‘Social-distancing’ is the name of the game now when it comes to traveling thanks to the ongoing SARS-CoV2 pandemic.

State parks with hiking trials are a great place to head out to, though one should carry an mask to put on in case you come upon people that you can’t pass with proper social distancing.

One of the state parks in Oklahoma that is nice and wide open is Gloss Mountain State Park, which is located just outside of Fairview Oklahoma, off of highway 412.

Now the name ‘mountain’ is a little misleading–it is more of a butte or plateau than a ‘mountain’, though I’m sure that thousands of years ago the buttes or plateaus were taller than they are now.

It is also a fairly small state park, where there is actually no camping or lodging within the park itself though there is lodging offered in the surrounding area.

We took a day-trip out to Gloss Mountain quite a few years ago during the late fall. The nice thing about that time of year–hardly anyone else was there, so we could wander without running into other people.

You want to be wearing a good pair of either tennis shoes or hiking boots, even if you’re only doing the trail to the top of the plateau. The trail from the parking lot is maintained, but does go up the side of the plateau and there is a littel bit of climbing involved towards the top (steps are spaced out a bit).

Though once you get to the top, you have quite the panoramic view.

We kept to the area around the one plateau top, though there was a path leading down to into the park and towards other buttes or plateaus in the area. While I had thought of going partially down the trail, I remembered that if you go ‘down’, you have to come back ‘up’ and my legs were slightly sore from the initial climb, plus the tennis shoes I was wearing really weren’t cut out for hiking.

There weren’t any raptors soaring in the sky, but that wasn’t shocking since we went in October and most raptors would have already been moving south by then–as the main bird seen overhead is usually the turkey vulture, which is a ‘migratory’ bird for western Oklahoma.

I’d like to make another trip back to the ‘mountain’, but during the spring time when the wildflowers would be in bloom and possibly see some wildlife–though a wide berth needs to be given to all wild animals especially if they can coil and strike (i.e. rattlesnakes).

#oklahomastateparks #glossmountain #daytrips #walking #outdoors #throwbacktravels