We went to Beavers Bend State Park in Oklahoma during Memorial Day weekend. Several changes from previous outings made it an "adventure", and we all had great time.
This time our group had more than empty nesters! The freshman college students came home and joined their parents. We also had two more families joined for the fun!
No Cell signal
The first challenge we had was no cell signal for many of us in the park! Only ATT has cell signal, all other providers have none! This is why providers with much cheaper plans for cellphone can not gain too much on ATT. Cheaper but not working means nothing.
It made communication really hard and tested our capabilities to deal with uncertainties. Some handled it very well. We made it eventually and had a fabulous time.
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| our center site |
Hiking across flooded creek
After settled down at Acorn camp site, we went on hiking on south park trail and lookout mountain trail. These are two connected trails, and they are steep, more difficult and strenuous. What was unexpected was that a creek the trail crosses flooded, though water was pretty shallow, but not enough stepping stones for us to cross it without wetting our shoes.
Walking around is too long a distance. What to do if we want to continue?
Kevin, a college student, jumped on two far apart stepping stones and got across without wetting his shoes. That is one way, but most parents could not do it.
Taking off shoes and crossing the creek on bare feet, then dry feet on the other side. This is the second way. But many cringed on this proposal.
The third way was to build a "bridge", a few dads, started to collect large stones and dead tree branches and built the path forward! One by one, with some efforts and thrill, all of us crossed the creek and continued the hiking.
Dense wood, steep slope made the hiking really strenuous for some. I led the hiking and made a decision to turn around after 2.5 km hiking, much shorter distance than original plan, returning at 2.5 mile, due to the flooded creek.
We had the same thrill on the return trip crossing the creek again!
Sunset at the Dam
We returned to camp around 5pm, and had an early BBQ. The college students went into a big tent to play cards after a hearty dinner. It was only 7:00pm, it was still bright daylight, it was too early to start camp fire. I suggested to go to the Dam to see the Sunset.
It was still early when we got to the Dam, so we went off the Dam to Mountain Fork Park downstream to the Dam. It was unexpectedly beautiful even with Beavers Bend standard … water rushing in the shallow, rocky mountain fork river in this section, blue sky, white thin clouds, scissor tailed fly catchers swooping by the bluff, a few people were fishing, I was mesmerized.
The group took a few group pictures before heading back to the top of the Dam to see the Sunset.
Looking northeast, the broken bow lake was at its serenest at this time, calm, blueish with green islands. It felt like Acadia. Looking southwest, the Sun started to set, coated the mountains, surroundings and us with golden shine. With green forest, and the silver mountain fork river, what a beautiful tapestry it was! We seemed to be in great smoky mountains.
Kayak in Early Morning
Since most families don't have kayak or boat with them, we decided to get up early on Memorial Day to kayak in early morning, and then join the rest of the group for boating later in the day.
Our camp site was right at the bank of mountain fork river. When we set up the tent on Sunday, the river was very calm, and we noticed no flow. When we came back from hiking, the river was flowing at 1 to 2 mile per hour speed! The spillway lifted flood gates on Sunday in anticipation of more rain. We heard the sirens multiple times during hiking.
I got up at 6:10 am, when I stepped out of the tent, the Sun was just rising, the eastern sky was in deep red. The view was spectacular. Unfortunately I decided to go to restroom first, and when I came back that Devine vista was gone. Nevertheless, the surrounding scenery was still breath taking.
We started to assemble our inflatable kayak Emma when Lily got up around 6:40 am, we finished the assembly in our standard ~ 15 minutes.
We paddled upstream of the mountain fork river from our tent site because there is a small dam downstream separating level 1 and level 2/3 section of the river.
At this time, clouds built up, the Sun shine receded, but the river looked green, the trees on both banks greener! Small birds were flying in and out of the dense trees, chirping, big bird glided over the river, a beaver was swimming near the bank, vortexes formed downstream of the elegant cypresses trees standing in the river. In fact our kayaks, ours yellow and our friends' blue, added the accent to this already amazingly beautiful scene. We had to paddle continuously otherwise the kayak would float downstream with the river flow.
On the return trip, we let the river flow carry us forward, paddling occasionally to control the direction, and enjoyed the scenery even more.
Boating on Broken Bow Lake
We have been to many lakes around Texas and Oklahoma, but we mostly stayed at a corner of a lake, kayaking and hiking. As we had so many people this time, nearly 20, we decided to ride motor boats to tour the big lake, to see the islands and coves, up close, from water level.
An interesting episode with the boating occurred at the marina. The lake water level rose ~ 8 feet due to heavy rain , road signs were submerged. There was a gap between the dry land and the temporary bridge the marina built for customers. A similar situation as that happened on the hiking trail the previous day, but this time many took off shoes and wade through the water, others changed to sandals. We rented two boats and split our group into 2.
The college students initially were reluctant to go on the ride, but eventually enjoyed the boating a lot because they got chance to drive a boat at high speed in open water.
The lake did not disappoint despite a cloudy sky … islands, coves, water, other motor boats and ski jets.
It was as beautiful as I imagined.
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