Oklahoma Panhandle and the Black Mesa

October 19 - 21, 2017:

The ride today is on routes 83 - 51 to Elkhart, Kansas where we cross into Oklahoma and then take route 56 to Boise City and then route 325 to Black Mesa State Park in Kenton, Oklahoma.  Again it was miles and miles of corn fields sprinkled with many oil and gas wells.  The panhandle area of Oklahoma was once known as “No Mans Land”, for a period between 1850 and 1890 when it was not indian country or claimed by any state and was a neutral strip.  It remains today very remote with virtually nothing in the way of development.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Panhandle

Our route is following the Cimarron cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail

We have passed so many old combines this year, farmers
seem to keep the old ones and park them where that can
be seen from the road as revered objects of their heritage

The ride into Black Mesa State Park was beautiful  and interesting with two cows in the road, a few prong horn Antelopes and a Tarantula Spider scurrying across the road in front of me.  This is wide open ranch country with herds of cattle, huge scenic vistas and beautiful short grass covered Mesas.  We feel that we are really back in the west again.  We pass a sign indicating a crossing of the Santa Fe Trail a short distance from the State Park entrance.  I return in the evening to see a group of pronghorns, beautiful animals, that bound away at high speed when I approach.

These are real free range cattle

The Santa Fe Trail came through right here

The Pronghorns are the fastest land mammal in the 
Western Hemisphere 

The Black Mesa State Park has very nice campsites with electric and water situated along the Carrizo Creek.  The park is surrounded by vast expanses, from horizon to horizon, with rolling short grass prairie and flat topped mesas.  It is very arid here, but covered with many kinds of native grasses, chola and picky pear cactus, juniper and in low areas stands of cottonwoods.  There is a hiking trail, the Mesa View Trail, that climbs up onto the Mesa overlooking the campground and Lake Carl Etling.

The campground from the Mesa View Trail

Heading down the trail

Twinkles with a huge tumbleweed

Petrified wood at the park

A wide angle view from an overlook with Lake Carl Etling in the distance

A few miles away is a trail to Black Mesa which is the highest point in Oklahoma at 4,973 feet.  We do the hike, 8.4 miles total, which is the biggest hike we have done since leaving Tucson in the spring.  It was a beautiful hike in all regards and a good test of our fitness. At trails end is a monument with the four compass points giving the distance to New Mexico, Texas and Colorado and New York on the Oklahoma panel.  There is a place nearby where according to the map, the road ends and the corners of Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico actually meet.  This area has interesting geology, the Black in Black Mesa is from volcanic lava that has capped underlying layers of sandstone. The Sandstone often erodes into hodo formations on the edges of the Mesas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_%28Oklahoma%29

On the way to Black Mesa we pass a huge building that
appears to now be deserted

Heading down the Black Mesa Trail

A bluebird posing on a yucca stalk

The Tarantula Spiders are out again

The trail spirals up the peak ahead

Approaching the top of the Mesa

The view on top of the the Mesa

The monument at the highest point in Oklahoma

The almost endless view as we start back down from the Mesa

 

Old General Store in nearby town of Kenton

We had a nasty issue to resolve when I found that our black tank was almost full although I had drained it in Dodge City two days ago.  Obviously the tank did not drain completely and is now plugged up.  Looking into the tank from the Toilet we saw that toilet paper was wadded up in there and had not dissolved like it should be.  Twinkles then came clean advising that she had recently bought cheaper toilet paper that says “septic safe” but not “RV” safe.  She then tells me how we just need to run a snake down the pipe in the toilet to clear the blockage and I am not understanding where this pipe is, I thought it was just a tank with a discharge pipe to the drain connection.  Twinkles then comes clean again, telling me how when I was away last winter it became plugged and she bought a snake and cleared the blockage herself.  She said the quilting girls at Desert Trails got quite a laugh about that.  I’m not liking these dark secrets that are now being exposed, but am pretty impressed that she did this.  Of course we don’t have this snake and its 25 miles to the town of Boise City.  We drive there to get a snake only to find no stores open, its Saturday, but as we drive past the plumbing supply store a woman in a pickup truck out front waves us down.  It turns out she is the store owner, they closed at noon, but she will open up to sell us a snake.  Back at the campground, we spend about a hour with the snake and then a water hose with a spray tip followed by several tank flushes to get the situation cleared.  The lesson learned, don’t be cheap on the toilet paper !

The town of Boise City is really depressed with many vacant buildings and stores, but after reading its history, I understand.  This town was founded in 1908 by developers Stanley Kline and W.T. Douglas who sold 3,000 building lots promoting it as elegant townsite with tree lined and paved streets, numerous businesses and railroad service.  The buyers arrived to find that none of it was true !  Stanley and Kline eventually were both convicted of mail fraud and sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.  Boise City was also involved in the dust bowl days in the 1930’s and then there was the bombing incident.  In 1943 the town was mistakenly bombed by a US B-17 bomber during training flight when the crew became disoriented and mis took the town’s lights for the bombing target.  The Bomber crew was invited back for the 50th anniversary of this but declined to attend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise_City,_Oklahoma

The Cimarron County Court House

A sign and empty bomb casing commemorating
the bombing

The bank is a fine looking building

   

The House of Cheers is not so cheerful looking

The Palace Hotel has seen better days

The Cimarron County Courthouse in the center of town with a roundabout around it.  I’m taking a photo of it when a man stops his pickup truck and said in a friendly way “You’re taking photos of the most run down town in Oklahoma” ?  He then told me his wife has a beauty salon nearby that they just remodeled, it’s the best looking shop in town.  I thanked him for doing something to help out as he drove off.  So, even though it actually may be the most depressing town in Oklahoma, I found two friendly people within an hour, there is hope !

Keep watching our friends on:  www.hitchupandgo.com

The next stop is one of our favorite New Mexico places, Las Vegas, New  Mexico,

Twinkles and Slick