Saturday, November 3, 2012

The Panhandle

I was born, raised, and have always lived in Oklahoma, but there are many parts of it I've never seen.  One such spot is the panhandle of Oklahoma. Several months ago we were asked to minister at a church in Colorado Springs on October 28th, and we began making plans on where to stay. As it takes about 9.5 hours to get there, we decided to stop off in the Panhandle for the night & make the trip in two days instead of one.  We booked rooms at the Black Mesa Bed & Breakfast, right at the foot of Black Mesa (the highest point in Oklahoma at about 4,973 feet above sea level).
     And so, last week we headed off. We arrived after driving through veritable desolation - nothing for miles around but scrub-brush & open prairie.... and the occasional house & barn.  Truly it was dubbed No Man's Land for a reason.  Our hosts (Monty Joe & Vickey) were so great & put us up in style. (Wonderful breakfast the next morning too!)  After a short rest & putting our bags into our rooms, some of us headed out for a hike up a nearby mesa. Black Mesa itself was too long of a hike, so we contented ourselves with another.






    The guys made it to the top first - it took us a bit longer as we were helping Amelia make it.


     We did take pictures from the top with Laura's camera - maybe I will post those tomorrow. The sky was so gorgeous that afternoon - such a brilliant blue with the puffy white clouds. We had a blast taking pictures. I love these next few I took of the trees. I really don't get into scenic photography much, but tried my hand at it here and was pleased.



     After making it back down, we headed back to the B&B, but Laura & I took the longer way around & took more pictures.  I got these two of her - she's a little hard to spot in the second one.



That night we slept well.  The beds were soft & we were exhausted! We had heard that the stars are gorgeous there as there are no city lights ANYwhere around to diminish their numbers, but the moon was nearly full and it made for poor star-gazing.  Maybe another time.

No comments:

Post a Comment