Our Beavers Bend State Park Trip!

We’re back from a long weekend from our much needed vacation!

Last year we went camping at Garner State Park, west of San Antonio. It was beautiful– tons of trees and hiking trails. We stayed in a tent and camped “for real”. I wasn’t a huge fan of tent camping, I’d much prefer to have access to a shower, a kitchen, and most importantly, a real bed. I love being in nature but I still like being clean and comfortable!

This year we decided to rent a cabin and visit Beavers Bend State Park, in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. My sister went last year with her boyfriend and she highly recommended it. 

We left our apartment around 6 am Friday morning, and drove about 3 hours to a ranch just outside Broken Bow, OK. Here we went horseback riding through the hills and trees. It was a little cloudy but perfect weather.

Here’s the view from the top of a hill on horseback:

Here’s Nick on his horse. It was only the two of us and our trail guide, so that made it extra special!

 Here’s me on my horse, Star. She was steady footed but slow. I had to keep nudging her to keep up with our trail guide.

Another pretty view from atop the hills. It was a little cloudy that day but we were glad it wasn’t too sunny. Our horseback riding tour was 3 hours long, and we got to cross a river several times! That was such a cool experience!

 

Next up, we drove to our cabin which was right inside the state park.

 

 Here’s our cute little cabin! It was a fantastic deal– only $150 a night and it included a wrap around deck, fully equipped kitchen, a grill, fire pit and my favorite part the hot tub!! It was SO useful after our horseback riding and kayaking to relax in the hot water.

 

 On Friday we hiked to the lake and sat on the rocks for a while. It was about a 4 mile hike there and back from our cabin.

On Saturday, we went on a TEN mile kayaking trip. It was cold (55 degrees) in the morning and warmed up to about 70 degrees by noon. We started the kayaking at 10:30am and it took us all day– until 5:00pm  when we finally reached the landing point.

There were quite a few stage 1 and 2 rapids that we went through. Our kayaks filled up with water a couple times and we had to pull over onto the bank and dump them out. We were pretty much drenched 30 minutes into the trip. 

Here’s Nick going over a “waterfall”! Our kayaks completely filled up with water after this big one. It was still so much fun though!

 

 When we reached the four mile landing around 1:00, we didn’t feel too tired and thought we could continue on. By mile eight our arms were cursing at us!

We saw a cow in the river, which was different.

 

 Here’s us, exhausted at the ten mile landing.  But we both agreed that it was totally worth it!

Triumphant!  

 

The views during the trip were so pretty– tons of trees, little hills with cabins tucked into them.  Overall it was very enjoyable! Minus the fact that our arms felt like jelly. We had to make a trip into town to buy Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Icy Hot cream. Nick said that perhaps we should have prepared months before hand by training our arms haha!

 On Sunday, it started raining so we left for Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma. We played slots, blackjack and poker. Nick walked away with a pretty sweet winning ($60) and I won $23 on slots.

We ate at the buffet, which I wasn’t too impressed with. The dessert bar was great though! 

 We stayed at the casino until Monday, and then we drove back home. 

It was a very relaxing four-day weekend! I really enjoy being out in nature, it’s so calming. It was tough to come back to work after such a fun trip!

 

 Have you ever been to Beavers Bend? What is your favorite camping/cabin nature getaway?