{"id":14421,"date":"2023-03-15T12:18:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T17:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=14421"},"modified":"2023-03-15T12:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T17:18:35","slug":"skywatch-friday-lake-bixhoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=14421","title":{"rendered":"Skywatch Friday – Lake Bixhoma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite hiking spots close to Tulsa is Lake Bixhoma. The lake is a water supply lake for the city of Bixby and it has some very rugged land around it. I’ve never circumnavigated the lake because the trail is rugged and the upriver side of the is almost always under water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0580\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first bit of trail is actually paved. There is actually picnic grounds and restrooms and such but all that is abandoned now. I am thinking that part of the reason for the abandonment is rockfalls off the cliff. Here is recent fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0582\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still the first part of the trail is walkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0585\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is some of the abandoned infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After the picnic grounds the trail is no longer paved although still not too bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0586\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then it got very technical. Too me technical means lots of rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0591\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Got to the upper end of the lake. Can’t cross here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0592\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So I followed the creek up and found a couple of possible crossing spots. If it hadn’t been so cold and if I hadn’t been alone and over a mile from the trailhead, then I could have done one of these, maybe. About here is where I saw my first snake for the year. Some sort of water snake that slipped into the water quickly as I approached. I don’t think it was anything I would worry about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0593\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is the other crossing. Going further upstream was out of the question because it is private property. So I turned around and headed back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0589\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am always amazed at the stuff I see on trails. What in the world is the story behind this? I can only guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I hate out and back hikes so when I came to this fence corner and saw a trail going up the hill, off I went. I figured I knew where I would be going. Famous last words right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I found this trail sign that I couldn’t read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0597\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trail got a little rough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"DSCF0596\"<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I found me some spectacular trees though. And I made it back to the car. My shortcut saved me about 0.2 miles I figured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

So kind of a short hike but I had a good time. When things dry out a little more, and get warmer, I’ll be back. I will probably try the other way around the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The skies were mainly gray I know but I’m linking with Skywatch Friday<\/a>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite hiking spots close to Tulsa is Lake Bixhoma. The lake is a water supply lake for the city of Bixby and it has some very rugged land around it. I’ve never circumnavigated the lake because the trail is rugged and the upriver side of the is almost always under water. The […]<\/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":[10],"tags":[1329,2776,1271],"class_list":["post-14421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skywatch-friday","tag-hiking","tag-lake-bixhoma","tag-skywatch-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14421"}],"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=14421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14422,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14421\/revisions\/14422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}