Tag Archives: Turkey Mountain

Skywatch Friday – On the Move Edition

Me and a friend continue to hike on Turkey Mountain and other places. This is a moon gate leading into The Sanctuary section of Turkey Mountain. I go right through it, my friend goes around it. I don’t know why.

Turkey mountain has maybe nine lakes on it, plus two or three more in The Sanctuary. Anywhere else they would be called ponds. Three interesting things about the lakes (at least they are interesting to me) is, first, that the Wildlife Department stocks the lakes for fishing. Second there is a big colony of beavers on the mountain and they move as a group from lake to lake cleaning out all the fish in each pond. I think that is hilarious. Third, the beavers move up and down the Arkansas River and migrate to and from Turkey Mountain via Mooser Creek which is the northern border of Turkey Mountain. They know this because the wildlife has tagged a bunch of beavers so they can track their movements. I have a feeling that beavers are going to outlive humans.

This is a pipeline for one of my former employers running through Turkey Mountain. Last year another former employer of mine laid a pipeline adjacent to this one but they drilled the little swale you see instead of putting in a span like the one above. Drilling pipelines across tough spots has been all the rage for years. Contractors can now drill across the Mississippi River for large pipelines and hit the other side a mile away within a few feet of their target. They also do it in culturally sensitive areas like ruins and such. They can stand off a few hundred yards and drill way underneath the ruins instead of having to go around. The problem with going around is that you often run into more ruins.

The tree house in The Sanctuary. If you look close you can see a couple of swinging porch benches underneath. A nice place to wait out a rainstorm.

Anyway on this hike, it was almost exactly five miles. That’s my sweetspot.

Switching gears to the backyard. Sunrise!

Mid-day from my front yard looking east.

And a late sunset, looking west.

Later that night, the Full Snow Moon. I love full moons on a clear night.

And a shot from the neighborhood green belt.

I’ve continued working on jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I love beach scenes.

And a windmill jigsaw puzzle. The windmill is cool and I love the house. except not many windows upstairs. I like the lightning rods though. Random thought, I am sure that windmills get hit with lightning. Do they burn down?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Tulsa Edition

This is our Pomeranian, Kodi. He is not in a crate, he is next to a screen keeping him out of the room next door. He found a sunny spot on a cold day.

Went on a bike ride on Tulsa’s Arkansas RiverParks Trails. Stopped to rest up here a little and noticed my big shadowy wheel.

A winter hike on Turkey Mountain. There are no leaves left so the sun cast shadows of the trees across the trail.

I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

The Goats of Turkey Mountain

I follow the Turkey Mountain social media pretty closely and had been reading with interest the news that they have been using goats to manage the invasive plant species on Turkey Mountain. They are provided by a third party who monitors them and they are guarded by a special guard dog. I knew roughly where the sheep were supposed to be but I had never run into them.

On of my recent hikes I started smelling what I would call a barn smell or a ranch smell The smell of animals and their manure and a little ways later I ran into them on a legacy trail.

They were totally chill, some were eating, some were resting. None of them looked stressed in any way. I thought this is cool. I have volunteered at Turkey Mountain and other places and sometimes we work on invasive special removal. It is hard work!! Other methods such as controlled fires are great but require the right weather and the availability of a crew to manage it. Mechanical mulching works well but is expensive and it really tears the forest up temporarily.

These goats were happily munching away. I found a source, goat foraging dot org, and they discuss that the manure that goats poop out also builds up the soil, their hooves help break up the soil and mix the manure in. The goat’s digestive systems also destroy the seeds as they pass through the digestive system.

It’s all pretty low cost and sustainable and provides another tool in land managers’ tool box to help manage the land.

I didn’t see a guard dog, nor a shepherd and no fencing but I’m assuming they maintain control over the herd somehow. I’m all about stuff like this.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Shadowy Stacked Rocks of Turkey Mountain

Seen on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. I used the Hipstamatic app on my phone to take the photo to enhance the texture and emphasize the age of the formation.

Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

Skywatch Friday – Back on the Trail Edition

To recap, about two weeks ago I slipped and fell while hiking. I’ve done that a lot but this time my knee and the rest of my body went different directions and I was sore. So I hiked back to my car, went home, took a shower and then my wife took me orthopedic urgent care where they took xrays, said that my new knee was in good shape, wrapped my knee in a wrap patted me on my head said go see your surgeon.

I talked to my surgeons PA and said no damage to the knee so released me to do whatever as I felt able. I didn’t do much for a couple days and then gradually started getting more active.

My first hike was a mall walk where I saw that rugby shirts are a thing again, along with earth colors. Oh well.

I graduated to slow walks at local parks. Much better!

I love this fence.

And then back to Turkey Mountain for hikes on trails that are flat and don’t have technical feature.

This is the best vista on Turkey Mountain.

And then little bit longer hikes on more challenging terrain.

I found this bike jump on my a hike. Mountain bikers are crazy. You jump over the trail and onto a very steep slope on the other side. That’s a big nope for me. I have yet to ride a bike on Turkey Mountain.

I love this trail bridge over the dam at the YMCA at Turkey Mountain. Tulsa has the best fall weather of any place I have ever lived. Cool night, warm days, blue skies. Sign me up for all you have.

My beautiful wife Heather had an afternoon free, so we did a two mile hike at Turkey Mountain on the Sanctuary area.

I love old appliances on the trail. Turkey Mountain is an old farming, ranching, and oilfield area so there are lots things to look at that are interesting.

And at one spot, there is an old oil well with rods sticking out of the ground. I reminded Heather that we had been here before, 11 years ago. We were on an outlaw trail. The land was private but some bikers and hikers blazed a few trails through the tract and Heather, Me, and son Logan checked it out.

Heather and Logan found them selves an #oilwell on #turkeymountain #tulsa #oklahoma #igersok

So this is wife and son from nearly eleven years ago. Except, now RiverParks owns the land and it is legal to be on it.

Next up on the agenda. The Tulsa Area Geocachers are having their Fall Fest Geocaching Event at Lake Okmulgee on Saturday, and Sunday, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition is at Chandler Park partnering with the county on a trail maintenance and a cleanup day there. I’ll be at both events.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Saturday’s Critters – On the Trail and at Home

A robin I captured on Turkey Mountain Friday afternoon.

Another robin in the same area on a different pass yesterday.

Ducks on the fishing pond at Lafortune Park earlier in the week.

Two separate sculptures working together at the Scheel’s Store at the mall.

Lizzie the cat, grooming Sadie to dog in a tender moment.

Kodie and Sadie wanting in!!

Sadie on my lap while I was watching television the other night.

Finally a 21 second video of other critter moments during the week. Featuring the bird cam, a sparrow, a dove, an angry squirrel, and me and Sadie playing fetch. Yep, all that fits in 21 seconds so pay attention!!

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Carolina Wren on the Trail

I was out hiking on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, with my “good camera”, and I heard a bird call. The Merlin App said it was a Carolina Wren. So I just stopped and stood still and was looking around and I saw two little birds that I thought could be them. They are kind of flighty so I just waited until I had a clear shot and took several and this one was the best one of the lot. I’ve learned to use manual focus when I am shooting bird photos in trees and brush otherwise the camera will focus on miscellaneous twigs, branches and leaves. I know it is grainy, it is highly cropped. But I will take. Carolina Wrens are beautiful birds.

I think that I am slowly getting better spotting and photographing birds.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Skywatch Friday – From Here to the Moon and Back

Here: Taken on a recent morning hike with a friend through The Sanctuary at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. It’s kind of an isolated part of Turkey Mountain so we don’t generally see anybody early in the morning.

To the Moon!: The Full Harvest Moon for a couple nights ago. Clear skies in Tulsa made this one easy. Social media blew up as thousands of people posted their Full Moon shots that night. I loved it.

