ETA: This review got lost in my drafts folder, so it's late- this is not where we are anymore.. but the campground was too good, I HAVE to highlight it.
I've been excited to do this review all week. It was a pretty good place to camp, especially in the windy spring.
The canyon was historically used as a place to get some shelter during seasons of bad weather. It's relatively less windy down here, although we still were rocked to sleep by the wind each night. And once or twice we really were worried we were gonna get blown over. But, we didn't, and only us newbies were worried. There were lots of other local, regular campers here and none of them were bothered by the wind in the slightest.
The setting is beautiful. Oklahoma red rock everywhere, beautiful hikes and climbs. All three of my kids loved climbing up and down the rock face across from us, which is a gentle enough slope that they could do it safely, and steep enough that for them it was adventurous. There was much more park here than we were able to explore in a week, lots of day use areas, a natural sort of lake (not sure if swimming is allowed, I didn't check it out), a couple of parks and they are building a swimming pool. At the top of the main climb to the top of the canyon, there are wagon tracks, and museums dedicated to wagons All. Over. The. Place. in the towns surrounding.
There are different little areas where you can park your camper, so minimal traffic coming by your own little street area. We happened to be here during spring break, so it was packed all week with tons of kids camping with their grandparents. There were children of all ages riding bikes and running around up and down the canyon and to the park.
This is a place we would come to often, if we lived in the area. The only downsides were minimal. (1) For some reason we kept getting power surges, but as soon as we figured out that's what was going on, we just made sure everything was charged at night and again at lunch time, so no issues after that. (2) The road coming into the canyon scared me silly... STEEP and lots of switchbacks. This seems obvious when you are talking about a canyon, but I'm really quite worried about getting out of here in the morning. Once going out, I almost got hit head on in the middle of the hill because a car was coming down on the wrong side of the road, and it's a blind turn. I rounded the corner, with all the power my truck could muster, because my three year old was yelling from the back seat "DADDY SAYS DON'T STOP ON THE HILL MOMMY DON'T STOP YOU'LL ROLL BACKWARD!"... and BAM there's Miss Daisy driving some white front wheel drive little car that I was about to roll right on over. I had to dead stop on my way UP this monster hill. If we'd done that with the camper attached, I'm honestly not sure we'd have gotten rolling again. The right way, anyway. And... (3) Showers again. Honestly, camp showers shouldn't be this much of an issue. but this one was touted as being state of the art, totally new and really nice. It was a little room the size of a changing room in a department store, then split in half. One half for changing, the other for showering. The shower costs .50 for 3 minutes... so to shower myself and two little girls I spent about 3.00. Which isn't much, but honestly, it should be free. Or at least not be a painted, cinder block room measuring 3 feet by 5 feet. If you are gonna make me pay for my shower, make it a good shower.
But, those issues are not bad ones, and this place is a good place. The kids got to run around with other kids, dig in dirt, chalk on the paved RV pads, ride their bikes in safety. There are a ton of bugs, but no one got bit up very much. We are 2 minutes from a dollar store and a Thriftway, but I had to drive 20 minutes to get to a laundry mat. Still, I rate it... A Very Good Place.
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