Saturday, October 30, 2021

Cedar Lake Equestrian Campground - Heavener, Oklahoma

 


Finding the entrance to the campground was a bit of a challenge. I had read on-line that there was a signage getting you into the campground, but the only signage was right at the campground entrance.
To add to the confusion, there was a New Cedar Lake Road that wasn't even on the Google maps.
You take Holson Valley Road to Cedar Lake Road, then at the four way intersection, turn left, go about a quarter mile and the campground entrance is on the left.

We were delayed a day arriving as we had to wait to get our truck back. Seven thousand dollars later, we have our truck and were ready to get to this campground.


The horses had 10 ft by 10 ft pipe corrals.


The campsites were pretty nice with fire pits, BBQ, picnic table, and lantern holders.
The campground was HUGE - one of the biggest equestrian campgrounds we have been in.
A camp host greeted us as we drove in and provided us with trail maps and guidance.


We had a pull through site - which felt luxurious after all the back-in sites we have had.
Electric and water hook-up.

The trails were a bit rocky, but it was very pretty. We were in the Ouachita National Forest, the ancestral home of the Choctaw Nation.
My horse has been behaving himself on the trail.
It has been a relief to see him settling back down.


Ari took one morning to get a new hair cut. He got a buzz cut similar to Bruce Willis.


Before we left the campground, we took a short field trip to the Heavener Runestone. It's about 20 minutes from the campground.



The runes are carved in a stone face. There is plexiglass installed around the runes to protect them from vandalism. The runes were discovered in the early 1920's. Initially, they thought a Swedish immigrant had carved the symbol. They brought in an expert who determined that the symbols date back to a Scandinavian alphabet used between 800 and 1200 AD. 
The theory is that Vikings traveled from Norway all the way to Oklahoma and explored the area. There are two other runestone carvings in the area. 
They believe the symbols roughly translate to "Valley of Glome". They think they are meant to be a land claim by a Viking named Glome.

Regardless, it was really cool to see ancient symbols carved by a random Viking some 500 years before Columbus even landed in North America.


We stopped at the RV dump outside the campground on our way to the next destination.
















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