After hiking around 5 miles a day for a week in Arizona, Ben and I were feeling restless and wanted to fit in one more hiking trip before the weather got too hot.
So we made a plan to visit Palo Duro Canyon state park over Memorial Day weekend. We were so excited!
However, the area received so much rain over the month of May that they had to close the park. Womp, womp.
When Ben asked, "What's our Plan B?" my immediate answer was "Broken Bow!" So we made very last minute plans to take a short trip to do some hiking in one of our favorite places.
Instead of booking a cabin like we normally do, we booked a room at Lakeview Lodge which is located in Beavers Bend State Park. The neat thing about the lodge is that every room has a view of Broken Bow Lake.
This was only going to be a two-night trip, so we hit the road early on Sunday so we could get a full day in the park. We made our first stop Hochatown Coffee Central so we could fuel up!
This was a cute little coffee shop that we will definitely be making a regular stop!
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| Best pizza in Broken Bow! |
After lunch, we headed to Lakeview Lodge (now re-named Beavers Bend Lodge) to check it out and to do the 4-mile Lakeview Lodge trail that is located right next door.
Ben and I have done this trail before. It is a walk through the forest that ends with a nice view of Broken Bow Lake. It was a great trail to do since it provides lots of shade the entire hike.
Near the end of the four miles, the reward is a beautiful view of the lake.
When we were done with the hike, it was still too early to go to our room so we spent the afternoon on the patio of the lodge in the shade, enjoying a beautiful view of the lake.
The room had a Keurig and Community coffee which is what I drink at home. I was looking forward to coffee on the balcony the next morning!
Today was Memorial Day and our plan was to do our favorite 1.5 mile hike of the Friends Trail, get some breakfast, go to the lake, and then finish the day on the patio at the lodge.
Another wonderful hike of the Friends Trail!
Near the end of the loop, you get a partial view of the lake. It's not as good as the 4-mile hike but at least it's something!
After the hike, we decided to drive over to the Tiki Bar to have a cold drink and sit out on the bar's patio.
As always, I sat on the patio to enjoy my last Broken Bow morning.
Until next time!
It was too early to check in so after looking around, we walked across the road to the Lakeview Lodge trailhead. We thought this would be a great trail to walk off our pizza!
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| Happy hikers. |
At 4:00, we went up to our room to unpack. We had a balcony room with a great view, however, we decided next time, we would get a patio room which is cheaper and also would not have a railing to obstruct our view.
After a drink at the Tasting Room and a dinner of cheese fries at Mountain Fork Brewery, we went back to the lodge to relax for the rest of the evening.
Cheers to the weekend!
From our balcony, we saw some deer approach from the woods next to the lodge. We couldn't believe how close they were, and then realized that people were throwing food to the deer from their balconies.
We had some noisy neighbors so we decided to go down to the big patio in front of the lodge to relax. We sat there the rest of the evening and watched the deer show.
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| The deer were literally just a few feet from us. |
We set our alarms for 5:45 a.m. the next morning because I wanted to see the sunrise from our balcony. When the alarm went off, I wasn't sure I wanted to get up but I ended up being very glad I did, it was spectacular!
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| Clouds always make a sunrise or sunset more beautiful. |
We got to the Friends Loop right before 8:00 a.m. and like always, had the trail and the waterfall completely to ourselves!
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| Let's do this! |
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| Enjoying nature. |
We headed over to the Lookout Kitchen which is a restaurant in the park that had just opened Memorial Day weekend. It replaced a restaurant that closed down and Ben and I were happy to see a new restaurant take it's place, as the patio has a nice view.
We decided we needed another short hike to work off breakfast so I suggested we go back to the lodge and do the shorter 2-mile loop of the Lakeview Lodge trail. Ben thought that sounded good so that was the plan.
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| Nice and shady. |
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| Ben loves to pet the resident cat. |
Around 2:00, we drove over to our favorite spot at the lake, but it was very crowded since it was later in the afternoon -- we should have gotten there earlier but we did the hike instead. We decided we would rather just go sit on the patio at the lodge instead of being around crowds.
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| I took this picture just to show we went there. |
Since we were already in town, we decided to go over to Beavers Bend Brewery to split a hot dog from The Wienery food truck. We had one last year on Memorial Day weekend and I had been dreaming of one ever since!
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| Best hot dog ever! |
We decided to try the restaurant next door called The Eat Out. It's very popular and has great reviews .
We split a burger and fries but we did not love this place and have no plans to go back. It smelled greasy and there were flies in the restaurant since the concept is to be an indoor-outdoor venue. But that doesn't really work in a restaurant by a lake.
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| Our burger and frozen Ore Ida crinkle fries. |
It really made me miss one of Ben's famous Broken Bow burgers!
Back at the lodge, we made drinks in our room and took them down to the patio where we settled in for the rest of the evening. We had beautiful weather the whole weekend and could sit outside comfortably in the shade. We liked our balcony, but there was more breeze and a better view from the lodge's patio.
We sat on the patio for hours just talking and watching the boats on the lake. Ben made popcorn in the room and we ate it out on the patio for our dinner. Around 7:00 p.m., the deer came back.
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| Oh deer! |
It was a great end to our day!
We decided not to set the alarm for sunrise the next morning. Ben got up and peeked but decided to let me sleep when he saw the view.
By the time I got up and we went outside, we could see the sun just coming up over the horizon.
The deer were back for breakfast.
As we packed up to leave, we talked about what to do with our last morning. I wanted coffee from Hochatown Coffee on the way out of town but Ben said he wouldn't mind doing one more hike first. So we decided to do a short hike to a waterfall that we have done before.
We said goodbye to the lodge. The lodge was convenient since many of the places we like to go are located in the state park. We missed our grill and hot tub but for a summer trip, we would stay here again.
We got to the trailhead for our short .80 mile walk through the trees to the waterfall.
Like the last time we did this hike, the waterfall was a mere trickle.
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| There really is a waterfall in there somewhere. |
Oh well, it was still a fun hike to end our trip!
Then we went over to Hochatown Coffee for breakfast and coffee before we hit the road.
On the way to Broken Bow, I spotted a sign for homemade ice cream at a place called the Magic Scoop in Sulphur Springs. Ben said we could take a detour through Sulphur Springs on the way home. So we decided to take this alternate route and stop for ice cream.
We went through several tiny little towns on the way which is always fun.
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| Country road take me home. |
We ended up in downtown Sulphur Springs which was so cute!
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| The beautiful courthouse. |
We walked over to the Magic Scoop. They have a coffee bar with "Magic Coffee" which is coffee with ice cream! I am definitely getting that next time!
Homemade ice cream is always the best!
This was a fun little detour that I feel sure we will repeat on a future trip!
And then it was back home, another great trip to Broken Bow in the books. It was fun to get a hiking trip in while the weather was still nice. Will it be our last one this year? Stay tuned!
