One of the first places we decided to visit is not actually in Oklahoma. It's in Arkansas, and I'll be talking more about Crystal Bridges in a later blog. But on the way there, I saw the sign for Natural Springs Park and immediately requested (yelled?) for Dan to turn down the next road. I had been there, maybe thirty five years ago or so? I wanted to see it again and I wanted to show it to Dan.
Entering the park costs $5.00 a car and is well worth the price. You park and walk through a lovely park to get down to the falls. It's not a bad walk at all. Just walk through the entrance way gate and down a wooden walkway.
The sky was blue. The crickets were chirping. It was a beautiful day for August in Oklahoma.
First you come to a small trickling stream, but soon you realize you are hearing more than the stream. You are hearing the waterfall! But where is it? You walk a little further and find yourself on a concrete viewing deck, looking down into a cavern....with a waterfall...
Absolutely spectacular. It falls 77 feet down to a beautiful pool at the bottom. You can walk down to a kind of pebble beach, but we were told that you are not even supposed to touch the water because some rare salamander lives there. We couldn't confirm that online. I know that about 35 years ago, I did swim there, and floated under the waterfall. The waterfall reflected rainbows all around us. It was magical.
But that's one of those "Baby Boomer Moments." When the world was a little different. Not better, maybe, but different. I'll never do that again, like I won't climb Chichen Itza again. It's no longer allowed. I can see why. It was dangerous. But I'm glad we were able to do it.
So the moral of the story is....see what you can, where you are. Memories are precious. Make a lot of them!! And if you are in Oklahoma, Natural Falls State Park is a good place to start.
Here's the video we made of our visit:
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