First, let's start off with an introduction, I'm Nikki, my husband Jake and I are owner's of Hill House in Hochatown, OK. We confess we have yet to become hiking pro's and can direct you to some great local pro's in the area that take you out for some cool hikes...We are just your regular folks with a heart to explore!
I have been coming to Broken Bow Lake my whole life, spending summers with my family. We weren't fancy, we slept in tents and later in a bus that my dad rebuilt into an "RV" waaaay before that was a cool and trendy thing to do and what I learned from exploring at young age was that identifying poison ivy and oak where key to my continued enjoyment! I'm betting it'll be key to yours as well! If you're already a pro at identifying these plants scroll on to hear about where we love to hike.
These poisonous plants do serve a purpose in the forest as deer and birds eat them for food and are not effected by them like most of us humans. I have been amazed to see how incredibly large these plants will get, growing up trees with enormous vines and leaves that it's hard to believe it's actually poison ivy or oak. This is one, of many reason we always hike with a hiking stick. Especially if we are going to explore wilder trails. As you can imagine you can use a hiking stick to move leaves or vines out of your way with out touching.
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Another tool we have found to be very helpful is our All Trails App. You can use this app to find trails anywhere you want to go. We love how other hikers will rate a trail for you, upload actual photos and you can find out difficulty level and length of the trail. Another thing to note, whether you are going to be hiking a trail, visiting Broken Bow Lake or Beavers Bend Park you will want to make sure you have parking pass which you can pay ahead for online.
Here is our list of our favorite hikes in Hochatown and ones we can't wait to check out!
- Friends Trail Loop - the one we probably recommend the most. Beautiful drive into Beavers Bend State park.
- North Cedar Creek Waterfall Trail- Best if there has been recent rainfall.
- Lake View Lodge Trail
- Skyline Trail
- Mountain Fork River Trail