Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, "wild, rugged, and weathered," contains 59,020 acres of lakes, streams, canyons, mountains, and grasslands in southwestern Oklahoma. Established in 1901, the refuge is home to 650 open range buffalo, 300 longhorn, and 700 elk. We visited the park in early May and were delighted to discover such a landmark within three hours of Fort Worth. Within three days we had sighted a porcupine, countless buffalo and prairie dogs, several elk, an aquaflame collard lizard, a rough green snake, a few herds of longhorn cows, many fiery searchers, a large variety birds. There is no entrance fee to enter the park, and non-electric single-unit camping was only $10/night.


Camping

We camped in the Doris Campground, which is located within the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge just west of Quanah Parker Lake. The sites are large and wooded, and although the campground follows a no reserving policy for the single-unit sites (relying exclusively on a first come, first serve basis), we had no trouble securing one of the better sites along the lake on a Friday morning. The grounds did fill to capacity by Friday night / Saturday morning, however, so plan accordingly! Our site was impressively large and fairly private with a small trail leading down to the water. The rock-lined fire pit did not have a grill, but there was a standalone grill next to a cement picnic table on each site. The bathrooms were moderately clean and did have showers.

Hiking

A great variety of trail lengths and many trails to choose from! The hiking kept us busy for the entire weekend, and we didn't even get to all the trails. For as many visitors as the park claims to have, most of the trails were either deserted or contained very few hikers, which was a nice surprise when finding the parking lots moderately busy. We were disappointed in the maps (the "Hiking Trails at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge" map only described the west portion of the park, and the main brochure doesn't include some sights like Heart Rock), and we were disappointed in trail signage. We backtracked many times during the weekend, which is frustrating when hiking with kids. Overall, however, we were blown away by the terrain and mountain views.

Elk Mountain Trail

We originally hiked this trail thinking we were hiking on the Charon's Garden Trail. It turned out to be a fortuitous mistake, however, as this turned out to be our favorite hike all weekend! The trail is fairly rocky and steep* (our GPS recorded a 648-foot elevation change), but the terrain and the vistas were beautiful and the top of the mountain was breathtaking. Although the park map labels this trail as 1.14 miles, our GPS said we hiked 2.85 miles (there and back - exploring at the top probably made up for some of this difference). Leave yourself a few hours for this hike as you'll want to poke around and take some photos at the top. When you arrive at the top of Elk Mountain, veer off to the right on the grassy trail that leads to the boulders, then take in the scenery and go explore!

*Our kids (aged 4 and 6) were able climb up without assistance, but our 4-year-old needed some hand holding on the way down. Don't let the rangers scare dissuade you from doing this hike with kids! It's completely doable and we had minimal complaining.

Charon's Garden Trail

This was the most suggested hike, and while we found it beautiful, we also found it difficult to follow as it forked many times and lacked any signage whatsoever. We backtracked a few times, thinking we had taken the wrong trail, but learned most trails eventually led to the main trail, but many were severely overgrown and hard for young kids to pass through. (That sneaky cat briar!) We managed to find the main path, and then sighted the Apple and Pear - two large boulders that are impossible to miss (and impossible to mistake for anything but the Apple and Pear). Although the map lists the length of this hike as 2.4 miles, we hiked a little over a mile (plus or minus some backtracking) before the trail turned into some boulder scrambling. Unable to continue on with the kids, we turned around and headed back, the whole hike (including many photo stops) taking about an hour and a half. A beautiful hike overall (some lovely and intense colors), but it paled in comparison to Elk Mountain.

Trail to the Narrows

Another confusing hike due to poor signage. The trail starts behind Boulder Cabin, which is slightly awkward if that group area is occupied. We walked through a barred gate and a family reunion, but there was no other way to start the trail otherwise! When the trail splits within the first five minutes, the path to the left leads to the narrows. We found a lovely swimming hole and an enormous porcupine in a tree along the right path (thanks to Rob's sharp eyes), but the trail quickly grew overgrown and we realized we had to backtrack (again). A few hikers we met questioned whether the kids could make it to the top to the Narrows, but we were successful with minimal slippage and only a small heart attack or two from mom. Another nice hike and a pleasant way to spend an hour, but it took 4th place this weekend.

Tower Trail

This was another pleasant surprise of the weekend, a hike we decided to throw in on our way out of the park on Sunday morning. Just a short little gem a smidge over a mile, this trail leads through some free-grazing longhorn cows up a slightly rocky path to a stone tower. The colors of the rocks and grass and fire-charred trees were a beautiful combination. Although the area has many river otter sightings, we were unable to glimpse any that morning, much to our disappointment. This is definitely worth 30 minutes of your time, especially if you hit it early in the morning before anyone is there!

Other Sights within the Refuge

Heart Rock

We followed the ranger's directions to the tee, but we never found this landmark. We scrambled some questionably-safe boulders with the kids, and Cob even went back for a second attempt with the rest of the family safely back in the car. No luck. No idea where we went wrong!

Prairie Dog Area

Park along the south side of the road for an entertaining spectacle. Make sure you get out of your car to see them up close!

Holy City

Words to describe this landmark: strange, sad, eerie, and ...huh... The kids' reaction to this site was hilarious - they saw it through the car window and started talking excitedly about getting to climb the castles. And then after the second building, our 6-year-old remarked sadly, "This isn't at all as fun as I thought it was going to be." And that pretty much sums it up. Go see it, but keep your expectations low. The three crosses on "Calgary" made for some beautiful photos at least.

Mt. Scott

The drive up to the top provides a few pull-offs, but it's not really necessary to stop as you are provided with a 360-degree view once you reach the summit. There is plenty of fun (and moderately safe) rock scrambling opportunities here, and the kids had a blast while Rob took three-digits-worth of photographs. This is definitely worth doing. Make sure you check out the wind turbines off in the distance!

Sights Outside the Refuge

Meers, OK

This is the city north of the park on 115, which is home to the "best burger in Oklahoma." Following popular tradition, we drove to Meers Store & Restaurant, a ramshackle-looking place with lots of character and beer cheese soup served in plastic bowls. The Meersburger (made from longhorn cows) was fantastic and the peach cobbler (while only hitting a "so-so" on Cob's dessert meter) was enormous and large enough to feed a family of four. Watch out for the weekend crowd, however! We arrived at around 3:30 on Saturday afternoon and waited for about 20 minutes to be seated. By the time we left, the line was way out the door. Plan (or prepare to wait) accordingly!

Medicine Park, OK

This is a quirky, offbeat town if you're heading out the east entrance of the park. Follow the signs that will take you into downtown along the river. Be mindful that most stores were not open on Sunday mornings, but even so, the town was intriguing to drive through as most of the buildings are constructed out of cobblestones. You can also walk down the paths to the river (right smack in the middle of town) for some nice photo ops.