Beavers Bend and Southeastern Oklahoma
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Beavers Bend State Park - Buckeye Campground
Broken Bow, Oklahoma
Sunday, October 24, 2010
We left at 8:00 a.m. for Beavers Bend. When we stopped in Tyler around 11:45, we discovered that one of the tires on the trailer had blown out. After refueling, changing the tire, buying a new tire at Walmart and having a quick lunch, we were back on the road by 1:30.
Beaver's Bend State Park is about 7 miles north of Broken Bow. When we turned onto the park road, we were immediately surrounded by a forest of tall trees garbed in green, gold and red. We arrived at the campground about 4:30 and it's beautiful, with the trailer spots well spaced and surrounded by trees. Our front door is about 50 feet from the river.
This evening a small thunderstorm passed through. As I was starting to cook dinner (in an electric skillet) the electricity went out, but it came back on sometime during the night. Danny figured out how to switch the fridge and water heater to gas power, but I had no pan to cook on the gas cooktop.
MONDAY - EXPLORING THE PARK
The weather was gorgeous today and we explored the park. There are two other RV campgrounds, several tent campgrounds, clusters of cabins scattered around and beautiful hiking trails. We saw a small marina that rents canoes, kayaks, and paddleboats, and a depot that offers mini train rides, hayrides and horseback riding, but they weren't open.
We visited the gift shop and the forest heritage museum at the park's visitor center. The museum has nice dioramas of this history of the forest and a wonderful exhibit of historical photographs. There's also a visitor's center at the national forest service office, with literature on area attractions and a small exhibit on local animals and plants.
We drove over to the lake, which turned about to be about 15 minutes away, to see the lodge that's run by the state park. It has 36 rooms with balconies facing the lake and there's a marina on the lake. There are also lots of private rental cabins in the area. We found a miniature golf course at the entrance to the park but it's only open four days a week this time of year.
TUESDAY - VISITING IDABEL
This morning we stopped at the Choctaw Casino in Broken Bow for about 10 minutes and fed $10 into quarter slots. Danny won $41 and we got out of there fast – it was already smoky only 30 minutes after opening.
We drove down to Idabel near the state line and visited the wonderful Museum of the Red River. In one room is a cast of a large dinosaur that was found nearby, along with some fossils and minerals. The rest of the museum is devoted to displaying a portion of their large collection of native Indian artifacts from North and South America. I was amazed to find such a quality museum in this small town.
Back at the park, we took a short hike up a pretty creek bed. It's so beautiful and peaceful there in the forest.
WEDNESDAY - ROAD TRIP TO ARKANSAS
We left at 8:00 to drive up to the Talimena national scenic byway that extends for 54 miles through the Ouachita National Forest into Arkansas. It's a lovely drive along the top of the mountains, with numerous scenic overlooks. There's a forest service campground (no electric hookups) and several picnic spots, and we stopped to take a hike at a nature center.
We continued into Arkansas and took a ride on the mini-train at the Queen Wilhelmina State Park. The trail ends in Mena and we visited their historic depot and an antiques shop. On the way back we stopped at Cossatot River State Park in Arkansas. After driving for 25 minutes on a gravel road, we spent 10 minutes scrambling over rocks along the river bank to reach the small but pretty waterfalls.
THURSDAY and FRIDAY - FIRST MONDAY TRADE DAYS IN CANTON
It took about 3-1/2 hours to get to Canton, where we parked Terry at the Best Western's RV park on the corner of Hwy. 19 and I-20. We met Danny's parents over at the trade days and shopped for several hours.
It got down to 38 degrees overnight, so we got a late start on shopping the next morning. We shopped for a couple of hours before eating lunch and heading home.
Below are photos from our trip. Click the "slideshow" button beneath the photos to view them in a slideshow format in a larger size. Just below that, you can click "previous entry" or "next entry" to see other trips.
