on the lake. So we will go back sometime in future to have more fun.