Tag Archives: Beavers Bend State Park

Beavers Bend State Park Getaway 2024

Last week we went to southeast Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park for a few nights. So we had only two full days and we packed a lot of fun during that time. Two hikes, a kayak ride, several dog walks and lots of sitting by the fire, making smores, grilling burgers, playing cornhole, and sitting in the hot tub.

The first hike was along the Mountain Fork River below the Broken Bow dam on what I think was an old logging road.

It was kind of fun paralleling the river.

The farther we went the smaller the trail became. It ends at about 1.5 miles in so it makes a good out and back route of about three miles.

The second hike was alongside the Broken Bow Lake formed by the dam. It was also fun.

53737957397_6e7e6f26ac_o_HDR — Toe Cam!!

And we went for a short kayak paddle on the Mountain Fork River just below the dam. I’m not much a kayaker but I was able to handle the little rapids they had right at first (most would call those rapids a ripple). It was calm water and there were not many people.

It was a very calm time.

It made for some great reflections.

You may notice however that I blew out the sky on these photos. Sorry excuse for Skywatch Friday, right! I have the technology to put whatever sky I want on but that seems like cheating. And you know here at Skywatch Friday, we are very inclusive our various skies, even the ones blown out by untalented amateurs.

Gray skies and all we had a great time.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Saturday’s Critters – Hochatown Deer, Snakes and Sasquatch

This past week the family spent some time at Hochatown, Oklahoma near Beavers Bend State Park for a little R&R. Since I am retired we can take a weekend getaway during the middle of the week and avoid the crowds! We are not big on crowds.

We rented a very nice cabin with all sorts of amenities. The best thing was all the deer that came by to visit early in the morning.

Deer are really graceful but very wary. As well they should be.

So we sat still on the porch as they came by.

We went hiking a few days in the park. We found this little armadillo on our first hike. They really are intriguing creatures.

But then we come across this snake that Heather almost stepped on. She thought it was a copperhead which is of course venomous. I kept telling her to get close enough to see the shape of the eyes to make sure. She refused. INaturalist confirmed it was a copperhead. It was laying right on the edge of the trail and refused to move so we just edged around him best we could. It was one of the biggest copperheads I have ever seen.

Later on during a walk around our cabin neighborhood we come across Bigfoot. Neither Heather or Kodi were afraid of him one bit.

Kodi loved our getaway. We didn’t take him on any hikes but we did lots of walks around the cabin and took him to a dog friendly brewery. He had a great time. As did we.

We went kayaking while down there, here is an action shot of Logan. We didn’t see any critters on the water except for birds.

Speaking of birds, have you tried the Merlin app. A free app and you download a bird song library and then you turn it on and it ID’s the birds by their songs. It’s amazing. The only thing is that it doesn’t locate the little buggers for you. So now I’m just taking screen shots of what it is hearing. It is truly amazing.

I’m linking to Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Mountain Fork River

The family went on a little mini-vacation to Oklahoma’s beautiful Beavers Bend State Park where we went hiking, kayaking, and other fun activities. Above was from a kayak outing down the Mountain Fork River in the park. It may not fit what your idea of Oklahoma is. It’s not all cows, wheatfields, and windmills.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Hiking the Lakeview Lodge Trail

Heather on Trail_DAP_Cezanne_V7 — My wife Heather in the distance. Leaving me behind as usual.

My favorite trail on our recent trip to southeast Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park was the Lakeview Lodge Trail. We hiked a little over 4 miles. The trail had some up and down, some water views, and was in generally great shape. The woods were opened up and it was very enjoyable.

My wife, son, and I had a pretty good time.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Get Away to Southeast Oklahoma

May be an image of 3 people — ***Heather, Logan, Kodi, and Me, left to right***

The family went on a little mini vacay this week down to Beavers Bend State Park in southeast Oklahoma.

We stayed in a nice cabin

Went on one big hike and a smaller hike.

Kayaking for me and Logan, and Standup Paddleboard for Heather on Broken Bow Lake.

Kodi went with us on the shorter hike along the Mountain Fork River.

He got a little intro into swimming in a river.

Some fire pit time for everybody.

Checking out a partial moon.

We had a great time. More to come.

Skywatch Friday

Hochatown Adventure – Second Day

So last week I talked about our first day at Beavers Bend State Park in southeast Oklahoma. The second day we did a couple of hikes including the Friends Trail along the Mountain Fork River. This section comes off the bottom of the Broken Bow lake. The water is very cool and the state stocks it with trout.

Several fly fisherman were on the water with their waders and long rods.

I have done a little fly fishing but I was wishing I had a simple Zebco rod and reel, some worms, and a bobber.

This guy was the smoothest fly fisherman I have ever seen. Hopping from rock to rock doing all sorts of casts into various pools. My late Father-in-law was a great fly fisherman. He could put a fly on one side of a rock or on the other side of the rock. Me, I was just lucky to get it out in front of me somewhere.

It is a very peaceful river and the day we were there were not many people.

We went to the park’s Forestry Heritage Center which has exhibits on the timber industry and culture of southeast Oklahoma. It’s a fun place with a 1960’s type vibe about it. They had a geocache there and Heather found it!! It had stymied us on previous trips.

