The Holy City

It was Sunday, so I thought this was a good place to visit.  This is situated on the refuge and run by a concessionaire.  It has been here since 1935.

The Chapel is the first place we enter.

From the foyer, you pass through this pretty tiled archway into the sanctuary.

Front and center is The Lord's Prayer.  This I memorized as a young child and still find it comforting today.

One of the stained glass windows featuring a Canna Lily.

This depicts The Tomb where the body of Jesus was put to rest.

  
I believe this is Herod's Court.  He was King of the Jews.

This structure is Pilate's Court where the "King of the Jews" (Jesus) was tried and convicted.  

This depicts the Crucifixion where Jesus was nailed to the cross between two thieves.

A view from the parking lot where you park to view the Passion Play on Easter weekend.  The gray arched building with three arches is The Temple (not shown close up).


We found the rock work to be beautiful and interesting.

This stands overlooking the whole area and is an imposing feature.


On the way back to the "volunteer village," we came to a stop!!!

They own the road!!!


Until next time...

The Famous Meers Burger

We had heard about this place and had to give it a try.  It is just a small place on the curve of the road, but they draw a crowd!!!

It doesn't look like much from the road, but when you see a crowd, the food has  to be good.  The parking is to the right of the photo.

The meet is longhorn beef, 97% lean.  The owner raises his own longhorns for the burgers, then sells the skull there at the restaurant.  The burgers are brought to you on a pie tin.  I was warned I could not eat the whole thing and that we should share.  I had no trouble downing it.  They do sell a BIGGER one pound burger and that is probably the one you should share.

Then comes dessert.  Homemade ice cream.  Are you smacking your lips over this Mark?  There is peach cobbler under the ice cream.  Next time we will order it separately.  The cobbler was delicious too, but the ice cream is just out of this world!!!  We will be going back.  They have an unusual menu and everything we had or saw looked and was so good, we will return.  More on this place later.  This was just a trial run.


Until next time...

Charons Garden

Saturday morning we went to the vc to go on one of the short walks of the refuge.  Since nobody showed for that one, we were encouraged to join this one...the last one for the year.  We were unprepared for an arduous hike, but they were very convincing...they had plenty of water and snacks.  This is the Charons Garden Wilderness Hike and we just had to do this one..."Oh no, you can't do it by yourselves, it's too dangerous."  In this photo is the sign up area.  Two people canceled making it possible for us to go.  They will only take 26.

Here we are at the start of the trail, and I'm wondering if we didn't get in over our heads.  We just had to do this one!

This is the trip leader in the foreground.  The big boulder is what they call a guardian angel.  

Now we come to the "Valley of Boulders."  This was the dangerous part of the hike.  We all made it through here just fine...no falls.

The two boulders on the upper left are called the apple and the pear.  You have to use your imagination here.

Here we are in the "Boulder Room."  I don't know why we took our binocular because this was a hike and the leader pretty much kept us going.  There was little time to get photos much less bird!!!

But I WILL take time for the flowers.  This is a spiderwart.  The leaders did not take time to talk about the flowers or the birds.  They don't know them and they admitted that.  This was just a hike!!!

One of the cacti...will have to do research on what kind it is, but they were all over the place.

Just a beautiful landscape shot of the trail.  We have a group that is lagging behind.  Now I have a chance to get more pictures.  This particular trail, Charons Trail, is considered the strenuous one and we did lose half of our hikers...they took a short cut back to the bus about here.

Now we go down to a waterfall.  This is where one of the gentlemen in the group falls and rolls about 20 feet.  He falls a second time.  He came up with only boulderrash on his elbow.  I'm sure he was quiet sore the next morning.  This was a refreshing stop.  Oh, I must add here, there were Canyon Wrens singing so beautifully.  I hadn't heard them since our trip to Big Bend in Texas.

This is where we ask for a bottle of water.  That was all we needed the entire trek, and they did have extra water just like they said they would.  I felt bad we weren't prepared for this kind of hike, but they did supply us.

Notice how everyone is looking down...do they see the beauty all around them?  Some of these ladies are from Fort Sill.  We are pretty tuckered out by this time.

We finally come upon Post Oak Lake.  

To think we had come through those mountains in the background. The slab of rock is called Elk Mountain.  The trail took an elevation change of 590 feet!!

King of the Mountain.  We are at the end.  You will notice our two empty water bottles.  I was so proud of Wallace, he didn't even complain about his feet hurting!!

