Camping Guide
GOING THE OKLAHOMA TODAY CAMPING BY SUSAN AND BILL DRAGOO E OF SOCIETY tent or under the stars is little about giant cottonwoods as they followed Anywhere in Oklahoma, outdoor primitive camping is permitted virtually are slaves, comfort and much about the temporary the bison; when cowboys slept by adventure is close at hand. Travelers are anywhere in the 350,000 acres of Okla- not so much liberation from what Washington Ir- campfires as they drove their herds unlikely to get bored with the same old homa’s portion of the Ouachita National to others as to ving called “our superfluities”—be they to market. landscape because of the state’s un- Forest alone. Beyond that, many local ourselves; our good wi-fi or the convenience of a ther- So it makes sense that Oklahoma of- usual natural diversity. Oklahoma has governments and private businesses offer superfluities are the chains that bind mostat—perhaps so we can ultimately fers a rich outdoor experience. This land, mountains, lakes, prairies, forests, rivers, camping and recreation opportunities. us, impeding every movement of our appreciate them all the more. which Irving described as containing and swamps in eleven ecoregions, and What better way to appreciate the state bodies, and thwarting every impulse Oklahomans are not so far re- “great grassy plains, interspersed with all of them have public lands well-suited than to backpack the Ouachita Trail or of our souls.” moved from the days when settlers forests and groves and clumps of trees, for camping. More than two million spend the night in a Panhandle oasis near —Washington Irving, 1835 traveled across Indian Territory on and watered by the Arkansas, the Grand acres lie in state parks, wildlife manage- the state’s highest point; camp in a cave the California Road, camping every Canadian, the Red River, and their ment areas, national forest, grasslands, or on a granite slab under the stars; or see Camping is illogical.
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