Hubs and I woke up Sunday morning with an urge to enjoy the beautiful weather, so we decided on a hike. Like I've said before, a good hike for us is at least an hour and a half's drive in any direction, so now the only question was, where would we go? We could go back to the Wichita Mountains; We could drive south to Turner Falls or the Chickasaw National Recreation Area: Or, we could go west to Roman Nose State Park.

In my downtime, I like to plan weekend trips to different places (most of the time we end up in the SE corner of the state where hiking and ATV trails are endless), so I had read a lot about Roman Nose State Park. Next to Beavers Bend, near Broken Bow, Okla.--our favorite park--it seemed like the best one to visit. We decided to drive there and try out their hiking trails.

Usually, when I think of western Oklahoma, I think of this:

In other words...absolutely nothing.

So I was very surprised to see the hilly landscape surrounding the park.



When we reached Inspiration Point--the highest point of the park overlooking the lake and campgrounds--we took a lunch break. It was definitely a bigger climb than I was expecting, but the view was great. The lake was the prettiest green.


Here we are on one of the footbridges on the trail:


Do you see all of the mud on our shoes? For some reason, we were not anticipating the mud. Good thing those shoes were already dirty. :) We are needing to invest in some hiking boots anyway.

All in all, it was a fun day. I have no idea how many miles we hiked (their map did not indicate distances), but once all the snow is gone and the greenery returns, we may try hiking it again.

Here are some photos of our Wichita Mountains hike in February in case you missed them:







These hikes are usually spur-of-the-moment, so I can't tell you when our next one will be. This Sunday's weather is looking pretty good, so who knows? Maybe we'll drive down to Turner Falls and hike there.

Our overnight hike in the Ouachitas is getting closer! We originally had it scheduled for the end of April, but we may move it up a few weeks. This is the trail(s) we will be hiking:


It is a 22.1 mile loop consisting of three different trails and even includes a portion of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail (ONRT) that spans from Talimena State Park all the way to Little Rock, Ark. In the next couple of weeks, we may do this 8.5 mile loop for practice: