Hiking Elk Mountain in Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains Wilderness
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ต.ค. 2024
- Elk Mountain is one of the taller peaks in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge of Oklahoma at 2,254 feet in elevation. From its summit, there are 360-degree views of the Refuge's Charon Garden Wilderness.
We enjoyed this hike with one of the very best guides to the hikes of Oklahoma, the @OklahomoHiker! Paul brought us to the Wichitas for 2 1/2 days to hike and explore all across the Refuge and we spent two nights at the Doris Campground in the Refuge.
The trail begins at the Sunset Trailhead and picnic area and quickly crosses over Sunset Pool before beginning to ascend. The trail climbs steadily and moderately the entire way. In some places the trail is eroded and in other places some rock work has been done to stabilize the trail. The trail isn't marked as best we could tell and trails in general in the Refuge seem to be more suggestions than marked routes - so it's best to pay attention and have a map with you.
Besides a short section through an oak forest, there are almost constant outlooks along the trail with panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and the prairie off in the distance.
Along the way we saw several colorful lizards, but no snakes - though Paul had told us to keep our eyes open and he had run into rattle snakes in the past on this route.
The main trail ends at the first summit bump on Elk Mountain, which has a rather large, plateau-like summit. We decided to keep going at this point, to the actual summit, which is about a third of a mile from that first summit. There's a pretty well worn trail most of the way and it was easy enough to follow and then hike on the rocks to the summit itself.
When we were there in May, the wildflowers were blooming across the Refuge in a spectacular fashion and we spent plenty of time enjoying them all.
The entire hike was about 3.5 miles with about 617 feet of elevation gain.
Find additional information about the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge: www.fws.gov/re...
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Gear we used and/or carried on this hike:
Osprey Talon 22 Backpack - alnk.to/e70DIUl
Osprey Levity Backpack - alnk.to/aAJsR7d
Altra Lone Peak Hiking Shoes - alnk.to/44PrOq5
Deliberate Life Designs Sandals - www.deliberate...
Darn Tough Midweight Hiking Socks - alnk.to/2jG24Jf
Energizer LED Headlamp - amzn.to/3cmGkSX
NEMO Chipper Reclaimed Closed-Cell Foam Seat Pad - alnk.to/bimw1Y7
Sawyer Squeeze Water Filters - amzn.to/2RIislz
Patagonia Nine Trails Shorts - alnk.to/clT0k0f
EMS Techwick Essentials Sleeveless Tee - alnk.to/h6C7rei
Garmin Instinct Watches - alnk.to/aAIaA1K
Garmin InReach Explorer+ GPS - alnk.to/c02eqB5
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Love the sandals. I thought was alone hiking in them!
Moe is a master sandal hiker. He must have put thousands of miles on his. His favorite are from Deliberate Life Designs (link in description).
The Wichita mountains look incredible, super hike guys, stunning flora and fauna, the landscape is so different in places! Boo, to false summits 🤣 topography…..geography, tomato….tomato 👍 superb hike
Especially in a state where folks think it’s all corn and wheat fields! We loved our time here and I’m going to be we’ll be back to explore more with Paul and David.
Beautiful
It sure was a really pretty area!
Great hike and great views along the walk. I loved the cacti flowers
And the colourful lizard. I hope you are both well. 🙏🏽👍🏽🤗
We were in love with all the wildflowers! We have a few more videos coming from the adventures in this area and the blooms got even better!
Great video!
Thank you!
Cool lizard. And a fine selection of wildflowers. Oklahoma has some nice sights it seems.
It was a cool lizard. You see quite a few just hanging out on the rocks. Kinda like you’d see chipmunks and squirrels here.
Oh it does - for the most part Oklahoma is what you’d expect but the Wichita w and Ouachita Mountains are definitely unexpected and good surprises.