We had a beautiful weather day to do some exploring while we were staying at Pine Island Resort. So we took off on a Saturday morning on a drive to see several of the state parks that we didn't even know existed before now. Just 19 miles away, we found ourselves in Disney, Oklahoma, on the south end of Grand Lake O' the Cherokee. We've seen this lake from many different angles already, so we didn't even stop for a picture of the lake today. We were more interested in what was happening on the other side of the dam.
There were no signs pointing the way, but we tried walking down a steep gravel road beside the bridge. We soon found ourselves in the middle of the Disney Off-Road Terrain park.
On this blue-sky Saturday, we had to be careful to avoid all the vehicles that were testing their tires and driving prowess on this rugged terrain.
Perched on a steep hill protected with scrub trees, we felt safe that none of the off-road vehicles would be driving in our direction. But we were clearly mistaken in the abilities of these cars.
We would assume that any vehicle approaching a 90-degree rock wall twice its height would turn around and go the other direction.
This driver didn't make it on the first attempt, and had to roll back down . . .
but we watched in amazement as he somehow crawled straight up that rock wall on the second attempt.
It was quite a show as we saw these specially rigged jeeps make it up and over some incredible rock structures!
We had stumbled onto a front row seat of a show that we didn't even know existed before today.
A further walk over the white rocks took us to another unknown section of the state park--Little Blue. People were swimming and fishing, and enjoying the shade of the rock cave below us.
It's hard to appreciate the size and steepness of these rock formations . . .
until we zoomed out to see the people inside the cave and a jeep on top.
We discovered another section of the Disney All-Terrain Park with a viewpoint close to the dam bridge. There are signs that warn that the area must be evacuated immediately if the dam's flood gates are opened. It doesn't look like that has happened in quite some time.
A trickle of water was escaping from the dam, and that made a wet highway for the smaller four-wheelers to splash to the top of the rocks in this section.
After a delicious barbecue brisket lunch at a local food truck, we were on the road to our next state park of the day--the Cherokee State Park Area. This view along the river was taken at the properly named Riverview area of this state park.
We took a picture of the nice campground at Riverview, just to remind ourselves that this would be a great place to stay next time we're in this part of the state.
The last stop on this marathon state park day was Spavinaw Lake State Park. Denisa climbed the steps up to the dam for the bird's eye view of the lake. She saw only two fishing boats on this calm water. We're finding that our old state map is out-of-date. Some of the state parks on our map are now ran by other agencies. Spavinaw is the second park we have found that is now owned by the city of Tulsa.
The water from Lake Spavinaw is pouring over the dam in a solid sheet of white into the river below.
That chilly water is making a nice current that a few hardy souls are floating down.
Even though we spent a week camping on Grand Lake, we never put our kayak on the water there. That's because almost all the edges of the lake are filled with houses and private boat docks. That doesn't sound like a fun kayak environment to us. But we couldn't see even one house built on Spavinaw Lake, so we headed into one of the coves across the lake.
We started seeing wildlife almost as soon as we got into the cove. It's a "bonus picture" when we could get a big heron and two turtles in the same frame.
This gander was putting on quite a show for his goose.
It looked like she was trying hard to not even notice all his antics.
We have been chasing bright blue birds that we have spotted a dozen different times in the last two days. These bright little birds are flighty, and we never could catch a picture. We have to be content to call them our un-pictured "blue-bird-of-happiness." So instead, we have a picture of this unnamed bird that we have to be content to call "calmer-bird-that-made-Denisa-happy-because-he-would-pose-for-pictures." (That name seems to be a little lengthy to catch on with the general public.)
We found a blackjack tree that was draped over the edge of the water, and it was in full bloom. We had an old blackjack tree in the back yard of the first house we bought, and Denisa has always loved the sweet smells of those flowers. So Mark guided her right under those blooms for a nice whiff.
She attached a couple of those flower-ladened twigs to the front of the boat to make this an aromatic kayak ride. Denisa thought she was going to have to remove those flowers when she found out that the resident bumblebees were also attracted to that smell and tried to hitch a ride with us.
The cove was a good mile long, and as we neared the end we could see a couple deer standing in the shallow water in the shadows.
Between the low light and the far distance, we couldn't get a crisp picture. But when we looked at the photos later, we saw that several wood ducks were also hiding in that shadowy water. Those beautiful emerald-headed ducks are worth adding a blurry picture.
Spavinaw Lake must have the perfect conditions for shoreline flowers, because we found several areas of these beautiful wild yellow irises.
The sun was low in the sky by the time we headed back across the lake to our car. We took one more picture of a heron balanced on a log, watching for his last meal of the day.
We had a great day of exploring some new-to-us Oklahoma state parks. We found some nice campgrounds that would make great places to stop the next time we're in the area. It was a successful food day as well. We enjoyed the chopped brisket we had for lunch so much, that we circled back through the town of Disney to buy some more from the local food truck. From watching jeep stunts to wildlife sightings, it was another good day of wandering God's wonders!
