Wichita Mountains, OK Elk Mountain

Drove the 12 hours to Wichita Mountains on Sunday

Monday, we got the campsite all set and headed out to see the prairie dogs then went hiking up Elk Mountain

Elk Mountain is accessed from the Sunset picnic area.
The hike is a little over a mile one way to the top and is not hard climbing.

There are open views from every turn and the trail climbs surprisingly fast but I never got that 'ugh' feeling I normally do while going up a hill.  So it could not have been that bad.

Cactus in the wild.

This was how most of the hikes went-me walking, Alex off in the distance making sure I hadn't fallen off the edge, Ben nowhere in sight.

It was SO windy.  The whole week was windy, there was a wind advisory.  I don't know what that means, probably 'don't stand on tall rocks'.

The trail goes through trees for a while

Then pops out at a flat spot with more views.

Here is where we screwed up, so if you are planning to do this hike, pay attention. 
We wandered willy-nilly from the trail and didn't pay close attention to where it came out.  It's easy to get distracted up there and go from view to view.  Then you decide to head down and wander for an hour looking for the trail. 

The rocks out there are red but are covered in lichen which makes them appear grey or sometimes yellow!

Thought I was going to live under this tree, but we did eventually find the trail down again.
Here's a hint, it's way over near the Eastern end of the mountain.

Ah, trail!
I did discover that Alex and I are willing to wander until we see where the grass has parted and we will happily follow that as if it were the trail.  We did this over and over all week.

After we got to the van, we headed to Mt. Scott to watch the sunset.
This one, you can drive up.
The gates are locked from 7 at night until 9 in the morning, but one of the rangers usually opens it up around 7-7:15 when he's on duty.  It's a gamble.