I am wondering if anybody here could tell me anything about Wichita Mountains fire program?
https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/mountain-west-staves-off-aac-boise-state-san-diego-state-air-force-colorado-state
Wichita mountains are like a choose your own adventure book. We usually go there with no real route planned, but just go to have fun. It’s only 3 hours from DFW so it makes for a great weekend spot.
Best time to go: winter. It gets really hot on the exposed granite in the summer.
Backcountry camping permits are hard to get. Plan early.
There’s a couple of trails through the park. The best advice i got is to avoid them entirely.
Topography:. Open prairie between granite mountains with about 500ft of relief, usually almost straight up. Lots of cactus (keep tweezers handy). Patches of thick scrub oak. A few clusters or maple forests. The mountains are a mix of talus and granite slabs. Lots of very cool boulder formations. The USGS maps are very detailed with 10ft contours!
Fauna: common to run into bison, elk, deer, porcupine, and rattlesnakes. Game trails are everywhere.
Water collects in pools on the granite after rain and is usually in the small creeks.
Car camping: dorris campground inside the refuge is still closed because covid. Great Plains SP is close by and has a nice campground by state park standards.
——————
When I’m hiking alone I usually take the easiest path to get to the best places. That is, I never carry technical gear unless my kids are with me and they need a rope for some added protection or a boost up. But it’s fun to go with J because he likes to take the hardest route.
We left the trailhead at about 8:30. J had the 60m rope. I was carrying the hardware. Our plan was to just keep going as far and as long as we could and we had climbing gear to basically get up or down or around anything that could be in our way.
First stop was echo dome. This is a smaller peak in the range but it has a nice 100foot wall with bolts at the top for securing a climbing rope. We rappelled first then climbed the wall a couple different routes. The second time we climbed J led, which meant he placed protection as he climbed. Then I followed and cleared the hardware on my way up.
From the top of echo dome we made our way to the base of elk mountain. There’s a wash called the northwest gully that’s full of talus and small cliffs. We scrambled up it until eventually it opens up to big granite slabs. At the top is a natural arch that’s a good reference for approaching the Rock Rooms - a series of caves on the side of elk mountain. even though I’ve been through them a few times, the route to get there still confuses me. It’s like a maze -squeez
... keep reading on reddit ➡
After a while, it's obvious that the young woman and the young programmer are interested in each other, because they're giving each other looks. Soon, the train passes into a tunnel and it's pitch black. There's a sound of a kiss, followed by the sound of a slap.
When the train emerges from the tunnel, the four sit there without saying a word. The grandmother is thinking to herself, "It was very brash for that young man to kiss my granddaughter, but I'm glad she slapped him." The Project manager is sitting there thinking, "I didn't know the young tech was brave enough to kiss the girl, but I sure wish she hadn't missed him when she slapped me!" The young woman was sitting and thinking, "I'm glad the guy kissed me, but I wish my grandmother hadn't slapped him!" While the young programmer sat there with a satisfied smile on his face, thinking:
"Life is good. How often does a guy get the chance to kiss a beautiful girl, and slap his Project Manager at the same time."
The Wichita Mountain NWR is my favorite hiking spot in the state. I have recently gone down the rabbit hole of its history and have found a lot of fascinating mysteries in the area like the Iron Door, Jesse James’ lost treasures, the two (maybe three) arrastra, and the 1968 plane crash.
I’m wondering if anyone has more info on the plane crash that occurred. A google search has led me to some very basic info that a Cessna crashed in 1968 on its way from Lawton to Las Vegas, the wreckage is still in a remote part of the preserve that you can hike to. I have yet to find any primary sources like news articles about who was in the plane or what their fate was. I’m extremely curious if anyone knows the details of the plane crash, or has any knowledge or experiences with the lore of the Wichita Mountains.
The Wichita Mountain NWR is my favorite hiking spot in the state. I have recently gone down the rabbit hole of its history and have found a lot of fascinating mysteries in the area like the Iron Door, Jesse James’ lost treasures, the two (maybe three) arrastra, and the 1968 plane crash.
I’m wondering if anyone has more info on the plane crash that occurred. A google search has led me to some very basic info that a Cessna crashed in 1968 on its way from Lawton to Las Vegas, the wreckage is still in a remote part of the preserve that you can hike to. I have yet to find any primary sources like news articles about who was in the plane or what their fate was. I’m extremely curious if anyone knows the details of the plane crash, or has any knowledge or experiences with the lore of the Wichita Mountains.
