THE GREAT PLAINS.
Day 168 – We were up at 8 a.m. this morning, and it was sunny & 33 degrees. We hung around a bit, then got ready to leave. The girls have gotten pretty used to this routine & are good about us taking them back to the bedroom for each trip.
252 miles
Sanford-Yake Campground, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, (806) 857-3151, P.O. Box 1460, Fritch, TX 79036, https://www.nps.gov/lamr/planyourvisit/camping.htm.
Sanford-Yake is one of many campgrounds in the Meredith Lake National Recreation Area in northwestern Texas. The Lake is surrounded by colorful cliffs, and the water is deep blue. These Recreation Area campgrounds are free & you can stay up to 14 days. There are no amenities, although some of the campgrounds do offer picnic tables & fire pits, and two of them have dump stations with water. We drove to most of the other campgrounds and found that Sanford-Yake is by far the best-suited for an RV. The site we chose was on a cliff in an area protected from the wind, overlooking the Lake. (The campsites were not numbered.) The sites were a good distance from each other & most had great views. Wind is often a problem in this location, though. It is first-come, first-served, no reservations. This time of year, it was no problem finding a site. There was a dump station and water was available, but there were no fittings on the ends of the hoses so we didn’t use the dump station nor did we get water. The campground was located close to the small town of Fritch which was convenient for gas and supplies. They are currently working on installing water & electric hook-ups at ten of the Sanford-Yake campsites, but I doubt that these sites will be free. We would stay here again.
We departed at 11 a.m. after discovering we couldn’t dump tanks or fill with fresh water. We’re okay though for another 2 or 3 nights. It was 41 degrees and sunny when we left. It was a long drive through a mostly-flat, empty landscape. We have entered The Great Plains. Our route, from Fritch, TX to Lawton, OK was: Highway 136N to Highway 207S to Interstate 40E to Route 83S to Route 62E to Route 115N. There weren’t many cities & traffic was light. The main agriculture appeared to be growing cotton. Less ranches and more farms. Occasional small western towns. We eventually left Texas, crossing into Oklahoma. Cotton fields continued; but there seemed to be more poverty, at least in this area of OK.
After stopping for gas & a lunch break at a nice park in Texas, we arrived at our campground at 4:15 p.m., 64 degrees & sunny, a little breezy. We picked site #36 at Doris Campground located in the Wichita Mountains National Refuge. Once again, hardly anyone is camping here & we have the place almost to ourselves, darnit. This campground has several loops, one for group camping, one for primitive camping, and one for tents or RV’s. Some of the campsites in this last loop offered electric & water hook-ups for $20 per night; minus 50% with senior discount (but there was a problem with the water and there were signs up saying the water should be boiled before using), and the rest of the campsites in this loop were without hook-ups. Our site offered no hook-ups ($10 per night; minus 50% with senior discount). The paved road going through the campground was so narrow that trees & bushes scraped the car & RV as we drove to look for a site. The pads at the campsites, though paved, were very narrow also, and most were barely able to fit our RV + tow car. The sites had plenty of trees around them and a good distance around most sites. Our site, and about 10 others, were very near the lake.
We unpacked and headed out to sit near the lake; the girls also liked it here. Quiet & peaceful. A group of five wild turkeys paid us a visit soon after we arrived. Canada geese were on the lake. The high today was 72 degrees. Nice. End of Week 24, Trip #3.
The local Turkey club came to greet us. Doris Campground, Wichita Mountains NWR, Lawton, OK