{"id":13484,"date":"2021-08-08T12:26:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T17:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=13484"},"modified":"2021-08-08T12:26:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T17:26:37","slug":"new-trails-coming-to-turkey-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=13484","title":{"rendered":"New Trails Coming to Turkey Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Big News out today in Tulsa for those of us who love the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. The RiverParks Authority has announced that it is beginning the first phase of the Turkey Mountain Master Plan. Construction on thirteen miles of trail<\/a> will begin this Fall. The trails are being designed by Progressive Trail Design<\/a> who designs and build trails all over the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCN3217\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is huge news for Tulsa. Six years ago a company announced plans to build an outlet mall on the mountain. It seemed like an unstoppable force but a small group of citizens (the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition<\/a>) organized opposition to the outlet mall and guess what, the mall decided to go somewhere else in town. And further, that somewhere else, the company scraped off a bunch of dirt and started construction and then quit (they say only temporarily) leaving kind of a big muddy mess. (Thank goodness they didn’t do that on Turkey Mountain is what I say.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"20190307-172215-2\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago the RiverParks Authority got funding to develop a master plan. As part of the process input was provided by thousands of Tulsans on what they wanted Turkey Mountain to look like. What they came up with was wonderful. Check it out here<\/a>. A great plan but an unfunded plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Wagon<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So now they have enough funding for the design and construction of thirteen miles of trail. Professionally designed trail rather than overgrown deer trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_6755\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Lots of races are run on Turkey Mountain every year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The existing trails on Turkey, although we love them were not designed. They just kind of happened. We have trails that go straight up hillsides and those trails are eroded rocky boulder fields now. The trails are not sustainable and get very muddy after rains where the water puddles up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Turkey<\/a>\n<\/div>
Several work days per year on Turkey Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new trails will be more accessible to a wider population segment. I’m pretty comfortable on Turkey Mountain now but it took me years to get that way. I know which trails are almost impossible to traverse. As new trails are built, many of the older trails are going to blocked off and retired to let the land rest. All this is exciting news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"20171108-062409-1\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want to learn more? Listen to the Official Turkey Mountain podcast<\/a>. Ryan Howell of the RiverParks Authority talks about the problems with the existing trails and the promise of the new. He also talked about restoring the bulk of Turkey Mountain to an Oak Savanna via the use of prescribed burns and removal of non-native species. He also discusses the history of Turkey Mountain including tales of buried gold and Viking explorers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0548\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
A new trail being built<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consider joining the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition<\/a>. It’s a nominal cost and you will find out about work days, which are a lot of fun. TUWC’s scope is all the urban wilderness spaces in Tulsa, not just Turkey Mountain. They have become a resource for other organizations in the Tulsa area. (Full disclosure, I am am member, and all opinions on this blog are my own.) Check out and like their facebook page.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCN3716\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Sunset on the mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you are on instagram follow the Turkey Mountain<\/a> account. (more full disclosure, I post photos to that account once or twice a week.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow the Turkey Mountain Facebook Account<\/a> and their Public Trail User Forum<\/a> also on facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monarch Way Station on Turkey Mountain built last year as part of Monarchs on the Mountain event last year. The event will be be September 17 to 19 this year. Check out their web page<\/a> for the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCN2430\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can only legally camp one night a year on Turkey Mountain during an event called Base Camp<\/a>. It is a fun camping and music festival. This year on October 2 and 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is exciting to see the results of a small group of people who stood up to big corporations and City Hall and won. (Just to be clear, I was not one of those people, but I was cheering them on.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking with Our World Tuesday<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big News out today in Tulsa for those of us who love the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. The RiverParks Authority has announced that it is beginning the first phase of the Turkey Mountain Master Plan. Construction on thirteen miles of trail will begin this Fall. The trails are being designed by Progressive Trail Design […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1296,2874,1235,1284,2375],"class_list":["post-13484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-world-tuesday","tag-oklahoma","tag-riverparks-authority","tag-tulsa-urban-wilderness-coalition","tag-turkey-mountain","tag-turkey-mountain-master-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13485,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13484\/revisions\/13485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}