Field Trip: Wichita Mountains

  Hubby and I's work project ultimately took us to the Wichita Mountains.  Have you heard of them? They are located in southern Oklahoma and are encapsulated in a wildlife preserve.  As homeschoolers this was a a schooling dream!  Geology, biology, history and more, not to mention all the hiking too!

  The wildlife includes buffalo, longhorns, and elk all of which are herds maintained for preservation purposes.  These guys are everywhere.  You see them on the roads and on the trails.  It is super cool!  The boys even heard the elk bugling while they were out hiking one afternoon!  The kids got chased by prairie dogs, poked at millipedes, and saw these wonderful little lizards too...

The kids had seen pictures of them prior to our trip and it was their goal to see them before they left.  We saw the biggest concentration at the Holy City of the Wichitas.  The Holy City is neat, it was and is the site of a large passion play every year.

The neat thing about the Holy City is that it is not only the setting for a play, but for those that come to wander the grounds, they have little dioramas amongst the set that tell the story of the different stations of the cross.  The kids loved exploring here!
  Our explorations also took us to the Wichita's dams...

And to the summit of Mt. Scott its highest mountain...

While we were up there we saw another fun member of the wildlife in the mountains, a roadrunner...

One of our favorite treks was to the "watchtower" at Jed Johnson lake.

It was about 1/2 mile to get back to it and when we did we felt like this...

*disclaimer* we did not write this, but it was funny :)

Well, some of us did.  Some of us were just content to pick up "treasures" aka. pieces of glass (notice the bulging pockets?).

One of our favorite places that is on the edge of the Wichitas is Medicine Park.  It was created as a resort community to the Wichita Mountains.  Its architecture is fun with the cobblestone boulders...

The building in the background of the picture above is the Plantation Restaurant - excellent food!
The neatest part of Medicine Park was the "Creek Walk" which took you along Medicine Creek.  There was a swimming area...

and just fun little park areas...

We spent a full week in the Wichitas.  The working vacation kind of wore us out, but we were having so much fun we were not too willing to come home.  I'm hoping our schedules give us another chance to return and explore some more!