Saturday we hopped in the car and set out on an impromptu road trip out to eastern Oklahoma. We set the GPS for Alabaster Caverns, but we could not resist a stop at Gloss Mountain State Park on the way. Gloss Mountain sits directly off of highway 412 and is a must-see if you’re traveling out to eastern OK! It’s a quick and easy hike up (but be ready for lots of stairs!). It’s a gorgeous sunrise hike if you can get up that early, but we arrived around 11 and it was still great! We were lucky to have pretty great weather all day. It was about 74 degrees when we got here, which is unheard of for July in Oklahoma. We took full advantage. It did warm up as the day progressed. Fortunately, our next destination would be a cool one as well-because we would be heading underground!

Next, we headed on to Alabaster Caverns State Park. Last time I was in the area, we ran out of time, so the caverns had to be cut from the itinerary. But I’m so glad that we were able to make it this time. Alabaster Cavern is a large gypsum cave-the largest in the country that is open to the public. It is available by guided tour only. The tours leave roughly once an hour during opening hours. It is also one of only three caves in the world that contain black alabaster-the other two are in China and Italy. The cave suffered a recent cave-in, so the regular opening and the part of the cave that contains the black alabaster were inaccessible, unfortunately. But you can still see the black alabaster in the on-site museum. I really hope that they are able to repair the cave-in soon, because I know there were some beautiful parts of the cave that we unfortunately weren’t able to access for safety reasons. Despite that, it was still a great tour and I’m glad we went. There are also other caves on site that allow for wild caving (spelunking) but we didn’t do that this time. Technically, cameras and cell phones are not allowed on the tour, but I am not always great at following no photo rules (I do follow them in museums and holy places, but I just felt like I could sneak in a couple of photos here without really harming anyone. Don’t follow my example if you want to be a better person than me.)

When we arrived at the caverns, the 12 o’clock tour was already sold out (you can buy tickets online to avoid this situation) so we secured tickets for the 1 o’clock and decided to grab some food while we waited. The closest town to grab food was a short five miles away, just across the Cimarron River. If you’ve never been to Freedom, Oklahoma, this is your chance-and I guess if you’re going to go there, what better weekend to visit than the 4th of July weekend! It’s a small town, with a wild-west feeling main street and a little gas station where we grabbed some pizza and snacks-our whole lunch set us back about $14 for the two of us-score! Then we had some time to explore the town a bit before heading back for the tour.

After our tour, we hit the road again, this time bound for the Great Salt Plains State Park. On our way, we ran across lots of great small towns to explore. I would say that hitting all three of these state parks in one go is easily doable, and if you set out even earlier, you can probably add Roman Nose State Park to your agenda. We left around 8 am, and got back to Tulsa around 7 pm, just in time for dinner.

Finally, we made it to the Great Salt Plains! The salt plains, along with Alabaster Caverns, were formed millions of years ago when the area between Mexico all the way up to Nebraska was actually an ocean. The salt found at the GSP is the salt left over from that ocean. Here you can see a dig area where visitors can dig for crystals. Other areas of the park are smoother, and the area really does have a surreal feel to it, almost like being on another planet. On a previous trip to the salt plains, I arrived just before sunset, and the area was basically deserted. That visit felt almost eerie, and definitely had a more other-worldly feel to it. This time, it just felt like visiting a family-friendly state park, but definitely still a unique experience. Pro tip: If you Google Map Great Salt Plains State Park, it will take you to the side of the park with the lake. In this area, you will find cabins, the lake area, etc. If you want to make your way to the actual salt plains, follow the signs that say “Crystal digging area”.

I hope you have a chance to explore some of our great state parks! I’m planning to hit a few more before the summer’s end, so stay tuned and thanks for exploring Oklahoma with me!