Turtle Bluff – The Setting

As a young lad, I was always very interested in “exploring.”  I would roam around the fields and pastures near my home and pretend that I was on great adventures, even if there were cows, farmers, and artificial ponds.  When I was first introduced to the area in the Kiamichi mountains known as Turtle Bluff, I was awestruck.  The area is about the closest thing that there is to true wilderness anywhere within a four hour drive of OKC, Tulsa, or Dallas. 

The campsite is perched on a limestone and granite bluff, overlooking a small river (a creek, according to the topo map) that comes in from the north, but bends to the west to follow the countours of the ground.  The bluff itself is about forty-five feet high an its highest spot.  The cliff extends into the river, providing a natural-rock dam over which the river flows in a series of descending rapids and a short waterfall into a sandy pool that provides a decent place to fish for perch, crappie, and small sand bass. 

To the west of the camp site, the ground slopes rapidly downward to provide a beach of crushed shale on the edge of the sandy pool mentioned above.  A steep trail leads from this beach to the campsite; this trail has been the site of no less than seven confirmed snake kills, four of which have been copperheads.  Needless to say, we all watch our step when going down for a brief swim.

The river not only collects run-off from the surrounding forest, but it is also spring fed.  Even in the hottest part of the summer, it is possible to find places where the water is cold as it emerges from the underground aquifer.  Turtles frequently sun themselves on the shoreline of the river, feasting upon the smaller fish that that spawn next to the shore line.  In fact, it is the prolific number of turtles that actually provide the name to our camp site – Turtle Bluff.  Most mornings, shortly after daybreak, you can see no less than five turtles throughout the span of the river.

The camp site is reached through a series of twists and turns on roads that barely deserve the name.  At several points in the journey, a lonely pair of ruts winds into the forest, with barely enough clearance for a full-sized pick-up.  At the final destination, you are twelve miles from a two-lane, paved highway.  That twelve miles is a transit time of nearly forty-five minutes.  Once you reach the highway, the nearest towns are twenty-five minutes in either direction. 

Wildlife abounds.  I personally have seen Coyote, wild Pig, Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Wolf, Rabbit, Squirrel, deer, Turkey, Crow, Quail, Dove, Water Moccasin, Copperhead, Rattlesnake, Bullsnake, skunk, opussum, beaver, and armadillo.  There is a multitude of sign for bear; some of the Oklahoma wildlife agencies are even saying that alligator is a possibility.

More to come…