Signs of summer, #3

Signs of Summer, #3: Overzealous vacation plans.

I had a brilliant thought this week. I think all my thoughts are brilliant, of course, so that's a superfluous detail. So was that entire last sentence.

I decided that it would be a fabulous goal for the summer to visit every state park in Oklahoma. I think I may have mentioned this idea before, but sometimes I think I've thought something I just now thought of. Confused yet?

I pulled up the map of Oklahoma state parks...

I'll save you the time of counting all those little trees representing state parks. Forty-seven of them. Forty. Seven. One a week and I'd be done by next summer.



Did someone get park happy?  Did Oklahoma get a sudden budget allocation for state parks once upon a time, and decide to use it or lose it?  Couldn't we have just lumped all those in the northeast corner together and called it "Green Country" State Park? Or the "Less Dry Part of Oklahoma" State Park? 

I told myself, "Take a breath, self." I breathed. And thought to myself, "Self, you've probably already visited several of those, so you can probably hit the rest this summer. (It's not at all uncommon for me to have these conversations. I'm the only one who doesn't argue with me).

So next I pulled up the list of state parks. I like lists. Lists make me happy. I can make spreadsheets from lists, and checklists from lists, and lists from lists (pant, pant. sorry).

Here's the list:

• Adair



• Alabaster


• Arrowhead


• Beaver Dunes


• Beavers Bend


• Bernice


• Black Mesa


• Black Mesa Nature Preserve


• Boggy Depot


• Boiling Springs


• Brushy Lake


• Cherokee Landing


• Clayton Lake


• Fort Cobb


• Foss


• Grand Lake


• Great Plains


• Great Salt Plains


• Greenleaf


• Heavener Runestone


• Hochatown


• Honey Creek


• Keystone


• Lake Eucha


• Lake Eufaula


• Lake Murray


• Lake Texoma


• Lake Thunderbird


• Lake Wister


• Little Sahara


• McGee Creek


• Natural Falls


• Okmulgee


• Osage Hills


• Raymond Gary


• Red Rock Canyon


• Robbers Cave


• Roman Nose


• Sequoyah


• Snowdale


• Spavinaw


• Talimena


• Tenkiller


• Twin Bridges


• Wah-Sha-She


• Walnut Creek

The highlighted ones are the ones I've been to this year. "Now wait a minute!" I said to myself. What about Lawton and Sulphur and Lake Arbuckle and... Oh. Those are recreation areas. And lakes. And wildlife refuges. Which is to say they are not state parks.

Once upon a time, back when dirt was new, I went to a bunch of the places on that list. My dad went through a "visit-all-the-state-lodges" phase when I was young, and since state lodges are located within state parks, technically I've been there.

Which now raises another ugly, confusing question.  What is going to count as 'visiting' the state parks? Camping there? Kayaking there? Hiking there? Any of the above? Does just driving through count? If so, I can knock out about 15 in a day on the east side.

That's more than one question and it makes my head hurt. I think I need some chocolate.


Give me your opinion. What's going to count as visiting a state park?  Do you have a favorite Oklahoma state park?  Let me know!!!

    Happy Trails, and may your adventures be too numerous to count!