And back: From an October 2019 trip to Jackson, Wyoming. My wife and I hiked all over Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. What a beautiful place that is.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Dedicating “The Sanctuary” at Turkey Mountain

Over a week ago, several dozen trail lovers and various politicos gathered on Turkey Mountain to dedicate a new area. The Sanctuary with 88 acres (some sources say 90) and six miles of trails. The contractor has been working on the area since last fall and it is now fully opened up. It is on Turkey Mountain but across the street from the main area of the park.

The trails were built on land already owned by Tulsa RiverParks through a $2 million grant from the Daryl and Julie Christner Foundation. Above is a family representative talking about how his dad loved being outdoors. I saw him later leading a group of mountain bikers on the trails.

I was standing right next to Oklahoma’s Lieutenant Governer, Mike Pinell. Rather than take point blank photo, I took a picture of his cowboy boots. So I am on oil and gas twitter (or X if you must) and one of the ongoing things there, tongue in cheek, is that round toed boots are lame and square toed boots are cool. You can see he is wearing round toes. I elected not to call him out on that. (True confession, I have two pairs of square toe boots and one of round toes.) His big mission as lieutenant governor is publicizing and pushing Oklahoma and he does a good job of it.

He talked about how everybody is always welcome at Turkey Mountain. He also said that Tulsa is the most philanthropic city in America and how many public private partnerships go on here. He mentioned that Oklahoma has 34 sovereign nations within our borders (talking about the Native American tribes) and twelve ecosystems.

So the speeches were limited, and then everyone was invited to hike a quarter mile to treehouse for refreshments.

So off we went. I had a peanut butter cookie and chatted with a few people I knew.

That’s the heaviest duty treehouse I have ever seen.

I studied on the posted map a little bit and decided I was going to go on a hike.

I love the trails. They are all single track and some of them are pretty rocky. So you have to kind of pick your way carefully, especially if you are an old codger.

It was a bright sunny day, and there are lots of trees so there were lots of shadows.

I head lots of birds but they wouldn’t come out and sit still for a photo.

At one of the trail hubs I found this headboard. I was thinking. I have seen that before!!

I saw it in 2014 when this was all privately owned and some outlaw trail builders built their own trails on the property. Take a look to the left and behind the headboard.

It’s an oil well! A relic of Turkey Mountain’s past. It looked familiar as well.

So here is my wife and son at the same well eleven years ago.

So we were pioneers of the Sanctuary. Somebody got hurt crossing the road back to the main part of Turkey Mountain and the owners of the property posted it and so exploration of the property came to an end.

Enough of past history. I finished my hike and went through the moongate at the main entrance. I just love moon gates.

So a little over two miles. A friend and I hiked about three miles on a different route a few days later.

At least one Tulsa News Station had a crew there. Channel 6 news. Check the link for several videos.

I am linking with My Corner of the World.

Saturday’s Critters – Indigo Bunting and More

I went on a hike this week at Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I was rewarded with my first photos ever of an indigo bunting. I had seen them before but they are very flighty and usually behind a lot of brush. I come upon this perched on branch overhanging a trail. It sat there while I got my camera ready and I was able to take of shots.

They are such beautiful birds. We have painted buntings in Oklahoma but I have never seen one. I’d sure like to see and photography one out in the wild.

On the same hike I encountered this curious deer. We just kind of stood and looked at each other for a minute or two and it let me get a few photos of it. It never did run off. I finally walked away from it.

And now for the movies!!

First up is a compilation of birds from the past week captured on my camera feeder. Note that it takes literally about 200 videos a day. Almost all of them of doves, which although beautiful, are not interesting to me. With the use of habanero laced bird food, the squirrels pretty much ignore the feeder except for a very few who chomp down all the food they can, habanero or no.

This second movie is our rescue terrier Sadie romping around the backyard with the zoomies. She is the happiest little dog I have ever seen.

That is it for this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

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