Wednesday 3-23 Beavers Bend State Park & Hiking

Camping in Cypress Campground

We were at Beavers Bend State Park 11 years ago and had a super time so we decided to return. It has eight campgrounds and another one being built and a group campground. The section of the park we stayed in has two campgrounds, Acorn and Cypress. Acorn sites overlook Mountain Fork River and cost more. Cypress sites are above Acorn. We stayed in Cypress. Our site has a picnic table, fire ring with a grill and a hook for your trash or lantern. All the sites have a lot of trees. They have water and power. Some sites have a concrete slab for your RV, we had a slab. 

Which way to go 

 

Camping in Cypress Campground

The park has a lot of hiking trails that vary in difficulty and length. The trail map gives you a small description of each trail. The park has a gorgeous Forest Heritage Center, restaurant, day area for fishing, restrooms and showers, nature center, cabins and Broken Bow Lake. Broken Bow Lake area has a beach and swimming area, picnic area, playground, camping, fishing, riding stables, train ride, miniature golf and  paddle boats and canoe floats rentals. 

Today we did two hikes. First was a 2.5 mile hike on the South Park trail. We hiked up the mountain, across creeks via rocks and over fallen trees. We had to watch where we were going because there were some roots and rocks on the trail. The trail weaved us through a forest of pines. We were going to hike Lookout Mountain trail but due to the rain we couldn't cross Beaver Creek. We had to turn around and go back to the trailhead. It was a beautiful hike and we saw a few deer.

Second was a 5 mile hike using Beaver Creek trail and Lookout Mountain trail. We started the hike by walking the park road to Beaver Creek. There were a lot of people enjoying Beaver Creek. We followed the trail markers to where the trail crosses over Beaver Creek but the creek was flowing too fast and there wasn't a good place to cross. There was a place using a fallen tree but Larry didn't think it was safe to use. We turned around and went back to the road. We took the road to the other side of the creek and found a way to get to the trail. It was a little challenging but we got there. There were signs along the trail explaining the history of the trail. The trail was an old CCC road. There were remains of a concrete channel that was used to wash the bugs off cattle. The trail was challenging at places because we had to walk around mud puddles. We hiked the trail until we got to the Lookout Mountain trail. It was on the opposite side of Beaver Creek where we couldn't cross in the morning. The trail was 1.5 miles up the mountain. Before hiking the trail there was a warning sign and how far the trail is. The trail was very challenging and a great cardio workout. We had to stop and rest multiple times. At times I thought we were at the top but it continued going up. Once on top the views were beautiful. The trail did flatten out on top. The trail had a lot of rocks and a few fallen trees we had to climb over. We saw a couple towards the end and we said our hellos. There were a couple of places on top where if you looked through the trees you could see Broken Bow Lake. After hiking a bit on top we had to go down the mountain and cross a creek via rocks. Once across the creek we had to climb back up the mountain. We hiked to Lookout Mountain trailhead parking area. Then we took the park road a half mile to the Forest Heritage Center. The building has a great carved figure of a Native American chief and had carvings of an eagle and bears. The picnic area had beautiful wood chairs and table and benches. After taking pictures we walked through the center and gift shop. It's a great center about the history of the park and the surrounding area. It had a cute little town called Hochatown, OK. In the town it had a great memorial about a forest fire fighter. After walking around the center we took the park road back to our campground. By the time we got home we had walked/hiked for three hours and we were tired.

Beaver Creek crossing

 

Old CCC road

 

Tree made into a bench

 

The sign to Lookout Mountain trail today

 

Same sign February of 2011

 

 

Beaver Creek

 

Native-American sculpture today

 

 Same sculpture February 2011

 

Bear sculpture at the entrance of the Forest Heritage Center

 

One of the art exhibits

 

A cute snowmen exhibit

 

Memorial for a forest fire fighter

I played my computer games. I started out playing the Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. It took me 2 hours, 16 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 2nd place in my group. Then I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong.

For dinner we had baked ziti. After dinner I walked around for an hour to finish my steps. I ended up doing 27,185 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. I baked some peanut butter cookies for dessert. I spent the rest of the night reading.