September 30, 2016: Elk Mountain and Mt. Scott
	Return to the Index for Our Wichita Mountains Trip

When Guy was here last week, we made plans for him to return today so the three of us could go up to the Wichita Mountains to do some hiking. Guy arrived last night, and this morning we are heading up to Oklahoma via the Hyundai dealer in Plano (so Fred could drop off his car to have a fender repaired) and then via Fred's house (so he could retrieve some boxes that were sitting on his front porch).

At Fred's House in Van Alstyne

We left my house in mid-morning, and Fred and Guy followed me up to the Hyundai dealer in Plano to drop off his car. Then we all got in my car and drove up to Van Alstyne.

You have probably seen pictures of Fred's place before in this album- but not recently. I haven't been up here in a while, as Fred spends most of his time down in Dallas or at his Mom's or on some kind of trip with me. At right is an aerial view, though, that might help you orient some of the pictures I took today.

Guy had not been to Fred's house before, and he was anxious to see it. He and Fred are both interested in roses and other plants, and so Fred got a chance to walk Guy around the house, the gazebo and the rose garden that Fred has constructed.

Although I hadn't been here in a while, not much had changed, but it was a nice day and I thought I would take a few pictures so I could track such changes as Fred has made. What I did notice was that all the trees and stuff were simply bigger than I remembered them- particularly around the front of his house.

When Fred and Guy went off to walk around the house to look at the property, I stopped in the middle of the area in front of the house between the two driveway entrances to try to construct a 360° panorama with Fred's house in the center and the two driveway entrances at either end of the picture strip. I was moderately successful; the entire panorama is below, and a larger version in a scrollable window is below that:

After I finished with the panorama pictures, I caught up with Fred and Guy as they were walking around. We were all talking about what Fred has already done up here with his plants and trees, and Fred was also talking about his future plans; those will involve the pile of Windsor stones (interlocking wall pieces) that he has stacked beside the driveway.

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This morning's pictures are in the slideshow at left; use the lower corner buttons to move through the show and track your progress with the numbers in the upper left. I also made a movie, walking from the gazebo down past the front of the house and around to the north side. That movie is below:

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After we walked around for a while, Fred collected his packages and the three of us headed off towards Lawton, Oklahoma, stopping first in Sherman to have lunch at a place that Fred and one of his neighbors have been to before.

The Trip to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

The first part of the trip to Lawton and the Wichita Mountains is the drive from Sherman to Wichita Falls, Texas. This is a drive Fred and I have made numerous times before.

From Fred's house, we headed up US 75 to Sherman, stopping there to have lunch at a place that Fred knew about. Then we got on US Highway 82 that took us first due west and then northwest to hook up with US Highway 287 into Wichita Falls.

This highway is a good one- dual lane most of the way- and the only thing that slows you down is having to go through three or four small Texas towns- each, it seems, with its Dairy Queen. The trip to Wichita Falls takes a couple of hours.

This route is the one Fred and I have taken so often, any time we have wanted to go to Albuquerque or any points north of that- including Colorado. On those trips, we continue west/northwest from Wichita Falls, but to get to Lawton, we turn north out of Wichita Falls.

The trip from Wichita Falls to Lawton is pretty quick- only about an hour- and for almost all of its length it is Interstate 44 (which happens to be a toll road for part of its length). When we got to Lawton, we thought that we would first check in to the Comfort Inn and Suites where I'd made reservations.

We got our stuff into the hotel and got our rooms and then changed and got our stuff together for the hiking that we would do this afternoon in the Refuge. The rooms were quite nice, and relatively inexpensive; the hotel turned out to be a good choice.

We had reservations for two nights, just in case we wanted to do more than a day and a half of hiking (but as it turned out we did about half the good hikes in the Refuge by the next afternoon, and thought we would save the rest for a return trip when we saw how much Guy liked the experience.

Fred and I are very familiar with the Lawton area and the Wichita Mountains, so we knew exactly how to get there. We got back onto Interstate 44 north and after about five miles got off on Oklahoma Highway 49 heading west. We stopped briefly to pick up some snacks and then continued west past the town of Medicine Park and into the Refuge.

Along the way, Fred and I were talking with Guy about some of the hikes we might do, and Fred was checking the Refuge map that we picked up in the hotel earlier.

We'll be spending two days here, so you might like to see the map of the Refuge that we were going by.

