Travel

Broken Bow, Oklahoma Part I

Tree Trail | beavers bend state park

Last week Aaron and I took a short getaway to Broken Bow, Oklahoma to celebrate our five year anniversary. Neither of us had ever been, but I’ve heard so many good things. Since the puppies are still so young, we needed somewhere we could drive – and somewhere that was pet friendly. We decided on Broken Bow because we love the outdoors, it was just about a six-hour drive from Houston, and we found a pet-friendly cabin.

golden retrievers

Where to stay in Broken Bow

Broken Bow has tons of cabins – ranging from small to ultra luxury – that you can rent. I went through airbnb, but now that we’ve been, and I was able to look at some of the rental companies, I have a few in mind that I use when we go back. We stayed in the “Nature’s Hideaway” cabin. I chose this cabin because the reviews said it was close to all of the sights, it was pet-friendly, it had a hot tub – and it sat on about an acre of land.

nature's hideaway | broken bow
The cabin did have a fire pit, but we opted not to use this time around.
nature's hideaway | broken bow
A little creek flowed behind the cabin.

Here’s a video of the deck! You could see deer in the woods from the deck every morning.

It was a nice cabin and had all of the amenities, but no coffee maker is ever as good as my Nespresso machine 🙂 It had one bedroom, a fireplace, a deck all the way around the house and a washer and dryer. Because we knew we were going to be doing outdoor activities, the washer and dryer came in handy. It was nice to be able to throw all of our dirty clothes in before we left, so we didn’t have to do a ton of laundry when we got back into Houston.

The drive to Broken Bow

We left Thursday morning after rush hour in Houston, and it took us exactly six hours to get there. I drove, and we stopped at Lufkin, which was nearly the halfway point for lunch – and so we could let the dogs out to stretch their legs. It’s a pretty straight shot from Houston, and it’s a pretty drive.

Day 1

It was around 5 p.m. by the time we made it to our cabin. And, by the time we unloaded, it was time to go eat. There are tons of restaurants along the main highway leading into Broken Bow and Hochatown. And, we saw a pizza place called the Grateful Head that we knew we wanted to try.

I like trying craft beer, and this place had some local brew on tap. They were pretty crowded, so Aaron and I saw at the bar, had a couple of beverages while we waited for our food. They were short staffed, but the bartender took care of us and we didn’t have to wait long at all.

We opted to carry out so we could eat and relax at the cabin. I’m so used to all of the light pollution in Houston, that is was kind of shocking how dark it gets at night. You can see all the stars, which was really neat.

Day 2: Beaver’s Bend State Park

broken bow lake

We knew that we wanted to do some hiking while we were in Broken Bow. Beaver’s Bend State park, which surrounds Broken Bow Lake. If hiking isn’t your thing, you’ll still have to make your way to Beaver’s Bend State Park because there are lots of activities that start there. You can go horseback riding, visit the Nature Museum, eat at the Foggy Bottom Restaurant, go swimming in the swimming hole and even rent paddleboats.

beaver's bend state park

All of the activities looked great, but we were reserving our third day for water activities. We wanted to go hiking. Now you might be asking yourself if I’m crazy to go hiking in Oklahoma in August. And, the answer is no. The weather is not nearly as humid as Houston, and the weather was capped out at about 90 degrees that day. The trails were shaded, and we were prepared with plenty of water and sunscreen. The weather felt fine to us, but if you are coming from somewhere cooler, I might save the hiking for early morning before it gets too hot.

Tree Trail | beavers bend state park

We started off at the Beaver Creek Trail, which was just across from the nature center. It followed the little creek. If you take the trail up, it leads you to the Tree Trail, where you pop out at the heritage center. We took the Tree Trail back down, followed Beaver Creek Trail – and made our way to Lookout Trail. The hike was just over three miles roundtrip. It was mostly easy, except for a portion in the middle where you go through some rocky terrain – and up a bit of a gradual hill.

Beavers bend state park
beaver's bend state park

It was a beautiful hike, and we saw some deer on our way back to the car, which we parked at the Nature Center.

broken bow lake

Mountain Fork Brewery – Hochatown

On our way back to the cabin after our hike, we drove the route around Broken Bow Lake and stopped off at some scenic points. The lake was super clear – and not crowded at all. Next time, we want to rent a boat!

mountain fork brewery

That night, we headed into Hochatown, which was right up the mountain from our cabin (you can call the hochatown shuttle to pick you up if you want, but we opted to drive) to Mountain Fork Brewery. We tried some of their beer at dinner the night before, and the brewery was very close to our cabin.

mountain fork brewery

The food was delish. I ordered the Hochaweizen beer, with an orange, and a cheeseburger. We had toasted ravioli for appetizers (shout out to our St. Louis friends).

broken bow Oklahoma

We ended our evening back at the cabin and in the hot tub. I’m not going to lie – sometimes, hot tubs creep me out, but our airbnb host said they drain and refill for each new guest. The water looked clean, and I couldn’t think of a better way to enjoy the bottle of wine that we brought!

I’ll be back for part II of our trip to Broken Bow tomorrow. It involves the adventure portion of our trip with some Class II rapids.

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