Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve
I’ve decided to kick off a reboot to the old blog with a little camping post. I’m going to go through a rundown of my one night trip and then give a little review of the camp ground as well. I’m planning on splitting this into three parts, with an overview of the campgrounds, my camping experience, and my hiking experience.
I went to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge for this trip. I’ve been there once before, in April of 2010, with my buddy Miller. The refuge is only about 2 hours away from the north OKC Metro, so it rests in a fairly convenient distance for even quick camping trips, while still landing pretty far from home.
Being in the southwest area of the state, the Wichita Mountain range have a very different feel from the ranges that dominate the eastern half of the state. These mountains will leave you with a feel for the west and give you daydreams of hiding behind a ridge to scope down on some rustlers. Or something like that. Expect plenty of granite boulders (ranging up to the size of semi trailers), plenty of low-height blackjack, post-oak and a mix of evergreen trees, and plenty of cacti (which can make for some tricky off trail hiking). On top of that, the refuge is home to free ranging herds bison, and Texas longhorn, and elk. Free ranging, as in, bison in your camp site. On my latest trip, I encountered bison on the trail on three occasions, at a range of 2-30 yards off the trail. The bison are calm and docile most of the time. The rest of the time, they will gore you to death. There are also three known mountain lions, but I’ve never come across one of them.
This was my first solo camping and hiking trip – if you plan a solo trip, be sure to let someone know when and where you plan to camp, and especially when and where you are hiking. Something that’s just annoying when with a partner, like an ankle sprain, can be dangerous when you have no help around. Particularly when a buffalo is sizing you up cause you looked at him funny. Did I mention that they can weigh up to 2,000 pounds?
I arrived at Doris Campground in the refuge at about 3:30pm on Friday afternoon, and there were still ample available sites to pick from.
I generally use the following guidelines to select a good spot in a general semi-primitive camp ground:
- Seclusion (the most desirable, but most difficult to obtain)
- Water access
- Tree cover
- GHD (gear-haulin’-distance)
- Restroom access (I don’t mind going in the woods, but given the choice, playa please
Doris Campground is the only general public use campground in the refuge, but it has some pretty good offerings. There are a selection of primitive sites in the campground that are more secluded in general compared to the semi-primitive sites, but the GHD can be high, and the primitive sites are tightly spaced, so all it takes is one annoying neighbor deciding to set up shop to ruin the whole primitive camping section. Not worth the risk in my experience – you’ll end up with more privacy in most of the semi-primitive areas.
The semi-primitive sites in Doris have a few notable pros in a general comparison to most semi-primitive setups:
- close parking (1-2 vehicles) GHD is reduced to 3-20 yards with parking spots for each individual site. Makes for a markedly easier setup and tear-down.
- moderate tree cover between each site
- well kept fire pits
- charcoal grill and generally undamaged concrete picnic table (seats 6)
- large and spread out camping site area (rental covers two tents, but there is room for more).
Of course there are a few cons:
- While the sites are spread out, your neighbors are quite close
- line of sight is mostly unbroken between campsites
- close parking means close road
- bison in your camp (not just raccoons)
Overall it’s a pretty good setup and it’s your only choice, unless you get a permit for wilderness camping. Check back again in a few days for a look at the camping experience.