We entered into the Refuge at its eastern border on Highway 49, as you can see on the park map at right.

On that map, I thought I might show you the part of the park that we visited on this trip. This afternoon, we did two hikes- one at a place called The Narrows near Lost Lake, and then another to the top of Mt. Baldy, reached via a short road by the south side of Parker Lake.

Tomorrow, we'll do a long hike to the top of Elk Mountain, this reached by a trail that begins at the Sunset Campground in the western portion of the Refuge. We will also stop at the Visitor Center and also go to the top of Mt. Scott (sadly, by driving rather than doing the Boulder Avalanche, but more about that later).

For our visit to the Refuge, I put each of the hikes and other activities in its own section and we will begin with our first hike to The Narrows.

The Hike Through the Narrows

To get to our first hike, we drove into the Refuge and at the intersection with Oklahoma Highway 115 just west of the Visitor Center, we turned north (following Highway 49) and then south on the park road leading to the Lost Lake and Boulder Campgrounds.

At the end of that road, we parked and headed off on our hike. I let Guy and Fred get a bit ahead as I made my introductory film:

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Fred and Guy had gotten ahead of me, but having been here before I knew I could take a little side trail down to the lake and have a look up its length. This might be a good time to explain a bit about the hike to the Narrows. The trail starts by paralleling Cache Creek as it flows by the parking area on its way north. For the first half mile of the trail, Cache Creek is really a string of two or three long, narrow lakes with grassy banks. (Although the trail goes north as you hike to the Narrows, I have rotated the aerial view below to put south at the right; this saves a considerable amount of space on the page.)

About half a mile from the parking area, the grassy banks disappear and the creek becomes bordered by boulders and cliffs that rise higher and higher, until they are about 50 feet high when you actually reach the narrows themselves. Hiking along the grassy banks is difficult, but once they become boulders and rock, it is relatively easy. At the Narrows themselves, the creek descends about thirty feet in a series of pretty waterfalls, and it is fun to clamber around on and across them. The trail continues another half mile or so, gradually ascending, until you reach Lost Lake and the little dam there. (We have hiked that before, but did not do so today.)

The Narrows waterfalls and canyon are where most of the folks who hike this trail stop; it is very pleasant to clamber around on the boulders and rocky cliffs on either side of the creek, or just to sit and dangle your legs in the water, or just enjoy the sound of the waterfalls. In summer there are often thirty or more people here at any given time, although today we had it all to ourselves.

This view looks north along the east shore of one of the long, thin lakes formed by Cache Creek. This is a closer view looking north; you can see Guy way up the creek where the shore becomes rocky.

For the first half of the hike, Fred and Guy took one route while I took another. I have marked these routes on the aerial view. We joined up just south of the Narrows themselves, and then were together for the rest of the way.

You can see that I went down to the lakeshore a couple of times; the first time I did so, I took the two pictures at left.

In trying to organize the pictures for this page, I thought that I would interleave those that Fred took with my own so that for the time we were not together, the pictures would be pretty much in time sequence- regardless of who took them. For example, after I took the last two pictures, I also made a movie, and you can watch it below, left. It shows Guy as he walks north along the bank of the creek. A minute or so after I made my movie, Fred got Guy to stop after he came around a rock outcrop so he could take the picture below, right.

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Guy on the Bank of Cache Creek

Looking behind Guy in the picture, you can see the grassy creek bank from which I took my pictures and where I made my movie.

As you may have noted on the aerial view above, I came down to the shore a first time to take some pictures and then returned to the main trail. I came down to the shore once again a bit later when I could see that the banks of the creek were rocky enough that I would be able to walk right along the banks on my way to meet up with Fred and Guy.

When I came down to the shore that second time, I took a couple of nice pictures of the "road ahead", and you can see those pictures at right.

I continued walking along the shore of the creek, and eventually most of the vegetation disappeared and the banks become almost all rock and boulders. I stopped to make one movie of my surroundings, and then made another movie as I was walking along the bank heading to meet up with Fred and Guy. Those two movies are below:

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Now, as I was making my movies, Fred and Guy were continuing up the bank of the creek, and Fred was taking some pictures as they went. When I got those pictures, I found that he had caught me in more than a few of them. Here are the four best of the pictures he took before I caught up with them:

While Fred was taking the pictures above, I was able to work my way along the rocky shore of the creek to come up to them. When I joined them, I found that we were at a dogleg in the course of the creek, where it took a turn to the northeast heading up into the Narrows.

