While driving from Fort Worth to Wichita on our South Central Loop last spring, we took a small detour to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, OK. This turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the trip, a reprieve from what would otherwise have been an entire day of interstate driving. We spent a few hours taking in the spectacular scenery and wildlife as we hiked and drove around the refuge. As an added bonus, we almost had the park to ourselves since it was still early in the season.
The Wichita Mountains are home to a great variety of plant and animal species – over 1,100 in all. The 60,000 acre refuge was established in 1901 with the purpose of protecting this diversity while providing recreational opportunities for the nearby inhabitants. Today, two-thirds of the park is designated as a wilderness area. Elk and bison – at one time extinct in the region – now number in the hundreds thanks to repopulation efforts taken on by the Refuge.
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03.28.21 : Looking through the upper opening of Double O Arch in the Devil’s Garden section of Arches National Park. For scale, this opening is 71 feet wide by 45 feet high.03.27.21 : One of those magic moments happened at Corona Arch in Moab the other week. As we started back toward the car after sunset, we happened to turn around on just the right section of trail and at just the right moment to see the full moon coming up over the arch. Five minutes sooner or later and we would have missed it.03.31.21 : View from the Chesler Park Trail in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. From top to bottom: La Sal mountains, bluffs of the Colorado River gorge, the Needles.03.30.21 : Hiking through enormous and bizarre sandstone formations at Fisher Towers just northeast of Moab, Utah.03.29.21 : The view from the Lathrop Trail at Canyonlands National Park. This trail descends from the Island In The Sky down to the White Rim Road with amazing views of Airport Tower and jagged canyons leading to the Colorado River.03.28.21 : Looking through Tower Arch in the Klondike Bluffs section (the least visited area) of Arches National Park.
Love the kick and the travel reviews. Great Job Kickin Nick👍