Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 7:45 am - 12:15 pm
Weather: Very cold and crisp morning giving way to a beautiful Oklahoma December day.
Back home for Winter Break meant this weekend was another hike in Oklahoma. This one I had been dreaming about since I thought up this crazy 52 hikes in 52 week plan in the first place. I was born and raised in Oklahoma, but I did not get into hiking until I moved out to Tacoma. When I knew I was going to have a few hikes back in Oklahoma, I knew I wanted to hike to the highest point, Black Mesa.
I flew into Oklahoma City Saturday night @ 7:45 pm, local time. By 9:00 pm, my sister, her boyfriend, and I (with the help of my mom and dad) had loaded the car and began the 7 and 1/2 hour drive from my parents house to the trailhead (according to google maps). We drove until literally we could not see anymore. As we were heading into the panhandle, the temperature was dropping and the fog was settling over the plains. Around 3 am, we could hardly see 20 feet in front of the car. We stopped at the first gas station we came to. It was in Boise City and around 3:40 am we tried to rest, and we ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep.
Woke up around 6 am and found a cafe right down the road. We had a delicious breakfast at the Rockin' A Cafe. Finally back on the road, we were in Kenton by 7:30am, only 10 minutes from the trailhead. Unfortunately, Kenton was a ghost town at 7:30am. We had planned to buy snacks and water, but since everything was closed we just went on to the trailhead with the snacks and water we had in the car.
Finally, the hike!
The trailhead and surrounding area had been hit with 5 inches snow 2 days before, and the weather had not been warm enough to melt it all away. We were the only car there. As I was gearing up, it was chilly. It was one of those hikes where I knew once we started moving everything would be fine, but while I was trying to get my boots on, it was all I could do to keep from shivering.
We got going, and we were instantly struck by the beauty of an area of Oklahoma none of us were very familiar with. Not to mention how a fresh blanket of snow has a way of making everything look magical.
The hike was great. The first two miles were flat and slowly meandered along the back of the Mesa. At mile two, the trail turns straight towards the mesa, and it begins a slow and steady climb to the top. The uphill was not too brutal, gaining approximately 500 feet in about a 1.3 miles.
Once we got to the top of the mesa, we were mesmerized yet again, by the surrounding beauty of the desert landscape. There were so many tracks in the snow. I know for a fact I saw deer, rabbit, and coyote tracks, but there were tracks everywhere, We walked along and finally saw the obelisk in the distance marking the summit. We spent about 20 minutes hanging out around the summit. We decided, since we were only 1300 ft away according to the obelisk, to walk due west into New Mexico.
Around 10:30 am, we turned to head back. Made great time back down the mesa, even though we were slipping and sliding along the way. With less than 2 miles left to go, we bumped into a hiker from central Iowa going to the summit. Then we ran into three young people from France in the middle of a cross country trip, who stopped to play in the snow. Once back at the trailhead, we saw a group of four more hikers show up. I was so happy more people were there to enjoy this beautiful scenery.
Orchid: Gaiters make walking in snow AWESOME!
Onion: Not packing my camera or trekking poles.
Picture:
Google Map
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