I drove to the western portion of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge to scout the Charon’s Garden Wilderness area. In route I stopped at a small reservoir, Post Oak Lake.
Post Oak Lake is a small reservoir formed by a small dam across a tributary of Post Oak Creek.
There is a nearby military base and there were a couple of jet fighter aircrafts, practicing maneuvers, that periodically screamed overhead, breaking up the silence in this area.
I walked across the small dam, shooting the shot above from the dam. I believe the dam is leaking. A small stream of water was emanating from one side of the dam a few feet below the top of the dam. That stream was not from the dam overflow or controlled flow. I photographed the leak area, but the image detail is insufficient to illustrate the leakage. The leak does not appear to be sufficient to indicate an eminent dam failure.
From the lake area, I could see geological features in the distance that looked interesting and might be good subject matter for sunset photography.
I continued a short distance down the roadway, past Post Oak Lake, to the end of the road and the trailhead into Charon’s Garden Wilderness. It was a moderately hot afternoon and I wanted to travel lightly on this scouting expedition, so I did not take my heavy DSLR, but I did take a bottle of cold water, enough for a short hike in and out.
I did not spot much wildlife in this area. Other than a few lizards scampering around, I saw one or two squirrels or chipmunks, a few birds and a jackrabbit.
The most interesting wildlife that I spotted is the Eastern Collared Lizard, the Oklahoma State Lizard. It is fairly large and colorful.
I had to follow this one around to get close enough to shoot it with my iPhone. It hid beneath a rock overhang and peeked out just long enough for me to get the shot above.
Those vertical looking rocks, ahead on the trail, were my primary interest. I continued hiking in that direction, looking for potential places for sunset photography.
I hiked leisurely for about a half an hour, stopping to shoot iPhone shots to document my progress. Most of those shots were of little interest and are not included here.
The trail is not always as apparent as that in the photo above. It crosses solid rock areas and goes through some intermittent wooded areas.
I soon came to Post Oak Creek and Treasure Lake. I eventually gave up my hike, after determining that the substantial creek would probably block my access to those interesting feature in the background. In any case, hiking in for sunset photography would require hiking out along a not always easy to follow route in the dark, so I ruled out this area for sunset photos today. I later learned from my campsite host, that the rangers did not like for hikers to be in this area in the dark, presumably due to the increased danger of night time hiking and the potential of becoming disoriented in darkness. I carry a GPS device that allows me to mark my route, still there are dangers of tripping and falling along portions of a trail at anytime and especially in the dark of night.
More scouting in the granite mountains next,
Ken