A Tour of Tulsa’s Lubell Park

Last week after walking the new trails at Bales Park in west Tulsa, I drove ovder to nearby Lubell Park to check out their new trails. Their trails new to me but they had the grand opening on the new trails in October 2021. Before that they were hand cut trails by volunteers. The new trails were put in by the professionals at Rogue Trails out of Arkansas. The same people working on the Bales Park Trails.

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I’ve only been to Lubell one time before to find a geocache. What Lubell was mainly known for up until the new trails was the number and aggressiveness of their ticks.

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Ticks no more on these big wide, sustainable, cool trails. At least I didn’t get any (I use tick spray whenever I am in the woods.)

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The trails are pretty cool. The project was sponsored by a local bicycle club and so the trails kind of cater to mountain bikes but they are perfectly hikable. These are the only mountain bike trails that I have seen in Tulsa that I think I would be okay with riding my bike on. Smooth, no steeps ups and downs, and doable turns. The new trails at Turkey Mountain and Bales are pretty cool but I don’t have the skillz necessary to ride them successfully. At my age, gravity is not friend! Can I get an Amen?

And they have some interesting features such as this shelter.

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These look like thrones to me. Lubeell is integrated into the surrounding neighborhood such that some people have gates in the fences that open into the park. That is where I found these.

And they had several cairns or stacked rocks. I used to think they were cool but they don’t really go with a leave no trace vibe. They are not much of a problem in Oklahoma but some parts of the country are getting overrun with these and are technically illegal in National Parks.

The east boundary fence appears to be a deer proof fence. I noticed a deer feeder on the other side. Notice the greenery. It is lespedeza, a noxious plant introduced to the United States from Asia in the 1890 and was widely used as a cover on non-productive soils. The problem is that it takes over and deer and livestock won’t eat it. I hate the stuff.

Moving on, near the end of the trail there are some nice obstacles mainly for bikes. I walked the little maze above.

More fun for bicycles.

And Tulsa has these things all over town. They are tornado sirens and many of them seem to be too big for the wooden pole that supports it and they are bending over at ever increasing angles. They send out three types of alarms. Tornados and chemical releases get a three minute monotone. Then there is a three minute wavering tone used only for nuclear attacks. So if you happen to be in Tulsa and those goes off, best just to kiss yourself goodbye. I remember in grade school in the early 1960’s we were told to get under out desks in case of nuclear attack. The third signal is a three minute high low tone. That is a flooding alert.

Sorry I digress, again. Here is a short video showing my hike at Lubell.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday – go check it out!!

23 thoughts on “A Tour of Tulsa’s Lubell Park

  1. Amy

    That’s something we don’t have here, ticks that jump on people, we only have the ones that hide in long grass that jump on animals, they aren’t nice at all and I had to be careful when taking them off a dog I use to have.

  2. Sallie

    This was a fun virtual trail *walk*. I’m glad the bike people are OK sharing it. we’re certainly in your Amen corner regarding hose tricky bike trails and gravity.

  3. Vicki

    What a neat place! I’ve never heard of aggressiveness ticks. There were tornado sirens where I grew up but thankfully they never went off.

  4. Ellen

    Once again impressed with Tulsa’s devotion to its parks and trails. Stay away from those ticks! Jillian’s dog recently had some paralysis in his legs after being bitten my a tiny tick. Luckily, he’s okay now. I just watched Shania Twain’s documentary–I didn’t realize how Lyme’s disease affected her. They’re horrible little creatures. In Colorado we don’t have ticks or big sirens. Just sayin.

  5. tomthebackroadstraveller

    …the shady part of the trail looks inviting on this hot. Thanks for hosting.

  6. Peter B.

    I remember those “duck and cover” drills from grade school. Truth be told, I don’t think they would do any good. A hiking buddy of mine gets angry every time he sees a cairn in Joshua Tree and knocks them down.

  7. Nancy Chan

    Those are nice trails for biking and hiking. Yes and amen to the thing about age and gravity. I don’t know about ticks but if the place is damp or wet, we might pick up leeches if we walk too near the grass.

  8. klara

    always a great pleasure to see new hike/bike trails. naive me never thinks of ticks when in nature. have to be more vigilant.

  9. E. Thai

    Nice trail. Great job on the detailed video!
    First time I’ve heard of lespedeza. We have problems with invasive kudzu (TN) and air potato (FL).

    It was hot in Chattanooga. In Boston, we’ve been having a heat wave for the last few days. Stay cool!

  10. Penelope Notes

    Being a professional trail maker sounds like a nice job. Also, like the snappy music that went with the video. Interesting to see Inuksuk in your neck of the woods … they are quite prevalent in B.C.

  11. Alana

    Interesting. I enjoyed your digressions and learned more about Tulsa. Chemical alarms? I’ve always wondered about cairns – I find them here in New York State, too.

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