Keystone State Park, Oklahoma

 4/12/2023 to 4/17/2023

    Guest Blogger: Maudie

    Well we sure are in Oklahoma. All the towns we've passed through or been to have both a pawn shop and a liquor store within walking distance of each other. While these of course are the necessities of life for us Oklahomans, they don't provide the prettiest views. The towns are not as pretty as the parks. The parks are certainly pretty. Our camp site is beautiful, so all you people who consider Oklahoma flyover country you are wrong! 


    Though it's hard to tell from the picture it gives a great view of the water and the sunset. It helps that we haven't really had any neighbors for the most part, but as it's Friday the park is filling up. You can't get away from those neighbors even in an RV!

    The vista is certainly prettier than at the last park, but the trails aren't quite up to snuff. To give you an idea of what I mean I think I'll just start with their names. The powers that be in this mighty land of Keystone State Park Oklahoma have dubbed their only two trails "Ranger Trail" and "Trail". Losing points in the originality category there Keystone. Also the supposed map wasn't the most accurate thing in the world. They are pretty nice to walk on though and Annie sure likes them! 


    They are fairly easy so they impelled us mighty hikers to seek adventure elsewhere. Really close to the park is the Keystone Ancient Forest. They have about 12 miles of hiking trails, and the trees there are older then the USA! They hyped this fact up a lot. Curious readers can definitely google more about it though. These trails are fairly well named. We hiked the Falls Trial named such because if it rains there are waterfalls and because, well, it has plenty of places to fall. Before we entered we were greeted by this sign:


     We decided we were capable. It also wasn't that hard. The sign had us a little scared(or maybe it had me scared). It took us 3 hours to go 4.6 miles, and our party was taking it pretty slow. We finished unscathed. Sadly we couldn't take Annie. They don't allow dogs. She needed the rest though as she collapsed on Thursday's hike. I don't think any of us saw that one coming. 

    
    And she didn't even come paddleboarding with us. The lake here is very nice but there was a lot of wind. We paddled into the wind on the way out, and just as we turned around the wind changed so we paddled home against the wind. I'll pause a moment to let you contemplate the unfairness of this.

                               

    But never fear, we came home to some great food! That afternoon we enjoyed Baked Brie with crackers.
 


It was as good as it looks. 
    
    We had it while playing cards. I am losing badly. I've come in last in every card game we've played so far. Grandma has won almost all of them. Does this sound fishy to anyone? I think there is a deliberate campaign to ensure that I will fail at any card game I play... Or I could just be bad at playing cards. (Thinking it's the second one:)
   
 That's it for me. I'm going home tomorrow. So sad to be leaving and I can't wait to come visit again. Goodbye Oklahoma!!! 

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