The weather’s been hit or miss this spring. After all this is Oklahoma, so spring time usually means rain and severe weather forecasts.
Despite the gloomy weather forecast we occasionally do have a few lovely spring days, mixed in before we begin to melt in the sultry sun of June.
Anyways, when these perfect spring days do show up it’s a good idea to take advantage of them and do something outdoorsy. Which is exactly what my and my hubby did few weekends ago.
Turkey Mountain
One of the things I like about Tulsa and surrounding areas, is that they really promote healthy outdoor activities. Everywhere you look there seems to be a park and some sort of bike trail.
In fact there is this great wilderness park not far from where I live, right in the middle of Tulsa.
Turkey Mountain is 300-acres of walking/bike trails and includes climbing boulders, flagstone walkways, and two large ponds.
This family friendly park encourages visitors to walk/jog, bike or even horse ride along one of 4 trails along the Arkansas River. The different tails offer different distances, while you could walk the full 6 miles or so around the whole area, you can also easier trail ranging from 4 miles, 1.5 miles and just under 1 mile.
Since it was the first time me and my hubby had a chance to walk the trails (and since we aren’t the athletic type) we choose to do the 1.5 mile trail.
Urban Wilderness
What I loved most about walking around Turkey Mountain was views. In certain spots you get a great view of the city and then there is the river views.
There are old railroad tracks along the trail and lots of nature’s own beauty. There are large trees and rocky cliffs. It’s really beautiful.
Don’t let the name of Turkey Mountain fool you, I mean I guess it’s a mountain, or as close as you can get in the plains of Oklahoma. While there are some dirt trails, the main trail is paved.There is a bit of an upward incline, but nothing too difficult to overcome.
I really enjoyed our walk at Turkey Mountain it was a fun quick outing just minutes from the house. It was also really good exercise and I plan to take another peaceful walk soon, that is after all the forthcoming rain and before the summer heat.
Oh how neat! It’s nice to know there are little natural retreats in the middle of big urban areas. I love me some city, but I seek out hiking and wilderness when I go out of town. Dallas has Cedar Ridge Preserve, which is a pretty decent-sized municipal nature area in hilly countryside, but we have to drive straight through downtown to get to it, the most severe irony. Luckily the Ozarks are just about three hours away!
That sounds pretty nice, and it’s nice to be close to the Ozarks too. Have you been to White Rock Lake? It’s not a true wilderness, but it’s a nice spot in the city and if I recall correctly has a walking/bike trail. Of course it’s been a few years since I was down in Dallas.
What a peaceful, lovely area. The large slabs of rock in particular really caught my eye. If it was safe and stable enough to do so, I’d definitely try to do a photo shoot on them. 🙂
Many hugs,
♥ Jessica
What a good idea Miss Jessica. The rocks were pretty stable, in fact we even sat on a few to take a break on the way back down the tail. I’ll have to go one day when I’m dressed up to take photos 😉