Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma

We left Homolovi State Park (Arizona) on April 4 and the winds were a bit calmer than yesterday’s 70 mph gusts, but still a bit breezy with lots of the tail-wagging-the-dog happening as we are driving. The tail in this case is Rosita, and when the wind blows across the road Rosita wags and the Chevy Suburban responds accordingly. A somewhat unnerving feeling when the truck you a driving starts waggingly it’s way down the road. A long day (5 hours planned), turns into an even longer day as we need to slow down, so that the wagging does not take us into a ditch!

We planned to spend one night in Santa Rosa Lake State Park (we were there last November) to break up the drive from Homolovi to Black Mesa.

There has been a lot a rain and snow in the western part of the US, so we were not sure what impact we would see on the water level. Not much. As you can see in the photo the water level has only risen slightly between last November and now.

There is a lot to see in northern Oklahoma. Lots of fields. More fields. And then some more fields. It is spring, so nothing is growing yet and the fields are a pretty uniform dull brown colour. So the lots of fields, becomes lots of the same fields. The main excitement during the drive comes from the rare occasion that I have to turn the steering wheel (not a lot of bends in the road), or when the road rises or falls slightly. Not a lot of hills here.

The final roads into Black Mesa State Park feel like we are driving through an endless farm. Finally, the road descends a bit and we see some cliffs (ok, cliffs is a bit of a stretch, but after all the “flat” a 60-70′ tall cut in the landscape becomes a “cliff”).

Nothing exciting about the campground, but the individual toilet/sink rooms and shower rooms are nice. These facilities are built in steel blocks that remind us of shipping containers, and have a nice modern look and feel.

Apparently there are enough tornadoes in this area that the park has a sign telling campers to head to the washroom in the group camping area in case of tornado. We walk down to check it out… and it is locked. Hope it doesn’t get too windy tonight!

There are some nice hiking trails around the campground, with more trails a short drive away. There is an area with dinosaur tracks that you can hike to (we didn’t).

Black Mesa is about 500 miles from the Petrified Forest National Park (which we visited recently while staying at Homolovi State Park), so we were surprised to find petrified wood in the campground. Petrified wood looks exactly like real wood, but when touched it feels like stone. Also, where the petrified wood has broken apart you expect to see tree rings, but instead marbled stone is visible.