The mountains are calling and I must go.

When you live in Kansas, finding mountains is a slight problem considering the only “mountain” in the state is more of a hill. So we got creative this spring when we got the adventure itch and found our destination in an unlikely place – Oklahoma. I know, there’s never a good reason to go to Oklahoma, but we managed to actually find something worth our time. Tucked away in the western part of Oklahoma lie the Wichita Mountains – not to be confused with anything associated with Wichita, Kansas.

I took a half day of vacation on a Friday and we jetted out of town with our pups. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of a 4 hour drive. This was considerably shorter than the other options I proposed for our adventure weekend which included North Dakota, Albuquerque, or Colorado Springs – what can I say, I really love traveling. But considering we needed to be back by Saturday night, a practical adventure was the solution.

The Wichita Mountains: The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

We arrived at the refuge around 4 p.m. or so. It feels like you have to drive a while to get to the actual campsite, but it’s really only a couple of miles to get into the refuge and to the campsite. Somewhere on some website I thought I had read that you get camping permits at the visitor center. After stopping at the visitor center, we were told we needed to simply drive to the campsite pay your fee there and set up camp. Options for camping are pretty limited as far as areas in the park to camp at. The main campsite is Doris Campground. This is where the majority of campers set up. The site does offer all types of campsites – RV/Camper, drive up (the type with a parking spot right next to where you camp) and walk up. We chose walk up as we were hoping to get a little more “campy” and less “glamping.” Walk up means that you park your car and then follow a short path to campsites a little further out than the drive ups. Some are pretty close to the main road/parking lot and some are little further out, but non are an extensive hike by any means. We actually had pretty slim pickings as we got there a little later on a Friday afternoon and it was during spring break season. From what I read, you can also get a backpacking permit and do hiking and backpacking, but it is very limited in the number of permits they give out, so we just passed on it this time.

After we set up camp, we decided to do some sightseeing. We first went to the Holy city. Being completely honest – not that impressive. It is apparently a sight of a passion play on Easter weekend, but besides that it’s a chapel building and a lot of area that you can’t access. I think we spent all of seven minutes walking around.

The next stop was Parallel Forest or also called Cedar Plantation. This was an area where hundreds of trees were planted exactly in line spaced perfectly apart. I believe the story is that the trees were planted with the intent to harvest them, but it became a refuge before the trees matured enough to harvest. It was slightly more interesting than the holy city, but still not that fascinating. I think we spent maybe five minutes there.

Finally we made our way to Mt. Scott – the highest point in the refuge accessible to the public. Parts of the refuge are section off for restricted use only. One peak is just taller than Mt. Scott, but this is located in the restricted area, so the highest point you can get is Mt. Scott.  A paved road winds itself up to the peak with a decent size parking lot at the top.

We really enjoyed the views from the top of Mt. Scott. The area is full of boulders so we spent about a half hour climbing all around the mountain.

We then retired to our little campsite. I feel like this would have been much more enjoyable if it had not be as busy of a weekend. We had a campsite just across from us that had three tents of college-age kids that didn’t seem to care what level of noise they kept. So after they finally quieted for the night, camping was fairly pleasant.

We packed up pretty quickly in the morning and headed up to a trail on the far side of the refuge.

We did a short about mile hike on the Kite Trail and saw the 40 foot hole. This trail was nice because we only saw one other hiker.

After this short jaunt we went to the Elk Mountain Trail. This ended up being full of people, but we still had a fun hike. We followed the trail for most of the way then cut our own path to the top. It never really reaches a peak because it turns into more of plateau with lots of boulders. We spent some time exploring and climbing boulders with the pups. I did managed to smash my hand against a boulder and bust up my knuckle pretty good, but nothing too terrible.

We decided to take the path less traveled on the way down – which was not a path at all…It would have been ok if it hadn’t started raining right as we were on a steep grade of boulders. The rocks got treacherously slippery and lost my footing and landed flat on my back side. After that we decided to find our way back to the path and made it back to the trailhead just fine. We packed us and the pups up and made the drive back home to end our Wichita Mountain Adventure.

If you go

Getting there: Be prepared for tolls. Yes, you have to pay money to drive on Oklahoma’s terrible roads. It’s best if you bring a quarter collection with you. Some of the tolls booths have lanes that you can just toss the exact coins (only coins – not bills). These lanes seemed to go a bit quicker.  Once you were in Oklahoma, I think one toll was $1.50 and the other was $1.75 – one way. We also had the turnpike leaving Kansas.

Camping: walk up sites $8 , drive up site $10, campsite has grill, picnic table, and fire ring. Ice machine at camping permit booth.  Vault toilets at various places (bring your own toilet paper.) Getting there earlier on a Friday or going on a less busy weekend may help with campsite selection.

Don’t miss: Mt. Scott – we went at sunset and it was just beautiful

What I would change: The amount of people – not a fan of crowds when I’m trying to get away. I also would have changed getting there a bit earlier to have time to do a short day hike the first day and skip the holy city and forest (even though we didn’t spend much time here anyways) But we made do with the time we had.

Overall Opinion: I thought this was a perfect weekend adventure. It was far enough away it felt like we were getting away, but close enough that it was able to be done on a quick weekend. It was a new place for camping and had some interesting terrain for hiking. Our pups loved it and had no problems with bouldering. Obviously compared to other adventures like Colorado and such, you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re looking for an adventure that is nearby and can be done in just over 24 hours, I definitely suggest it.