Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness
“Urban Wilderness”
I mean, doesn’t that say it all? Don’t you feel the need to pause for a moment and shiver after you say the word wilderness? As if you’re dropping the last line of a ghost story on your terrified listeners?
Okay, okay, maybe it’s not THAT dramatic, and maybe I still have ghost stories on the brain after my six (have I mentioned how not okay I am with the fact he’s SIX?) year old’s “backyard campout” birthday party last night, but still. The word wilderness gives me the sense of adventure, and stepping into the untouched world of the wild. An urban wilderness must be that much cooler, because it’s a touch of the untouched right at our fingertips in the heart of the city!
Last week, during Spring Break (where it rained and rained and rained…and then rained some more), we ventured into Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. You guys are going to start thinking that I’ve never done anything in Tulsa after growing up here, but I’ve never romped around the trails of Turkey Mountain! After my adventure with the littles, I’ll definitely be adding this to the Saturday rotation.
The park is located between 71st and 61st just East of highway 75. It’s at the top of the hill overlooking our city, off of a winding road that makes you forget you’re anywhere near civilization!
There is a really nice restroom facility and water fountains, and huge rocks at the entrance. The boys felt like they were “king of the world!”
We checked out the trails and chose our path. We chose the medium difficulty route, because it said it would take us into the “heart” of Turkey Mountain.
And we set out on our path! It was definitely muddy from all the rain, but we had no rain falling on our heads so we were happy!
I couldn’t help myself and kept taking pictures of the gorgeous Spring foliage, but I will only bore you with one picture!
The littles were amazed at how high we were up on the mountain and how they could look out over Tulsa.
We had a couple of hiccups, with shoes coming off stuck in the mud, and tripping and falling in the water (I know I’m a terrible mom for insisting on capturing the crying pic…bless his heart!).
But we quickly recovered and got back to jumping off of everything.
And running really fast down the trails.
We came across a really neat little bridge, and because of all the rain, there was a lovely little stream trickling through the woods that I imagine isn’t always there. Pretty cool!
What a fun date with my little boy bees. So precious!
It did start raining on us the last little bit of our hike, but we’d expected it and put our hoods up. It was lovely, and we’ll be sure to pack a picnic next time, and maybe even take the harder trail!