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Before we headed up to the Narrows, I took a number of pictures worth including here; they are in the slideshow at left. Use the buttons at the bottom of each picture to move through the show and track your progress with the numbers at the upper left. I also made a movie while we were here, and you can watch it below:

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From the dogleg in the creek, we found we had to go up on the cliff temporarily as there was no good way along the shore of the creek itself.

It was while we were up on the cliff face that I was able to get some good views up the last stretch of Cache Creek to the Narrows themselves. I found it interesting how the afternoon sun added a lot of color to the east side of the canyon but left the west side in shadow. To get both aspects in the same picture, I created the panoramic view at right.

We have been on this hike closer to midday, when the sun is illuminating the entire canyon- right down to the water. The views in late afternoon (and, I would presume, early morning) are entirely different. While I was focusing on the landscape, Fred found some interesting views much closer to the ground.

Flora

Fauna

I got one more view of the Narrows from the cliffside, and then we all made our way to the Narrows themselves. Fred and Guy took the high road, descending into the Narrows up at the end of the canyon (as most people do). I made a movie from up on the cliff and then went back down to the creek to make my way along the rocks towards the narrows, during which walk I made a second film.

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) The View from Cliffside

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) Walking Along Cache Creek

Just below the actual narrows, Cache Creek forms another series of small lakes. There was only on easy crossing to the other side, but I did not see a way along the rock there as the west side of the canyon was much steeper.

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) Arriving at the Narrows

As I approached the Narrows and its series of waterfalls, I took one more movie; it is at left. I also took some still pictures along the walk, and they are below:

I rejoined Fred and Guy at the Narrows themselves. The Narrows is the deepest portion of the canyon, and here, Cache Creek descents thirty feet or so in a series of small waterfalls. There are lots of places to sit and enjoy the falls which, sadly, are more interesting when the sun is overhead, rather than when the canyon is in shadow as it was this afternoon. But we did get some good pictures and movies while we were climbing around on the rocks on both sides of the creek here at the narrows. I stitched together a vertical panorama from a position on the west side of the creek, and Fred took a couple of vertical pictures that emphasize the depth of the canyon:

Fred and I each made a number of movies here in the Narrows, and I've selected the best of each of ours to include here. Fred's video (below, left) begins with a view of the log bridge across the creek, and in my video I cross it to the west side of the creek.

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) Fred's Video

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It is hard to describe how much fun it is to climb around on the rocks here. I know that serious climbers wouldn't think anything of the Narrows, but then again you don't need equipment and you aren't likely to be seriously injured even if you slip or fall a few feet.

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We spent the better part of half an hour at the waterfalls, and in the slideshow at right are some of the pictures I took.

As with all slideshows, you can move from picture to picture using the forward and backward buttons in the lower corners of each image. The index numbers in the upper left corners of the pictures will indicate where you are in the show.

Enjoy!

After we'd had our fill of enjoying the little waterfalls, we took two of the many "trails" up to the top of the cliff and the main trail back to the parking area. Fred and Guy happened to be down near the base of the falls, so they took one way up; I was at the top of the falls, so I took another. Before I left the falls, I took a last picture looking north along Cache Creek and Lost Lake.

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) Fred and Guy Ascending Their Trail

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As I was climbing up the route I had chosen, I took three pictures of the trail I followed (thumbnails at right).

When I got to a stopping point on my own ascent, I made a movie of Fred and Guy climbing up their own trail (left).

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When I got to the top, I took a few last pictures looking down into the Narrows (thumbnails at left).

We headed back south on the Kite Trail towards the parking area. I took a couple of good pictures on the way:

Back toward the parking area, we ran across a few local denizens:

The Hike Up Little Mt. Baldy

Even though our light was fading, we wanted to do one more relatively short hike; it is the hike up Mt. Baldy, and one reason we thought it would be doable is that it is out in the open, and there wouldn't be places that were already getting dark.

It was only a short drive to the trailhead for the Mt. Baldy trail. We left the Boulder Campground parking area and headed back north along the park road to Highway 49, and then turned back east towards the Visitor Center.

Coming down into the valley where the Visitor Center and the intersection with Highway 115 are located, we crossed the east side of Quanah Parker Lake and then turned right on the road that leads to the dam at the south end of the lake.

