July 4th Weekend (2004)

I originally posted this on my blog about a trip through Southwest Oklahoma last year. I thought it would be good to repost most of it here to give you just a teaser of what's to come here at BlogOklahoma.us. ~ K.

On Friday, July 2nd, 2004, Donna and I took a site seeing trip through Southwest Oklahoma on our way to visit Granny and Mom in Marlow.

Our first stop was at Lake Altus, where we walked one of the nature trails. We plan to come back when its a little cooler to take on the other trails.

Next we drove over to the Quartz Mountain Resort and walked around their complex. Its quite nice. We thought it would be nice to stay there one weekend.

Another cross country drive lead us to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge just north of Lawton.

Our first stop was at one of the many small lakes in the refuge. Caddo lake was just amazing. It was so quiet and calm. We stayed there for almost an hour just walking around and enjoying the quiet. One of the advantages of visiting the refuge on a weekday.

A little further into the refuge we found the prairie dog village. Across the road from there we saw a herd of Elk as well as some more prairie dogs. And yes, prairie dogs do bark.

Just like the sign warned the Buffalo are roaming free. One was just a few feet off the road, just standing there waiting for us to take a picture.

The next lake we visited was Quanah Parker. I think it has the most scenic dam in the whole refuge.

The last lake we visited was Jed Johnson. (The name you know) On the far side of the lake was this castle like tower. One day we will see if we can get to that side of the lake.

And then there were the Longhorn.

The Holy City of the Witchitas was a nice place to visit. It was Donna's first visit to the Holy City. I've been there many times with the rest of the family. Since my last visit they have added a new air conditioned restroom. The donation walk is coming along nicely too. More bricks get added every time I visit.

Our last stop in the refuge was Mt. Scott. My yellow Jeep had no trouble driving up to the 2,464 ft summit.

We made it to Marlow just before sundown to put to close an exciting day.

Or so we thought as a sudden thunderstorm blew in taking out the electricity in the wee hours of the morning. It got HOT! The power came on sometime around 4am finally cooling things off to let us sleep. You just got to love air conditioning.

The Fireworks at Red Bud park were wonderful as always. The city did a great job with the display.

Over all it was a great weekend.

You can view all the pictures I took this weekend in my Photography section
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