“I vastly prefer western Oklahoma to eastern,” I told everyone in the car. “I was raised in western Oklahoma and, to me, it’s the most beautiful place on Earth. But I haven’t seen a lot of what’s there. I’ve seen all the cool stuff in eastern Oklahoma – the Heavener Runestone, the Spiro Mounds, the Talimena Drive – but there are so many points of interest just a quick drive from where I grew up that I’ve never got to see.”

That’s why the Great Oklahoma Road Trip 2008 started off in western Oklahoma. Jayson and Laurie came along with Brian and me yesterday afternoon. We’d planned to visit the Alabaster Caverns, but we didn’t leave town until after 1 p.m., and since the last Caverns tour starts at 4, we didn’t have time to make it. Instead I suggested we visit the Glass Mountain State Park and Little Sahara, neither of which would close before we got there.

So Brian and I cleaned out my car – threw out all the trash, got out the ShopVac (we own a ShopVac and you should too) and swept it out, making it generally a pleasant place to ride for almost 6 hours. Then we set out on our voyage, making very sure not to use interstates (we will try to keep this rule in force throughout the summer and the Great Oklahoma Road Trip).

As is customary with any road trip, at least one or two unplanned stops were mandated. Our first came north of Kingfisher, when we crossed the Cimarron River and were greeted with a great place to turn off the road and walk down by the water:

All of this had been directly in the path of some very, very serious thunderstorms – and really powerful tornadoes – on Saturday, so the river was really moving:

There also was some pretty impressive graffiti down there:

We continued on our way, passing through Hennessey, which was near the worst of Saturday’s tornado damage, and Enid, one of Oklahoma’s larger towns that I’d never been to. From there we went due west until we found ourselves at the Glass Mountain area, which was even more impressive than I’d expected:

The name “Glass Mountains” comes from the selenite crystals that lie on the ground and in the rock walls; when the sun shines the whole mountain seems to sparkle a bit, though this is difficult to capture on film. There’s a hiking trail up to the top; Jayson, Brian and I hoofed it up there. The hike was pretty easy and the view at the top was killer.

There was some great wildlife up top, as well. Jaye, who has the eyes of a hawk, spotted all of it, including this guy, who was skittish but who bravely posed for several pictures for me:

And as we prepared to walk back, Jaye caught sight of another not-so-little guy who really, really didn’t want his photograph taken:

He slithered away pretty quickly. He wasn’t poisonous; just a harmless little bull snake. Come to think of it, he was probably headed for that lizard.

The Glass Mountains also had my favorite flowers in abundance, the State Wildflower of Oklahoma, the Indian Paintbrush:

After we hiked back down it was time to take off to Little Sahara, which was only about 30 miles away. You see photos and footage of Little Sahara all over Oklahoma Tourism information, but none of us had ever been there. What we didn’t realize is that Little Sahara? Not made for pedestrian traffic. You pretty much need a dune buggy or an ATV:

They were fun to watch, though; it was like that last scene in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or something. They gamely let us walk out into the dunes, provided we stay the hell away from the path of the vehicles. We watched and photographed for awhile, but the sand was hard to walk on, and the buggies and the wind kept kicking dust into our eyes. When we got back to the car it was time to empty the sand out of our shoes:

We realized, too, that the people who own and regularly ride dune buggies and ATVs at Little Sahara comprise an entire Oklahoma subculture of which we were all previously unaware. These people had Winnebagos and huge trailers to haul their vehicles in, and they’ve spent Memorial Day weekend kicking it at Little Sahara, riding their buggies out on the dunes, and, from the looks of it, partying like mad at night. It really did almost seem like some kind of apocalyptic, funzo scene. It was mad, and looked like great fun, though we so clearly didn’t fit in. We drove around the edges of the dunes, trying to find some kind of vantage point or pedestrian area, but there was none. We drove around Waynoka for a few minutes – a small, small town whose economy is clearly built around the dunes – and then decided to head home.

All in all, I’d have to say I much prefered the Glass Mountains, if only for the ease of access and complete lack of sand in my teeth.

In Watonga, on the way back, we ate at a fantastic little Mexican place. The food was excellent and the Dos Equis was cold, though the service did leave something to be desired. I blame that just as much on the crackerjack staff as I do the fact that we wandered in 30 minutes before closing:

Watonga’s home to a cheese factory, among other things, and the cheese they make is delicious, though difficult to eat, if, like so many Western Oklahoma children, you were forced to tour the factory in the third grade. I’ve since blocked out those memories, mostly, and the Watonga Cheese Enchiladas were fantastic and filling. Too bad the service lacked that whole serving quality; those sopapillas looked really good, and we’d have ordered them if someone had come by and asked us if we needed anything else. Ah, well. Still, a great trip, and a wonderful way to kick off this summer of exploration of my great home state. This week’s Daily Photo category will feature some more images from this trip.