Spring Break Conclusion – Atoka Resevoir and Fort Smith National Historic Site

April 21, 2019 P-TParaD Comments 0 Comment

We’ve made it to the conclusion of a four-post arc of our Spring Break Trip (catch up on Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3). In this post we take on 14 hours on the road, take Patty the Trailer dry camping for the first time, and visit Fort Smith National Historic Site on our way back to Kansas City.

15 March 2019 – San Antonio to Atoka Resevoir, Oklahoma

We woke up early at the San Antonio / Alamo KOA to hitch up and get on the road. Fortunately we did a lot of prep work the night before so we didn’t have much to do other than hitch up and dump.

When things get stuck and we were in a hurry to get on the road, you improvise. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the bench top comes off.

The drive north was not noteworthy. We arrived at Atoka Reservoir around 5:00 pm. We had some trouble finding the dry camping spot advertised on Campendium and on the tourism website. However, after getting some directions we found what we were looking for.

We made camp, the kids played at the nearby playground, and we started dinner. The views on the reservoir were great. We had fun stargazing and trying our hand at some night photography.

Unfortunately, through the night there was a ton of noise. Trains passed 2-3 times an hour, a lot of noise from the highway, and a few joy riders ripping around the rural roads and the boat ramp didn’t enable a great night’s sleep. Though our first dry camping experience wasn’t the best, it’s certainly not going to be our last.

The moon wasn’t helping our view of the stars. Good first attempt. I guess we’ll just have to go camping again to get a better shot.

16 March 2019 – Atoka Reservoir to Home with a stop at Fort Smith National Historic Site

We woke in the morning to a beautiful sunrise, but some tired parents that didn’t sleep too much through the noise. After a quick breakfast and hitching back up, we jumped back on the road for another 7 hours on the road. Fortunately, we had a nice planned break to stop at Fort Smith National Historic Site to break up the grind.

The former Federal Courthouse and jail and now Visitor Center at Fort Smith

We arrived around 11:00 am when we arrived at Fort Smith National Historic Site. The visitor center is quite extensive and really the highlight of the site. I knew very little about Fort Smith (we learned it was part of a network of forts built to maintain the boundaries of Indian Territory on our trip to Fort Scott NHS). The Fort actually had a big hand in the frontier in the years it was active.

Through the years Fort Smith served as a supply depot for Western Forts, it was a stop on the Overland Butterfield Trail, and it’s final role was a Federal Court and jail. Seeing the preserved jail cells and understanding how our criminal justice system was in the 1800s was quite a lesson for the kids. The amount of infamous prisoners that poured through the Fort is astounding. One in particular, Wyatt Earp, was a surprise. Before he was the hero of Dodge City, Earp was a cattle thief that escaped from Fort Smith. There were so many fascinating facts like this throughout the site.

A NPS volunteer was doting on the kids and let them sit in the judge’s seat in the court room.

After exploring through this amazing history, we headed back to Patty the Trailer to grab some lunch and finish Junior Ranger Books. The kids requested grilled cheese again and parents happily obliged. After lunch, the kids got their badges and we made the rest of the trip back to home.

Conclusion

What a great trip. I hoped you enjoyed reading along through our journey. In the end, we traveled over 1700 miles, the kids earned 5 Junior Ranger Badges, Patty earned her stripes for Oklahoma and Texas, and we made a lot of memories as a family. Our trips are never long enough, but this gave us a lot of places to come back to someday. The kids have really taken to camper life and I can’t wait to share our next journey with you soon.