Spring in Broken Bow

Ben and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Broken Bow when we saw a sale where we could get the third night of our cabin for free.  Free is always good and the weather was beautiful so we decided to take advantage!

Let's hit the road!

Crossing the Red River into Oklahoma!

We decided to deviate from our tradition of Grateful Head Pizza on arrival and instead went to Naaman's Barbeque, a place we had tried last year and wanted to visit again.  We sat outside and enjoyed some yummy BBQ!

YUM!

After lunch, we drove to Broken Bow lake to enjoy the nice weather until it was time to head to the cabin.  Everything was green and blooming and it made for a beautiful drive.

Ben got some great shots of some geese by the shore.  We saw alot of wildlife on this trip, so he got to brush up on his wildlife photography skills!

I wanted to take a little walk so we headed over to Beavers Bend Lodge so that we could take a short walk down to the lake.

The water looked so inviting, I couldn't resist dipping my feet in!

We sat at the lodge until it was time to go to the meat market to get our vittles for the week!

Then it was time to head to our cabin.  We chose a new cabin on 2.5 acres a little further outside of Hochatown than we usually stay.  The trade-off for this seclusion meant driving several miles of unpaved road to get there!

We passed some curious horses on the way in.

Beautiful scenery on the way to the cabin.

We finally made it to our cabin, Collins Creek.

Our poor Mazda got so dirty on the way in!

The cabin was really nice and spacious and is one of my favorites we've stayed in as far as layout and decor.

The cabin was surrounded by trees and had a view from every window.

Ben and I didn't even use the porch with the fireplace, we spent all of our time right here!

The cabin had a little trail down to a creek that we decided to check out.  

The creek really didn't look like much and we're pretty sure we saw some poison oak on the trail so we didn't go any further!

Not worth poison oak.

After unpacking, it was time to hit the porch!

Wine o'clock.

Ben spotted some deer at the creek and zoomed in for some pictures.  We thought we might see deer every night but this was the only deer we saw anywhere the whole trip.

Ben grilled hot dogs for dinner. I was still full from lunch but I couldn't pass up a grilled hot dog so I took one for the team!

I did not even open these chips.

Then it was hot tub time!

Monday was another day of beautiful weather so we planned to do everything we wanted to do in Hochatown since the next day was going to be rainy. The plan was to hike the Friends Loop, have pizza at Grateful Head and then sit by the lake.  This sounded great to me!

We started with coffee and pastries at our favorite coffee shop in Hochatown.

Then it was over to the Friends Loop, our favorite hike in Broken Bow. The last time we did this hike was in February of last year.

Ben and I hadn't done a hike since hiking in Maine in October.  It felt great to be back to be on the trail again and we had it completely to ourselves.

I always take a picture at the place Ben aptly named "Weak Creek."

The wildflowers were beginning to bloom!

The first waterfall was really roaring after the recent rains.

Continuing down the trail...

Made it to the river!

We wanted to take a selfie, but needed to test the lighting first.

Lighting test!

Back at the parking lot, we decided to head down a path that was adjacent to the official trailhead.  

This short path led to another section of the river.  We decided this would be a nice trail to do sometime when we don't feel like doing the whole 1.5 mile loop.  We could even bring chairs and sit by the river.

We weren't quite ready for pizza yet, so we dropped by Choctaw Landing on our way out for a quick video poker session!

No big wins today.

We went to the front desk and found out that Mon.-Thurs., you can buy a day pass to the resort pool.  We were tempted to do it, but we didn't want to drive all the way back to the cabin for our bathing suits!  But good to know for future visits.

So we decided to stick to our plan of pizza and the lake.

After lunch, we headed over to our favorite location on the lake, the Eagle Point Dayuse Area.  There was a family camped out at our favorite spot, so we set up on the other side.  

Ben and I discussed whether we would be able to swim to the little island across the way.

While sitting at the lake, we heard the unmistakable sounds of a bald eagle and realized there was a bald eagle in the tree on the island right in front of us!

The Tiki tour boat arrived and we suspected that once the boat came around near the tree, the eagle would fly away.  And we were right!

Later dudes.

Ben got a video!

We pointed the boat captain over towards the snag tree where the eagle landed so they got a good look.

Then he was off again!

It was thrilling to see a bald eagle so close!  We ended up being very happy that we hadn't gotten our usual spot!

We had a few more visitors.

Ben is quite the bird photographer!

It was another great day at the lake! Back at the cabin, it was wine-thirty!

Lake hair, don't care.

Ben ate a leftover hot dog for dinner and then we hit the hot tub before bed.  The next day was our last day and we knew it was going to rain all day.  So we settled in for a long day of relaxation.

Coffee just tastes better on the porch.

The rain eventually chased us off the porch so we came inside.

It was chilly enough to use the fireplace.

Toasty.

Ben grilled his famous hamburgers for lunch!

I got the table ready for our feast.

This is always my favorite meal in Broken Bow!

Sooooo good!

We tried to sit out on the porch briefly but the weather had other ideas.

So we had a cup of decaf by the fire.

We looked around to see if the cabin had any games and found a jigsaw puzzle

Success!

Ben had a snack.

He spotted more wildlife outside.

We eventually made the switch to adult beverages.

By the time it stopped raining, we decided we didn't want to get in the hot tub so we ate our leftover pizza and went to bed.

We were able to spend our last morning out on the porch before packing up.

I need coffee.

While Ben was loading the car, he spotted this little guy out on the front porch.  We are 99% sure it's a brown recluse spider.  I'm sure glad we didn't see him until the end of the trip!

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to our cabin and head home.  

#Lake Life

We talked about whether we would stay in this cabin location again.  We did love the seclusion and the peace and quiet that comes with it.  But it was further from town which made every trip slow going down unpaved roads.  But we were glad we tried it and had a great time as always!

Since our cabin was in a different area, we took a slightly different route home.  We had more dirt roads and a one lane bridge crossing.

Take me home country road.

Ben was really wishing for the highway about now.

We said goodbye to Oklahoma...

...and hello to Texas, another great Broken Bow trip in the books!

Our next trip will be this summer with Ben's parents to Yellowstone National Park. Time to plan the next vacation!