We picked one of the hottest days of the year to visit
Roman Nose State Park. But we went fairly early and there is a lot of shade on the hiking trails so it wasn't too miserable.
Story below the slideshow.
After leaving a little later than planned (don't we always) we finally passed Watonga (which the kids love saying) and arrived at Roman Nose. This park is much larger than
Red Rock Canyon and I was not at all sure where to go. We always print the maps from the park websites but they never make sense until after you have gone through the park.
When we first pulled in there was a golf tournament going on and I pulled over to the pro shop to find out about which trails were the best. A very nice gentleman met us in the parking lot and gave us great tips so we were off to our adventure.
These hiking trails aren't named like they are at Red Rock. We first went to the trail next to the General Store and Lake Boecher. As soon as you start you can go to the right or left. First we went left. We hiked around a bit and I was not as impressed as I was at Red Rock. Then the kids went down this little dip that Tina and I weren't planning on going down. Then they said they found a small waterfall so we followed them down. We were glad we did.
After following that trail a bit further we decided to go back to the fork and go the other direction. It was much shadier (thankfully) but did not have much to look at. At one point though the trail broke off in three directions. We took a cute picture of Tina and the boys pointing in all three directions. We followed a couple of the directions for a bit but these trails were not that impressive either. I don't mean for this to sound like we didn't have fun. We did. It just was not as great as Red Rock for us.
We then went back to the car and went further down to a trail at the end of the road by Lake Watonga. It was really starting to get hot and this trail was mostly right out in the sun and not much to look at. We met a couple coming back from the trail who said the scenery didn't change much and there were snakes further down. So we decided to go back. The boys did decide to climb a pretty good sized hill. Chase took pictures of Tina and me from the top of it. Wow, I look fat even from up there.
Then we drove to the other end of the park to the Three Springs Trail area. We had heard that this was really nice. Tina had packed a lunch for us (pb&j rocks!) and we were going to eat at a picnic area then hike. At my brilliant suggestion we parked under a shade tree and ate in the air-conditioned car. I am brilliant.
Then we went down to the Big Spring. We were SO glad we did this. This was the highlight of the trip for us. It was very pretty. The spring was cool to look at and the area was very shady. The boys loved climbing around down there as well.
After this it was about 100 degrees and the boys were begging us to go swimming so we agreed. The pool at Roman Nose is much bigger than at Red Rock but the scenery is not as good. We had a blast in the pool though and the water felt great in the heat. We swam for about an hour and headed home.
There is a lot to do at Roman Nose that we didn't have time for. You can camp, fish, RV (yes, I make that a verb), golf, mini-golf, ride horses, go boating, paddle boats, etc. But we were definitely finished for the day. It was hot and we are still newbies at the state park experience.
During the debrief on the ride home everyone agreed we had a great time but Red Rock slightly edged out Roman Nose for our tastes and experience. Your mileage may vary.
dm
