For hundreds of years, or at least, ever since Ed and I got married, we've been making a twice-annual trip up through Oklahoma. His parents live in the northwest corner of Arkansas and the quickest way to get to their house is to go north on US-75 which becomes US-69 and then runs into I-40 East bound. At Alma, Arkansas, we head directly north into the Ozark Mountains. We typically go to see them twice a year, sometimes more often and recently much less. (Corona virus)
And for all those years, we've been driving across Lake Eufala. Multiple times, because the road crosses it at two or three places. Each time we've wondered what it would be to camp and fish in such a big, beautiful lake. Therefore the purpose of this trip: to find out.
There was a hideous amount of road construction on US-69 north through Oklahoma. It seemed like more than half of the time we were squeezing along barrels or walls or inching through tiny lanes without any shoulder. It didn't seem to slow us down one bit, but then this was a Tuesday, in the afternoon between twelve and three.
For the most of the drive, I keep thinking of my lost girl. I'd taken this drive with her, many times as a family, but only once with just the two of us. She kept me entertained the whole way with music on her laptop and conversation, plus one serious discussion about the route. For fun I asked her which way to turn when we got to the highway 16 intersection. She was sure it was left; I knew it was right but let her stew over the decision for a while. Only when we got to St. Paul did she admit that I had been right, after all. I never got to make the trip with her driving, but that's no matter. There are enough sad memories in the one trip to last me the rest of my life.
Later, in the night, the grating of cicadas reminded me of home long ago and I wondered what my mom and dad would have thought of this place. I know they'd have loved it, and I equally know that Dad would have a line in the water as soon as we arrived, if his arthritis had permitted it. It would have been indescribably great to have them.
Anyway, back to the trip. You could easily tell when we weren't in Texas anymore--the trees became a whole lot bigger and the land around the lake was bumpy in the distance--not the ironing board flat of Texas lakes, but a suggestion of hills. We ended up a little north of the Ouachita Mountains around MacAlester, but we were far enough east to be within spitting range of the Ozarks. I think. (Will check it later)
We'd hardly been parked long enough to catch our breaths when a brilliant red bird hopped in and around the cottonwood (sycamore?) tree by our campsite. My reflex brain said cardinal and looked away, but my birdwatching brain looked back. It wasn't the tiniest little bit a cardinal--it was a Summer Tanager!!! Haven't seen one of those in a long while.
There was an assortment of little birds by the water, and a trio of bluebirds appeared to be taking a bath--in the lake. That's a new one on me. One extremely annoying little sparrow-like bird totally eluded my eye. but those sightings showed me easily--it's a splendid place for birds! I might finally see a Hairy Woodpecker. And maybe it's late enough in the year for a migrating warbler or two.
As to the campsite, I DEFINITELY need to write a review on campgroundreviews.com. The only one they had was very negative--they wrote of foot-high grasses, lack of signage and poorly marked campsites, and inconvenient water hookups. Here's what I will say:
There are two camping areas--one great; one horrible. They're about a half mile apart on a public highway.
The first one, sites 1 through 62, is gorgeous. There are several loops, all cleared, mowed, and weeded under big, shady trees. Most sites have water views and some are right on the water. Plenty of space all around; extremely clean and tidy. There's even a volleyball net, small soccer field, and horseshoe pits. The boat ramp is small but adequate; courtesy dock close by. Bathrooms are old but clean. Very quiet and peaceful.
Some of the the asphalt is showing its age with breaks at the edges and a few scary dips like the one on the driveway to our site. But we took it slowly and had no problem. Sites are all different lengths and there isn't a huge amount of extra parking. Our site, and many others, was very unlevel front to back. We were able to level our 32-foot RV using a couple of chunks of 4x8 board we carry along, but without that we'd have been tilty.
Some sites have 30-amp and some 50; that and the site lengths are clearly stated on the reservation page.
A couple of sites have their own water hookup (ours did) but you might need a little extra hose, 15' for ours. But most sites share water with one or two neighbors. Apparently that's normal in Oklahoma COE parks, so bring a splitter. The reservation page does not tell that.
The other camping area, sites 63 through 75, was newer--covered picnic tables, 50-amp, private water hookups--but it was boring and flat with only a few small trees. The RV sites were too close together and angled such that most had no view other than their neighbor's trailer. They did have covered picnic tables and most had their own water hookup. If you want a place to go have a party with twenty of your friends on a Friday night, you'll be happy here. Several people ignored all the empty, convenient parking spots and left their trucks on the road. Luckily no one was playing loud music except our immediate neighbors--it could have been worse. But it was still noisy and unpleasant.
Cure for the "very unlevel front to back" issue:
Birding for the rest of the day turned up a decent list, but not as great as I'd hoped. I saw: Summer Tanager, White-breasted Nuthatch, Great Egret, Great Blue, Ring-billed gulls, Eastern Bluebirds, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed woodpecker, and Osprey.
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