Oklahoma - Day 4 - north to Talimena

Talimena State Park, Talihina
Tuesday, 4 August 2020

this limestone is actually at my eye level,
meaning there's a lot of rock under this campground

like I said, lots of trees in the campground

today's route

I spent the day driving through the Ouachita National Forest, climbing up into the Ouachita Mountains.  Fortunately, I knew exactly what I was getting into because I'd been up this same ridge when I was in Arkansas.  At the top of my climb, I would reach the Talimena National Scenic Byway which in OK is State Route 1 and in AR is State Route 88.  Just a few miles over the border in AR is Queen Wilhelmina State Park, where I stayed for a weekend.  I remember it very well because the weather was absolutely terrible: very cold, extremely strong winds and little visibility - almost zero at times - so no scenic views at all.  The good part of that is that nobody else was up there because of the bad weather, so it was easier to walk the dogs, when I wanted to brave the weather.

But I especially remember the drive up to that state park because the visibility was so poor I was seriously afraid of missing the road somewhere on a turn (of which there were many, some of them sharp).  And for today's drive I saw on the AAA map that I'd be coming across at least one hairpin curve, so I was under no illusions about this drive.  Because of that I planned the entire day to do nothing but drive the 68 miles or so from one campground to the next.

I continued to pass logging trucks and areas that had been logged, both recently and in the past.

I was accompanied by a chain of high hills on both sides of the road, meaning I must have been in the middle of them.

I crossed more bridges named for WWI Choctaw Code Talkers: Ben Carterby, Noel Johnson.

I continued to pass marijuana "dispensaries."

I found a large herd of cows up high in the hills.

I stopped at a historical marker that was, for a change, on my side of the road.  I like the original name (Man-killer) better than Smithville.  In very small letters at the bottom of the sign it says the marker was "manufactured by Willis Granite Products, Granite, Oklahoma."

Granite OK, it turns out, is in the far southwestern part of the state, near the Quartz Mountain State Park.  With names like this, OK looks like it has a lot of rocks.

In fact, I looked it up to see if I labeled that first photo (above) correctly as limestone and, as best I can figure out, I did.  There are deposits of granite in southeast OK, but most of what's here - and almost all of what's on the surface - is limestone (according to the state science teacher's classroom guide).


A Red-tailed Hawk was in the road eating a dead animal and, as my RV scared him away, I got a great view of his beautiful tail in the sunshine.  (That's not my photo, of course.)

As I expected, the road took me on hairpin curves and s-curves, both uphill and down.  At one very steep descent, my ears popped and I think Dexter's did too, based on the look he gave me.  Because I was prepared for it, the drive didn't seem too bad.  In fact, thanks to my month in West Virginia, it was a piece of cake.

As I was almost at the end of the northbound section of my drive, I passed a picnic area that was part of the Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area.  All along the westbound section I continued to pass parts of it - picnic areas and hiking trails and so forth.

Westbound, I was on the Talimena Scenic Drive, which runs across the ridgetop of the Winding Stair Mountains, which is part of the Ouachita Mountain range.  It includes both the part I drove today as well as the part I drove in Arkansas, across Mt. Rich, Arkansas's 2nd highest mountain at 2,681'.  The Talimena Scenic Drive includes hill grades of 13%, per Wikipedia, but as far as I can tell, anything like that is strictly on the AR side which I remember as being seriously steep.  Today's portion of the scenic drive was practically flat, by comparison.

There were quite a few turnouts to enjoy the view and, since the view wasn't socked in as it was when I drove the road in AR, I stopped several times to enjoy it.  Many of the viewpoints had informational signs, including maps of what we could see at each place.

this is what they said I could see

this is what I actually saw - I think that's
Black Fork Mountain on the far right 

As you can see, a whole lot of green stuff has grown up since those drawings were done, and a panoramic view is no longer possible, making mountain identification harder.

Black Fork Mtn., by the way, is 2,661' tall, straddles the state border, and is AR's 3rd tallest mountain, coming in at 20' shorter than Mt. Rich.  The 2 of them are considered very dangerous to air travel, apparently; more than 40 pilots, including a military pilot during WWII, have gotten disoriented in the area and crashed on one or the other of them.

Farther along Talimena Scenic Drive I came to Panorama Vista, which is a loop showcasing most of the 360° view.  I tried to get photos but was only vaguely successful, thanks to all this green stuff.

facing north

facing east

facing south

Like I said, the road runs along the ridgetop so we could have a view on both sides.  It was prettier than these photos can show, I'm sorry to say.

I got to the end of the scenic drive and turned south to tonight's campground, when a Roadrunner ran across the road.  Just to show there's more than one kind of scenic.

Talimena State Park is a very pleasant campground that has only 10 RV spots and 10 tent spots.  Apparently it shares office staff with another campground, which we were told to call if we had questions.  My question was that their records, as displayed, ignored my reservation and I was afraid my spot might not be mine. 

Instead of calling the other campground, I talked with another camper and he advised that, since I have a confirmation number (which I don't usually write down but thank goodness this time I did), I should assume the spot is mine.  He also very nicely agreed to shut his dogs inside when I took mine out at bedtime (since his were tied outside and barked furiously whenever anyone in the campground moved).  And told me a bear had been sighted in the area 2 weeks ago.  All kinds of good news.

Since I was up on a mountain, I tried getting a wifi signal, and that's when I discovered my hot spot no longer worked.  I called Millenicom, which is where I bought it and who's provided the conduit with T-Mobile, and they said T-Mobile no longer allowed them to offer their service.  My choice was to either go through Millenicom, which would entail buying a new hot spot for $300 and pay double my current monthly fee, or stick with T-Mobile, which would entail buying a new SIM card - from T-Mobile.

Up on my mountain there weren't a lot of T-Mobile stores and I couldn't find one without an internet connection.  One of those Catch-22s that life hands us now and then.

I called my brother who said the new phone I'd ordered nearly 3 weeks ago hadn't come in yet and I should get back in touch with them.  He offered to locate a Verizon store in Muskogee, where I'll be in a couple of days, but I figured there wasn't much point because I didn't have a detailed map and wouldn't be able to locate any store without internet access.

In other words, I could count myself lucky I still had my old phone which was still able to pick up a signal up there on my mountain, but I was back in the full-on 20th century otherwise.  Much as I find I'm preferring it to what the 21st is bringing so far, I've got to admit there are certain advantages to today's world.

I spent a full hour on the phone, first waiting on hold and then talking to a patient young woman who said they had no record of my order for a new phone and agreeing to place the order.  We got all the way through, when she said I just needed to complete the automated acceptance of their Terms and Conditions and I'd be good to go.  She forwarded my call to the automated line, where I learned that part of process was entering a 6-digit code that had been sent to my email.  The automation process refused to offer a talk-to-customer-service option and hung up on me.

Back on the phone for yet another hour, first waiting on hold and then talking to a pleasant man who said the 6-digit code had been sent to a dummy email address because they didn't have my real one, so instead he would send a text to my phone.  I begged him to send an email to my real email address, which I gave him, because I refused to accept texts.  Verizon occasionally sends them to me, but I always delete them without reading them, and all other texts are blocked.  He said he would send the email, which I could pick up when I next had internet access.

Two hours on the phone with nothing to show for it.