Tour Oklahoma: Boiling Springs State Park 07/24/09

Since this part of our trip was not planned we got up and went to Wal-Mart in Woodward to get a few supplies. Mainly toothbrushes, and water since we were going to Little Sahara later in the day.

Then we went to Boiling Springs State Park just outside of Woodward. When we pulled in it looked from the park map like the main spring was right behind the park office. We parked and went in the office to be sure.

The lady in the office was very nice and explained that there were several spring throughout the park but the one behind the office was the biggest one and the others were often covered with grass and brush.

We were very excited to see this “boiling spring.” (I had several conversations the night before explaining to everyone that there would in fact be a boiling spring, thus, the name of the park.)

We walked around behind the office and followed a little side walk. There was a sign pointing the way to the River Trail but nothing saying anything about where the spring was.

There was something that looked like a picnic pavilion behind the office and away from the trail and the kids ran over to it. It looked odd because there was a rectangle cinderblock structure in the middle about waist high. Some of the kids started saying “I think this is it!” Others were saying, “There’s nothing here! It’s just water.”

When we all got there we looked in and there was a few feet of water and three little holes bubbling up water at the bottom. It was weird because it was all surround with cinder block and the bottom was concrete except for right where the holes were where there was sand.

It finally dawned on us that this was it. It was a major letdown. Everyone started laughing. After reading the sign on the pavilion about it we decided to walk the River Trail.

Once we did we realized that there was a small shallow creek running along the trail for a bit that was fed from up the hill by the “boiling spring.” That made it slightly more impressive. But only slightly.

The trail was not very impressive either. It was the least interesting of any of the trails we had seen in any of the parks so far.

Suddenly, Reagan said, “There’s a deer!”

I think everyone saw it except Tammy and Lexie.

We finally arrived at the end of the trail. Reagan said, “All these trails are the same. They end at a river where there is a tree that has fallen down like that one.”

I actually think that was the first trail we had been on that ended at a river but the kids wanted to get to Little Sahara so we walked back to the cars and left Boiling Springs behind.