THUMBS UP...HIGH FIVES...we made it!!!  We are ready for that bus ride back...with air conditioner, as it was awfully hot out there.

This sign was at the end of our hike as we hiked it backwards.


We were so glad we got to do this one with a group and a leader.  He did keep us at a pretty fast pace though.  We left at 9:00am and returned about 1:00pm.  It totaled 3 and a half miles in distance.


Until next time...

A First Class VC

This is the biggest, nicest visitor center we have ever seen on a refuge before.  As you enter, you are greeted by these huge buffalo.

There is a beautifully done mural on the wall behind.

Dioramas and hands-on displays complement fine art, sculptures and exquisite taxidermy.

                                                      

This depicts all four large mammals on the refuge.  Someone said this is a mammal refuge, not a bird refuge.  Hum, we shall see about that.

I think I have covered the four major habitat types:  rocklands, aquatic, mixed-grass prairie, and cross timbers.  

That concludes your tour of the VC.

There is a huge environmental education program here and they seem to really cater to children.

They also have a very active friends group here that do all their tours.  It seems we will be doing some of the mundane things during our stay.  The one thing they do not do are bird walks!!!  With the Black-capped Vireo here, they are missing out on not offering these walks.  This could be something I will work on.

Tomorrow I will be blogging about another wonderful hike!!!  Stay tuned...I will take you there with us, and I will be getting to relive this hike all over again.

Until next time....

Our First Work Assignment

Quintin knew we were anxious to get out on the refuge, and he knew we wanted to hike a trail.  He told us to go out and have a good time, and we could check out the trail markers to see how we could spruce them up at the same time.  "Oh yeah, and by the way, you might like to pick up trash as you go."  Sounds like a plan.


Now you should know, this trail includes the bison trail which is 6 miles in length...and this is the first day in the 100 plus degree range...and this is the one he would like us to do.  Alrighty then.


It's a nice day to start off, and I am taking my dear sweet time looking at things and before you know it it is noontime and we are not even half way through this trail.  More on that later.


The first thing I find at the trailhead, is a life bird, the Black-capped Vireo!!!

Sorry for the lousy photo, but you have to understand my excitement and the fact that this is a very active bird!!!  This bird is one of the reasons for being at this particular refuge.


The lake is coming into view, and naturally I have to spend some time scanning the lake for waterfowl.

Mostly Gadwalls, a few shovelers, some redheads, the usual, but I have to look.

Just happened to see this beautiful Copperhead just off the side of the trail.  Copperheads don't warn you they are near, in fact they don't even move until you are right on them!!!  But I can smell them!!!


Now we are at the top where the trail levels out for a while.  There are few trees, but there are rock outcroppings where these beautiful creatures call home.

The Eastern Collared Lizard and look at that smug face.  "Hum, another one of those human creatures."


Wallace is saying, "We need to hurry along now."  I'm not paying any attention to the time...I don't even wear a watch!!!


Now we are at another one of the 15 dams on the refuge, but it is a unique one, constructed by using rocks on one side.  Really nice to study, and that eats up some more time.

Now isn't that pretty?  Think about how that was done back then!!!  One rock at a time.  Oh well, back to the trail.  It's time to move on.  But then, look there is a beautiful spider web.  I wonder what kind of spider this is.

And this flower...oh, the Texas larkspur.

And check this out.  A milkweed with a milkweed bug, and a Gray Hairstreak.

"Carolyn, we need to get on with it."  "But look at that pink grape on that leaf....."  (gall).

In the background, is the rock dam.  Still doing well, still smiling, but it is getting hotter and hotter and we have been hiking over five hours now.  When we get to where the trail starts splitting up without any markers, I start to get concerned.  


We are now down in the hollow... .there is no breeze, it is HOT, we have only one bottle of water left between us, our radio battery is low, no phone service, and trails are splitting off without markers, and there is probably another two miles to go...I'm turning around!!   There are no photos now...we are totally drained.


We finally get radio communication and contact Quintin with our predicament.  We have to backtrack now and cut over the creek to be picked up at Lost Lake...BUMMER.  But I thank God that that cut over was close by.


Mission completed though.  We came back with a bag of trash and decided what to do with the trail markers that look like this.

Aren't they cute.  A good wire brush and some paint should fix them up nicely wouldn't you agree?

We got started the next day and painted about 15 of these signs.  We went back to see how they faired after the rain.  


"Carolyn, we need to keep moving."


Hope you enjoyed your hike on the bison trail in the comfort of your home...me, I would rather be out on the trail.


Until next time...