I love this sculpture dedicated to Woodland Firefighters. It reminds me of my late father who fought forest fires early in his career in the forest service. He had the aluminum hard hat and a Pulaski, the combination axe and hoe the guy is holding.

We took my father to the museum years ago and I remember him showing us how these various chain saws and other tools were used in logging. I remember asking him why the yellow chainsaw had the saw blade horizontal. The answer was that early day carburetors couldn’t work work on the side so you had to hold the engine up straight while cutting trees or the motor would quit. So now you know!!

Later we went back to the cabin, drank a few beers, played some games, started a fire in the fire pit, made some smores and tried out the hot tub again. We had a grand time.

It was great for the three of us get away for a few days.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Getaway to Beaver’s Bend

Early last week we packed up the ole Honda Pilot to head off on a little trip to southeast Oklahoma. We were not going to be gone long but for some reason the car was packed full.

On the way we stopped in Antlers, OK for gas. They had this memorial to the Cboctaw Code Talkers of both World Wars.

We rented a nice cabin for a couple days. Nice big decks, a hot tub, a pool table and a pretty sizable out door area.

It had a baby Sasquatich inside. I love the corny things people do to decorate their cabins.

Heather playing ladders. We also played cornhole, swung on the swings, and used the fire pit and the hot tub.

We brought along our elderly Pomeranian, Rascal and he seemed to have a great time as well. We went on daily one mile walks with him and he practiced going up and down the steps to the porch.

We grilled a lot of food and spent a lot of time together.

The next day, we loaded up for a hike (Rascal stayed at the cabin) and went for a three mile hike on the Mountain Fork River. A very nice trail that is relatively flat.

We didn’t see hardly anybody the whole time.

The weather was sunny and cool. That’s Logan in blue to the back.

At the end of hike we came across a collapsed old building with just the foundation remaining. I love mysteries like this? I’m gong to have to found out what the deal is.

Anyway, that was just the first 24 hours. I got more to tell later.

Sad news from Tulsa today. A gunman barged into a medical office building and killed four people before taking his own life. The Tulsa Police Department was on the scene three minutes after the call came in. They ran up to the second floor where the shots were coming from but they were too late.

Take care I’m linking at Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch – Standup Paddleboarding on Broken Bow Lake

Heather and I on our recent short getaway to southeast Oklahoma had a great combination of activity and rest. We spent a lot of time at the cabin reading but we also spent a lot of time hiking and one afternoon we rented a kayak and a paddleboard at Broken Bow Lake.

The lake is also part of Beavers Bend State Park and we found a concession who is open on the weekend. I got the kayak and Heather got the paddle board. I can do paddle boards, I really can, kind of, but they are a lot of work. Kayaking is a lot easier. Heather loves paddle boards. She teaches a class in our gym’s pool where one stands on the boards and does things. I take the class but I am pretty shaky.

The lake was beautiful and the day was gorgeous. A slight haze in the air. I was wondering if was from the horrendous fires in California, Oregon, and other places in the west.

Being the weekend after Labor Day there were not that many people out on the lake. Seems like most of them were from Texas.

Heather showing her chops with the paddle.

And busting out some yoga moves for good measure.

We were out for two hours. We went here, there, and everywhere.

And then it was time to bring them in.

And of course I wore my Garmin watch to document the adventure. I mean it didn’t really happen if it wasn’t documented, right?

And then back to the cabin to chill. It was a great place to chill. We didn’t spend much times indoors. We spent most of the time on the deck with its sectional couch and the hot tub which I didn’t take a photo of for some reason. So if I didn’t take a picture of it, did it really exist?

I’m so thankful that we could take this little trip.

Anyway, we had a great time. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Go check it out.

Skywatch Friday – Little Dixie Skies

This past weekend my wife and I ventured down to southeast Oklahoma to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Southeast Oklahoma is quite mountainous and woodsy, think Arkansas. In Oklahoma it is called “Little Dixie” because it is so different in a lot of ways from the rest of Oklahoma which is mainly western in nature. Think Arkansas

Our first day we went hiking, just a nice short 3.3 mile route and it kicked our rear ends. Part of the issue was it was almost 100F and had a lot of vertical, about 800 feet overall. But you know, we would walk for a while and rest for a while and pretty soon it was over. And we were tired at the end of the day.

After the first 200 yards, we did not see anybody. I guess most people were smarter than we were.

We stopped at this tree for a break. I’ve read a lot about “Native American Guide Trees” online where people claim that Native Americans shaped trees like this as guides to routes and water and other things. I am very skeptical as I see very little original information plus it seems like a very labor intensive way to transmit information. But my my mind is still open to the possibility.

So yep, the hike was a little hard for us but we were happy to be doing it.

Heather is always ready for anything.

I loved the look of the light filtering through the leaves.

She had some fun with me. I love geocaching, she not so much but she is good at it. We were looking for one and she found it when I could not and she taunted me a little bit. That’s all right!! I guess I’ll keep her. After 30 years we have learned a lot about each other.

Later on in the week, she had to bail me out twice during a rough spot I had during a kayaking expedition we were on. I kept running into rocks and turning over so she came up and rode my kayak down through the rapids while I walked down on the bank. I wish I had photos but I ruined my camera when it took one too many dunks. She’s bailed me out a bunch of times during our 30 years we’ve been together.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

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