« Update! | Main | Oklahoma City National Memorial »

April 24, 2009

Wichita Mountains

Last Monday (the 13th) Brent and I left Connecticut to go on a trip to Tornado Alley to go storm chasing with Extreme Tornado Tours.

We got on a plane in NYC early that morning to fly to Oklahoma City, OK. Here's Brent napping on the plane:

When we arrived, we took a shuttle to our hotel just outside of the city where we had a few hours until our first meeting that evening at 6pm. Here's how Brent spent the time... relaxing:

That night, we met all the guys from Extreme Tornado Tours and TornadoVideos.net in the hotel lobby and discussed how the trip would go. They had been watching a storm system moving in on Thursday that they were all very excited about, but for the next couple of days there wouldn't be much to do weather-wise. We discussed, as a group, how we wanted to spend that time and decided that our first day would be spent in the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma.

We left the next morning and arrived in early afternoon at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. We started driving towards Mt. Scott, the highest peak in the Wichita Mountains, when Sherry, one of our fellow tour members, spotted a wild buffalo! Sherry (who is from Australia) actually spotted pretty much everything on our trip that we were looking for, whether it was food, wildlife, gas stations.... Anyway, we jumped out of the car to get a couple pictures of our first buffalo:

(remember, all my photos can be viewed in Large and Original size by clicking on the picture then "All Sizes" on top of it)

The land out there is so different from what we're used to at home, here in Connecticut, so we were really fascinated by all their colorful rocks:

Buzzards circling in the sky:

Brent caught off-guard in front of the buffalo:

Here's a buffalo "cow chip":

We kept driving along a road that circled up to the top of Mt. Scott. We were very close to the edge and there were no guard rails, which made me more than a little nervous, but we made it.

Motorcycle coming up to the top of Mt. Scott:

View from the top:

Matt (one of our guides from Oklahoma -- Texas, originally), Sherry, and Toni (from L.A.)

Brent checking out the view:

Wind turbines off in the distance:

A little above the direct center of this photo you can see a road. We watched a car drive along that entire road and it took forever. It was amazing seeing something so far away coming closer and closer.

Brent and Me on top of Mt. Scott:

Brent took this exact picture right before I did, so yes... I stole it from him:

See that little black speck down there? That's our buffalo from earlier!

Brent mid-leap:

Sherry, Brent, Matt, and Toni:

Brent sitting on top of Mt. Scott:

This was some sort of rock slide coming down the mountain. It had some special name, but I forgot it:

When we got back to the bottom of the mountain, we drove through the Wildlife Refuge for a while longer, spotting some Longhorn cattle:

This guy ran away when I accidentally swung the creaky van door open. Oops!

We ran into some more buffalo, a little closer this time:

We stopped by the visitor's center where we saw these:

I have been told they are Mud dauber wasp nests.

Brent smiling next to me in the van (we had so much fun on this trip):

Longhorn crossing the road:

Baby longhorns!

We drove around a little while longer until we found some prairie dogs, and they were so cute! They were all popping out of their little holes with little babies running all around:

I loved this one, he reminded me of our bunnies:

More babies:

One of their holes:

This next picture is of the shadows of Brent, Matt, and me. The angle and the lighting, however, could not have made my legs look any more enormous:

As we were driving around through the park, there were a number of places where we could see oil dripping out of the large rocks on the side of the road. Matt told Brent that certain rocks can be broken open and if you smell the inside, it smells like oil. Brent gave it a try:

Another little prairie dog on the road:

The Wichita Mountains are truly amazing and if you are ever in Oklahoma, you really should take a drive out to see them. We reluctantly left when it was getting late in the day, and drove to a place called Ann's Country Kitchen for dinner.

Those of us who were not raised in Oklahoma had never before heard of "chicken fried steak" and had no idea what to expect, so of course we ordered it. It took a long debate to determine that there is no chicken in chicken fried steak, making the entire concept very confusing. It's definitely something worth trying once.

That night we drove back to the hotel outside Oklahoma City where we all got to bed early, excited to start the next day.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at April 24, 2009 10:58 AM

Comments

Posted by: m at April 24, 2009 03:10 PM

Posted by: G at April 24, 2009 03:12 PM

Posted by: Becca at April 26, 2009 08:38 PM

Posted by: jocelyn at April 27, 2009 12:35 PM

Posted by: Mahalokkz at April 28, 2009 05:28 PM

Posted by: MTSorosmero at April 30, 2009 02:54 AM

Posted by: John1065 at April 30, 2009 05:59 AM

Posted by: John1065 at April 30, 2009 06:00 AM

Posted by: John1065 at April 30, 2009 06:00 AM

Posted by: John1065 at April 30, 2009 06:01 AM

Posted by: doaneforeh at May 1, 2009 01:38 AM

Posted by: pierceeric at May 1, 2009 01:39 AM

Posted by: westbylenz at May 1, 2009 01:39 AM

Posted by: galtonhami at May 1, 2009 01:40 AM

Posted by: aethelwyne at May 1, 2009 01:40 AM