Robber's Cave State Park - Wilburton, Oklahoma

 

Robber's Cave State Park came highly recommended by a lot of equestrians. 

When we arrived on a Saturday, we were one of three equestrian campers at the campground. All the other campers were non-equestrians. They were noisy and annoying.

By Monday morning, we were the only campers left in the entire campground and it was peaceful and quiet.

Getting to our campsite was a bit of a challenge. The road in was quite narrow and there were trees on both sides. It is a back-in site and it is not laid out well for large trailers.

We had water and electric hook-up. There is an RV dump at this campground. There are also showers, bathrooms, and a playground for kids.

The campground also features a mounting block for wheelchair users.

It is located in the middle of the campground.

We were warned the trails here are rocky, so we put boots on both horses. Lennox is wearing Cavallo boots. Mercutio has Scoot Boots.

We use socks and liners to prevent sores from the boots rubbing on their ankles.

As promised, the trails were rocky, but not steep or too bad. However, it is turkey hunting season, so about half the trails were closed to riders. I didn't know that this was happening. They close the trails from mid-October to the end of December.

I was a little frustrated because the trails we could access took us parallel to the main road, so we were subjected to a lot of traffic noise. We weren't close to the road, but it was annoying.

When we got back, I asked one of the other equestrian campers if she could take my husband out hoping she could show him some better trails.

They were gone a good three hours. When they got back, Ari said it was an awful ride. Apparently, it was a mother and daughter and they did not get along.

The daughter spent half the ride complaining about her horse - a 6 yo mare that kept spooking.

The mom's saddle was not cinched properly and Ari was worried she was going to get into a wreck. He offered to fix it for her, but she refused.

Halfway through the ride, the women swapped horses. The mom thought her daughter would be more comfortable on her mount. 

So, then the daughter complained for the rest of the ride about how she was constantly having to kick that horse to get him to go.

Ari also noticed that the tack they were using looked brand new. He thought they were both inexperienced riders.

He also said the trails weren't that great, but Lennox had a good time.

So, Monday we decided to take the day off from riding and do a hike to see Robber's Cave.

We drove from the campground to the trailhead that takes you to Robber's Cave.

There is a small cave at this trailhead that you can go inside and check out. 

We followed the trail markers up to the top of the ridge. At that point, you look for orange trail markers to guide you to the cave.

It is roughly a 45 minute hike to get to the cave. It is rocky and there are some steep sections.

We got lost several times trying to figure out the trail.

We found the Stone Corral first.

This area was used by Jesse James and the Younger gang to hide out.

They stole horses.

They used the Stone Corral to keep their stolen horses.

The corral is basically a blind with a perimeter of stone walls.

It is about 1/4 mile from the cave. You get to a section of the trail where it divides - with orange markers going down one way and up another.

If you go down, you reach the Stone Corral.

If you go up and climb over some boulders, you will locate the cave.

The gang probably posted lookouts with the horses since it is a distance from the cave.

On the trail heading towards the cave

At the entrance of Robber's Cave.

There is enough room inside for about 20 people.

You could easily build a fire at the cave entrance to cook food and for warmth.

Belle Star, who was also a horse thief, hid here with the Younger gang more than once.

The local Conservation Corps built these stairs to help people get down to the cave.

The cave was not easy to find. Even when we were only yards from the cave, we were still trying to figure out where it was.

No law men ever found the outlaw's hideout while it was being used. 

Ari pointed out that because you have to climb over rocks and boulders to access the cave, you wouldn't leave tracks.

Likewise, to get to the Stone Corral, you would ride over so many rocks and rock faces, there would not be any hoof marks.

Altogether it took us a few hours to hike up to the cave and get back down. It was frustrating to locate. We kept meeting other hikers who were just as bewildered as we were, looking for the cave.

This would be a fun thing to do with kids - have them help you locate where the outlaws hid from the law.

It was definitely a challenge.

Horse Heaven Ranch - Talihina, Oklahoma

 

Horse Heaven Ranch is off Hwy 63 between Muse and Talihina, Oklahoma. There is a blue sign on the highway indicating the turn. 

There is a large stone horse statue with signage set back several yards from the highway to mark the entrance.

It is about a mile drive down a dirt road into the campground.

We have a full hook-up site - hoorah!

It is a pull-through site.

The horses have large open pipe corrals. There is no round pen or arena for turn out but we have been letting them graze on the grass.

Temperatures have been dropping into freezing so we have been blanketing the horses at night.

The horses relaxing in their corrals.

Elfie, the campground host, provided us with this trail map which looks rather daunting. There are no trail signs or markers on the trails. 

We are riding in a different section of the Ouachita National Forest.

To access the trails, ride to the back of the campground and past the white metal gates.

Ride past the large cabins with good-sized paddocks.

The trailhead is a large apron on the right marked by wooden rail fencing.

The trails are the least rocky and the best groomed, more like bridle paths. Really pretty forest and nothing too challenging - other than trying to figure out where you are.

The closest town is Talihina. Closest market is in Heavener.

The Saturday we were scheduled to leave Talihina was hosting their Fall Foliage Festival, so we decided to drive into town and check it out.

We parked at the middle school and this car was in the lot.

Brought back memories of my days in high school learning to drive.

A lot of schools have had to get ride of their driver's education programs due to budget cuts.

There was a camel ride for kids. Apparently, camels are quite common in Oklahoma.

Ari didn't know they were so vocal.

I hadn't thought about this, but if you live on a reservation, that's sovereign territory, so the reservation issues it's own license plates.

There was a nice bluegrass band providing entertainment.

The festival was quite crowded. There were a lot of local artists selling their crafts.

I did buy a small carved gourd for my dad for his birthday. Artists who were tribal members had cards up identifying themselves as registered with the tribe. So, we purchased something from a tribal member. Hopefully, my dad enjoys it.

We finished up by eating some Indian tacos - Choctaw style. That's their Indian fry bread at the bottom.

 

Heaven's Gate - Muse, Oklahoma

 

The directions on Google maps were sort of correct and the directions from the website were also sort of correct. We were able to puzzle it out without making any wrong turns or having to back-up and start over.

It is paved all the way into the campground.

You take Hwy 63 to Billy Creek Road, make a left and then keep going.

If you have reserved a creek-side campsite, those campsites are on the left.

I had reserved a creek side campsite which meant our camp site backed onto the creek. There was a lovely metal bench and fire pit next to the creek. It was a bit slanted, so we pulled out our camp chairs to sit by the fire. It was lovely.

The horses had 10' x 10' pipe corrals.  They were pretty happy.

We had electric and water hook-up. There is no RV dump at this campground, so we had stopped at the RV dump at Cedar Lake before we headed here. Our Winegard worked best on the Winegard SIM card.

It's the beginning of November and I always deworm the horses at the beginning of the month.

Click on the link to watch a video of what that is like. 

The trails were marked with trail tape - these are different color streamers that can be tied to tree branches. 

We would lose the trail, but we usually found our way back by searching for the trail tape.

We are riding in national forest and the US Forestry service has a policy against signage on the trails. The trail tape is a compromise as it keeps equestrians out of areas and it can be easily removed. It doesn't damage the environment or the trees.

Lennox taking a drink out of the creek.

The trails were shady as we were riding through forest and most of the days were overcast any way.

The trails were a bit rocky, but not too bad. We rode barefoot the first two days, but on the third day we opted to put boots on the horses as we wanted to ride the Vista Trail which was allegedly more rocky.

We are riding in an area that boasts the most Big Foot sightings in the entire world. No signs of Sasquatch, though.

It rained heavily the night before we left, but we were able to get our corrals pretty clean for the next camper.

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.