My first trip into Okalahoma’s San Bois Mountains was a day hike in Robbers Cave State Park a bit north of Wilburton.  I expected the trails to be rather tame – it’s a state park after all – but was pleased to find them pretty pleasantly primitive.  The park has two or three primitive camp sites that can be used (with permit) by backpackers and 25+ miles of trails so one could arrange an overnight trip here or do a day hike of just about any length.

I started in the cave parking and day-use area (no fee) and headed west  to the junction with the Rough Canyon trail.  I turned south on it, then west as it crossed the canyon (it’s very easy to miss that turn and continue on an equestrian trail), then a bit north to the junction with Mountain Trail.  That one heads west for a while then turns south along the west shore of Lake Wayne Wallace.  I wandered several equestrian trails and did a little bushwhacking over there trying to find some sort of scenic vista but this was the best I could do:

Yeah, there are gas wells in the state park.  I’m afraid we’re going to be seeing many more of these fracking things on our public lands.

I headed back toward the cave, but took the northern side of the Rough Canyon Loop past the misnamed Cattail Lake and then turned to go past the misnamed Lost Lake and finally ended at the cave where John Wayne killed Jesse James or something like that:

That was the only picture I got that didn’t include at least a dozen kids.  I probably hiked 10 or 11 miles over 6 hours.