Tag Archives: Turkey Mountain

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.

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

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

Skywatch Friday – Urban and Other Skies

I fired up the drone again and flew over the backyard in between rain storms. This is looking to the west. You can see everything is very green in Tulsa right now with all the rain we are getting.

A stopped in traffic, crepuscular ray shot one afternoon.

And another shot from almost the same spot yesterday.

The City of Broken Arrow has a Veteran’s Park with all sorts of monuments in honor of veterans. This is the “War at Home” Memorial. It honors veterans who came home from war but committed suicide later. It’s a huge issue. War is hard on people mentally and emotionally and we need to make sure they are cared for when they come home even though their wounds are not physical.

And I went on a short hike at our Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. The John and Kate Kaiser YMCA tucked to the very northwest corner of the Wilderness Area. I am a Y member so I just check in at the office and take off. I hardly ever see anyone else on the trails there. It’s pretty remote from the rest of Turkey Mountain.

Skywatch Friday

Big News for Turkey Mountain

The RiverParks Authority had some big news for Turkey Mountain on Monday. They invited everybody to show for an announcement. Turns out that the Bank of Oklahoma is donating two million dollars to a visitor center on Turkey Mountain. RiverParks only has about six million bucks left to raise.

It’s going to be a visitor center and office for Turkey Mountain all in one. Right now they office in high rise building just out of downtown Tulsa.

(Note photo stolen from Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition facebook site)

They also had free tshirts as a giveaway and snowcones. Better not stand in my way for either one of those. Four members of the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition board was there, including me.

The city fathers gave speeches patting themselves on the back about turning back a planned outlet mall on Turkey Mountain more than ten years ago. They ignored TUWC’s crucial early work (before I joined the board) but that ‘s okay, what matters is the results and we are off working on other things.

I chatted with a few people I know. It was almost old home week for people who love Turkey Mountain. When I first started coming here all they had was a dirt parking lot. The trails were deer trails or dry streams on the hillsides. There were not really any maps, you just had to learn the trails by getting on them and seeing where they went. Not very sustainable. Now we have all sorts of new designed, sustainable trails. Two big parking lots and a third under construction, and of course soon we’ll have an $8 million dollar visitor center.

And some really nice hiking bridges!!

As popular as Turkey Mountain has become, you get a half mile down the trails you don’t see very many people.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – On the Trail Again!

I was feeling all energetic and everything so I thought that I would go for a little hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I probably should have gone to the gym, but I’m gymed out, Physical Therapy is all gym, and not the fun kind.

So off I went, the trails were all wet, not very muddy though but rain was in the forecast and the park warned that they might close the park to everybody if it got bad enough.

The upside of rain is that all the ponds were full. Nice to see.

I used a mixture of the new trails and the old trails. The Stay Gold and Tree Hugger respectively.

This pond was dry the last time I came by.

I was going down the trail with my Merlin app trying to figure out the birds that were singing and a mountain biker came by and said to be sure to watch out for the copperhead snake on the trail up ahead. Yes sir! Time to put the eyes on the trail and not the device.

Do you know how many sticks look like snakes!! A bunch. The thing about copperheads is that they are the slugs of the poisonous snake families. They are not vicious and once they find a spot they like, they don’t like to move, and they are hard to see. So watch where you step!

The only snake I saw was this chain snake.

This is a Skywatch Friday post so I need to have one view of the sky. Here’s the overlook on Turkey Mountain on the very southeast side of the park. That’s the Arkansas River down below. To the left are the funky old office towers that used to be the televangelist Oral Roberts hospital. (Don’t ask me why a faith healer needs a hospital.)

And then back to the parking lot. Never did see that copperhead. I am not complaining about it, just saying.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and Our Corner of the World.

Skywatch Friday – Staying Home or Going Out?

I get lots of skywatch photos from my front and back yards, and that is great except…

I like getting out as well.

On our street looking east. I love this mackerel sky.

Another day, looking west again.

We have no daffodils in our yard though. Gotta drive to them.

I always love a flag snapping in a strong, cold, spring breeze.

The school where I tutor a first grader is honoring all their teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, janitors, tutors and everyone else who helps out.

The other day the knee was feeling strong so I fired up the electric mower and got the job done.

On another day the wife and I went to a big box store and bought some cushions for our patio furniture. The cushions were cool but these roosters take a better photo. Can you believe stores let you walk in and take pictures of their stuff? Some stores say no photos but I ignore those signs.

The afternoon after I mowed, I decided to go take a hike at Turkey Mountain on a little bit more challenging trail. Only a mile long but the killer was about 300 feet of elevation change.

Here is some switchbacks on the 300 ft climb.

I loved the br

You can tell I really liked the bridge since I took two photos of it.

Staying in or Going out? You need to do both!!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – In the Neighborhood

Here’s a sunrise one morning from our driveway

And a sunset from the same driveway on a different day

And some trees changing color at Pepsi Lake on Turkey Mountain.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Shadow Selfies, Big and Small

I went hiking the other day and took a couple of shadow selfies. Here’s a fuzzy one. Do you see little old me? I think it is fuzzy because the image focused on the bridge I was standing on. That is coming in clear.

And here is a big selfie. I love how afternoon shadows make me look slimmer. And wrinkles don’t show up on shadow selfies either.

I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday!

Shadowy Woods

The late summer woods on Turkey Mountain on a sunny day is full of shadows.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Skywatch Friday – Turkey Mountain Hike

One day last week I started out from Turkey Mountain’s upper parking lot and had to check this device. I’d love to have one in case anybody is wondering what to get me for back to school! I’m not going to school but you can buy it for me anyways.

And then I went tot the north end of the parking lot and took this shot of downtown Tulsa. Turkey Mountain is a true urban wilderness. It’s only about six miles to downtown.

And then I took the new Three Pillars Trail over to the Three Ponds. I keep hearing they are the three sisters or the three pearls. So I don’t know about those names but they are definitely ponds so I am using that for now.

They are going to make some great season photographs.

Nice reflections everywhere you look.

I left the ponds and continued westward when I found this fella. I posted this same photo on my Saturday’s Critters post last Saturday. It’ a rat snake, and they are not venomous.

And then went and checked on my most previous employer’s pipeline they are building through the park.

They are doing a good job. The right of way is in good shape and the welders, pipefitters, equipment operators, x-ray hands, and inspectors are not out and about wandering all over the place, poaching deer and fishing the ponds. At least not during working hours.

I’m told that they are going to be done pretty soon and they are going to mulch the right of way and plant a wildflower mix. That sounds good to me.

I went a little bit further and find a couch to relax on. It looked a little firm to me so I just kept moving.

Went down a side trail and had to double back. The pipeline folks were excavating and didn’t want any tourists or know it all retired pipeline engineers.

I passed this little mess. Years ago, Turkey Mountain was an oilfield and the workers had trash pits they covered up. Well they are getting exposed now and the old trash is coming to the surface.

And then I went back to my car. I was hot and tired. It is warm here in Tulsa.

That’s all for now!!

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