After a week at Honey Creek State Park in Grove, Oklahoma, we drove a whopping 15 miles to Pine Island Resort for a 3-night fancy stay. This "resort" is divided into four areas, and we chose a level full-hook-up 50-amp site in Area 2 mainly because we needed to do laundry. It's not glamorous, but it's a fact of life that we often have to choose a site for practical, rather than scenic, reasons. State parks usually have only water and electricity, so washing clothes will fill up our gray water tank in a hurry. We needed those sewer hook-ups so we could wash all the clothes that were over-flowing our hamper. Our washing machine is small, so nine loads later we have all our clothes and linens clean.
Our fancy resort has a hiking trail to the more scenic lake view sites. From the deck of the club house we could look over Grand Lake far below and could spot the state park several miles across the water. Even though it took an hour's drive on winding roads to get here, we actually didn't move very far from our last campground.
We walked from our site to the scenic lookout by hiking some steep hills. It's interesting that the camping spots in that scenic area are down and then up those steep roads where RVs are not allowed.
We got good exercise hiking those steep hills at Pine Island.
Even though the outdoor pool wasn't open yet, we could exercise in the fancy indoor pool. No problem isolating here, as we had the pool to ourselves during the week.
We can afford this "resort" because they offer half-price Passport America rates. Even with two pools, we have to put the word resort in quotes because it didn't feel very upscale. The miniature golf course was covered in pine needles and the tennis courts needed new nets. They have a storage area for RVs so owners can leave them during the off-season. With several trees growing up through this motor home, we are guessing that it has been there for several off-seasons.
So our resort isn't very up-scale, but it served its purpose for tasks to be done, as well as our plan to explore more state parks. From here, we made a road trip to Eucha Lake State Park.
Once there, we found that it is no longer an Oklahoma state park. It is now owned by the city of Tulsa, who charges a boat docking and fishing fee to cover maintenance of the park.
Because we were in no hurry to head home and do more laundry, we took the much longer "scenic" route. That often gets us on gravel roads with questionable upkeep.
But this method of exploring also often takes us to see lovely views of Americana. We loved the sentiment of patriotism, religion, and beautiful lilies at one of those gravel road homes.
The winding roads for the day were so bad that we had to exclaim in delight when we found ourselves on a paved road that actually had a center-line! Really, Denisa was exclaiming in delight because of the lovely white daisies along many of the roads.
A center line and wildflowers is enough to impress us, even when we are living a fancy lifestyle at the Pine Island Resort.
After the birthday festivities were over, we decided to stick around Grove, Oklahoma, for a few more days. We really like our water and electric site on the lake at Honey Creek State Park! Every site was filled and the place was a zoo during the weekend. But during the middle of the week we almost had the entire place to ourselves. Now that our social time is over, it should be very easy to isolate here.
Before they left town, our son's family came by to tell us good-bye. Carter is ready to go with us on our next trip--as long as she gets to drive.
We had one more chance to play "steekers" before they had to leave. We're not sure how many hours Carter played with this reusable sticker set, but it was a great investment when we added it to the "Gram bag" of goodies.
As soon as they left, we started another two weeks of isolation. We were planning to head out towards northern Arkansas. We had found an area with a beautiful lake and great hiking that we have never explored. So we started looking for a good campsite for a week or two. That's when we discovered that we are no longer welcome in Arkansas. All the great Corp of Engineer campgrounds around Beaver Lake are closed, and the governor has restricted camping spots in private and state campgrounds to Arkansas residents only. So we changed our plans, and have decided to stay in Oklahoma, where we feel welcome. Besides, our campground here at Honey Creek has its own lighthouse, and Denisa is very fond of lighthouses.
Besides that, Denisa is still trying to get a picture of the fox that wandered into our site the other day. We have also grown accustomed to the woodpecker that is trying to drill holes in the lightpost that we can see through our living room window. We like seeing his shiny red head while he works.
So our new plan of action is to explore the Oklahoma state parks in this northeast quadrant. We lived on the west side of the state for over 50 years, and we didn't even know that most of these parks existed. In our start at exploring all these parks, we drove over to Bernice State Park. We walked the nature trail, with its nicely shaded asphalt surface.
The half-mile nature trail took us to two different observation towers. This one let us observe the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees from a new angle.
We also observed a scissortail flycatcher posing on a post for us. Several days ago we posted a blurry picture of Oklahoma's state bird, so we were glad to get a clearer close-up today at a state park.
When the bird flew, we finally got a picture (albeit blurry) of those split tail feathers that confirmed it was a scissortail.
We also checked out the lake-view camping sites at Bernice State Park. Just like at our park, it would be easy to get an open site in the middle of the week this time of year. But we're guessing that the weekend was pretty crazy here, just like at Honey Creek. Oklahoma has a good on-line reservation system, and you are required to reserve and pay for your site before you arrive at the park.
We're glad to see that there are no fees to make a reservation. We've always disliked the national reservation system, where the fees can be almost as much as a single night's camping cost. Oklahoma has opened up their state park campgrounds and bathrooms, and we have seen RVs from many different states using the day-use and camping areas. After not feeling welcomed in Arkansas, we're glad that Oklahoma has given us a welcomed haven while we are once again isolating during the pandemic.
