Red Rock Canyon

When I think about Oklahoma, I think about stretches of flat land. Red Rock Canyon is a surprise. It is all red sandstone that crumbles fairly easily so I can see how the canyon formed. Matter of fact, there are several areas where rappelling is allowed. The ropes have worn deep grooves at the top. I wonder what ceremony future archeologists will think happened here to form these grooves. Would they guess that people jumped down the canyon walls just for the fun of it? 

Plus there is a lot of graffiti carved into the stone walls.

There are quite a few good hiking trails. This one started with an interesting ‘stairs’.

The funny part is that there are two trees that are mentioned that you just have to see when visiting the park. One is the 3^rd largest burr oak in Oklahoma while the other is the largest box elder in the state. However, all that is left of the box elder is a stump. But it is a large stump! Oh, and you can see where there is roof damage on the building behind it. We’re assuming that it came down fairly recently though the wood looks fairly weathered.

On a side note, we’ve been having fun handling cold nights. John bought and cut more foil for windows which is helping.

The Fort Reno museum was closed but the local county museum was open (Canadian County). I love these local museums with local people donating items. The wording with the donators name is bigger than the description on many of items. But the really cool part is the stories that go along with everything. One picture showed a guy at the barbers with one big bushy eyebrow and a missing eyebrow. The story was that the guy decided to have the barber shave off his eyebrows. After one was shaved off, he changed his mind. He went home to his wife. Soon after he returned to the barbershop to have the other one removed after his wife sent him back.

I loved these old calling cards. It’s fun to imagine the proper ladies leaving calling cards after a visit with neighbors.

This collection of irons filled several other display cases. The story that goes this is that iron collection was put into the back of a truck to bring it to the museum. Unfortunately, the front of the truck lifted into the air with the weight.

These items were given to the donor’s dad back in 1910. The medal was from 1790 while the doll was made by Native Americans.

We met one of the donors. Her husband had donated lots of items including these bones with arrowheads still in them.

This stump of petrified wood was found by a local mining company at a depth of 40’ back in 1914. The museum had at least one picture showing the stump in the downtown in the 1930’s. The stump has been kept by the town for over 100 years and displayed in one form of another.