Tucked in the southwest corner of Oklahoma is a small green spot on the map. It’s official name is the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. We decided to take a chance on it since we had a little bit of time to play with and wow, it was worth it.
We approached the refuge from the east, having just finished up a Hipcamp job in Arkansas and arrived in early afternoon. Caroline made a quick stop at the visitors center for a map and found out we could camp for $10. That was all we needed to hear – the price was right! We decided to spend the night. After parking the car, both of us were feeling pretty restless so we went for a quick 4 mile run along the main park road and along the Osage Trail. It was so pretty and virtually uncrowded. We saw a couple of longhorn steer eating grass alongside the road but that was pretty much it. The trail itself was beautiful single track that wound through knee-high grass and led to a sapphire lake. Already we’re psyched to go back.
Oklahoma is beautiful!
I didn’t want to leave but I was really hungry so we took a quick photo of the two of us on my phone and ran back to our campsite.
But instead of making food when we got back, we ate some random snacks and then loaded back up into the car to go shoot golden hour. I decided to take us out back towards the entrance to the park and it wasn’t the best call. We ended up driving around pretty much aimlessly and missed the best light. Feeling a little discouraged and annoyed at myself, we decided to get up in the dark the next morning and shoot.
This time, Caroline drove and we ended up scoring big. We went to the other side of the park and WOW. IT. WAS. AWESOME.
If you’ve been there, let us know what you think! If you haven’t, consider putting it on your list of places to visit!
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