Quartz Mountain

Most of Oklahoma is pretty darn flat. However, there
are scattered hills here and there that break up the
flatness. Just north of Altus is one of those areas.
Back in the 30's the State of Oklahoma turned a hilly
area that was formerly Kiowa land into Quartz Mountain
State Resort Park. The area was later dammed and a
nice little lake became the centerpiece of the area.
The lake is way down though due to it being really dry
in the area, and it has a pretty big bathtub ring around
it, not to mention high and dry boat ramps and small bays
that are now small meadows.


There are a lot of hiking trails in the park. One of
them leads to a small cave on a pretty easy trail.
Unfortunately, I missed my turn on the trail and it
became a lot longer hike than it should have been.
It was a good workout though and it was kind of a
neat cave, although it was pretty tiny as far as caves
go.


There are lots of camping spots at the park, but if you
don't want to rough it, there's a really nice lodge there.
It was pretty empty today, but during the year they have
a lot of art and music conferences on the property as well
as people staying to use the lake facilities. It's a
really nice park and hopefully the lake levels will come
back up so that people can get full use out of it.