We were the only car in the parking area when we got there, and we collected our stuff and headed off on the hike.

At right is an aerial view of the area of the Refuge covered by the hike to Mt. Baldy. The hike itself was perhaps a mile and a half in length, which counts the small circle that I made around the top of Mt. Baldy itself.

Don't get the impression that Mt. Baldy is very high, or anything. As you can see from the aerial view, it is more a pile of ancient granite than anything else. I would guess that the trail ascended only about a hundred feet or so from the level of the Dam to the summit of Mt. Baldy. And most of that was the last hundred feet of the trail where I scrambled up to the summit- just so I could say I'd gotten there.

Fred and I have done this hike before; the last time we did we made a much larger circle than we did this evening, but then we did the hike in the morning and had plenty of sunlight for the two hours we spent going cross country around Mt. Baldy.

Anyway, you can see from the aerial view the terrain that we covered which, as I said, was mostly fairly level. The trail began at the parking area that overlooked the Quanah Parker Lake Dam.

The trail began by going down the stairs from the parking area to cross the dam itself. Before I actually walked down onto the dam, I did take a good picture of Fred on the dam and Guy at the overlook, and when Guy came down to join me at the top of the steps, he took the two pictures of me that you can see here and here. Guy went down onto the dam, and then I followed, making a movie as I went:

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When I got down onto the dam, I thought I would try to make a 360° panorama, and I did, but when I stitched the pictures together, it came out fairly odd, and I thought you'd get the wrong impression of what the area looked like. So I first took the four pictures I took in the direction of the lake, and stitched them together:

Then I took the three pictures I took looking at the creek below the dam and put them together separately:

Then I went to the far side of the dam to create one more panorama of the eastern view from there, encompassing the lake, the dam, the overlook, and the creek canyon:

From the middle of the dam, I made my way across the rest of it and up the stairs on the west side. There, I rejoined Fred and Guy.

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Over on the far side of the dam, we stopped to look back at it from the west, and both Fred and I took quite a few pictures from that vantage point. Five of the best of these are at right.

The hike itself took across a fairly level area over to the base of "Mt. Baldy", which I would estimate rose maybe 40 feet above the general landscape. Along the way, Fred and I took a number of pictures and a few panoramics. The first panoramic shot that Fred took turned out very, very well:

At one point along the trail (which was really not much of a trail, but then you didn't need much of one because you could see your destination- Mt. Baldy- in front of you the whole way), I asked Guy and Fred to stop so I could construct a panoramic view with them in it.

I could have let the camera do it, but I first took a picture of them looking out across the lake, and then took another picture of the lake and the mountains in the background. I put these pictures together into the panorama at right.

It was very enjoyable, walking along in the fading afternoon light, and we were beginning to get a good deal of nice sunset color (which Fred photographed to good effect). From the best of the many pictures the three of us were taking, I've selected a dozen of them for this page. Use the slideshow below, left, to have a look at them:

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As usual, move through the pictures with the forward and backward buttons in the lower corners, and track your progress in the upper left corner. I also made one good movie as we were walking along the trail; the movie player for it is below.

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Here are two more panoramic shots that I took; in both of them, I allowed the camera to take the pictures and stitch them together. this is lots easier than doing it myself, but only works for limited spans.

When we actually reached the thirty-foot pile of ancient granite that is Mt. Baldy, Fred and Guy thought that they would stay at the base and let me find my way up alone. We were never out of sight of each other (it is only thirty feet, after all), so it wasn't like I needed to give them the car keys. I took a number of pictures on my way up and at the top of Mt. Baldy, and they are in the slideshow below, right. Actually, Fred's picture of me once I got to the top begins the show.

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As usual, move through the pictures with the forward and backward buttons in the lower corners, and track your progress in the upper left corner. I also made one good movie from the top of Mt. Baldy, and the player for it is below.

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Just before I left the top of Mt. Baldy, I thought I would try my hand at a 360° panorama, so I took a series of nine pictures and later stitched them together. This picture is so wide, that only a scrollable window will do it justice:

With the light fading, the three of us headed off back to the car and then back to Lawton. Although we got a late start, we did two enjoyable hikes today. We look forward to tomorrow.

You can use the links below to see day two of our trip to the Wichita Mountains or return to the index page to continue through the photo album.

	September 30, 2016: Elk Mountain and Mt. Scott
	Return to the Index for Our Wichita Mountains Trip