Our part of Oklahoma is so flat that we can see a mountain from our kitchen window that’s 20 miles away. After looking at it every day for over a year, I realized we’d only explored one of its trails. It was time to change that.

While the rest of the Internet has fully embraced fall, southwest Oklahoma can’t seem to make up its mind. Some days don’t get above 50°F and others we’re still seeing high 80’s. So when we found ourselves with a warm day, we headed straight for the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and checked out Kite trail!

One of the great advantages of moving west is a change of hiking scenery! My east coast self equates hikes with forests, rivers and mountain views. Here in Oklahoma it’s more cacti and rocks, but we’ve still managed to find some mountain views at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Elk Mountain trail.