The good, the bad, and the ugly about camping at Mountain Lake. Mostly good, but know what you are getting yourself in for and prepare accordingly.
My family wanted to visit Turner Falls, but didn’t want to pay the $60+ a night it would have cost us to stay at an overcrowded park. We stumbled upon the Mountain Lake location on the Oklahoma website and decided to check it out, and day trip out to the falls.
First thing worth noting is that getting there by GPS is a little confusing initially, although not bad once you’ve figured it out and been there once. The property is owned by the city of Ardmore, but is technically in Springer, which may throw you off when it changes the location after you put in the address from the website. It also claims you have reached your destination shortly after you turn on the last road, which is incorrect. You continue driving, in the middle of nowhere, for what seems like excessively long time. Just when you are about to give up, you’ll find it. If you look at the map on your GPS, note that you are going towards the big lake and that will help gauge distance.
When you get there, the camp site might be a little underwhelming at first. For us, there were no other campers there we got there, the “falls” from the pictures online were actually the backside of a dam, and the “office” is a small, homey shack that I almost felt invasive knocking on the door. We debated leaving, but decided to stay, and I’m really glad we did.
The secluded site actually ended up being quite a luxury. There were a number of people who drove through to go fishing, and a handful of families who came to play in the creek beds during the day, but it was really pretty nice to have some uninterrupted quiet time with my family. The waterfall from the dam provided a relaxing soundtrack at night and the creek provided clear (and cold!) water to take a quick dip, which was nice. The woman who runs it is really very friendly, and can help answer any questions you might have.
Things worth noting:
Bugs and Spiders. Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely expect bugs and spiders when camping; it’s part of the experience. However, we were pretty unprepared for the post-apocalyptic creatures we encountered on this trip. We had a battle with a reddish-brown tarantula on our first day, which was the first time any of us had seen a spider that large (roughly the side of my hand, roaming near our tent). I had some regret about killing it, but come to find out that those are the aggressive ones with “poisonous” hair that will numb you if you touch them. We also encountered a number of other large spiders, which unfortunately didn’t help keep the wasp population down. Bring wasp spray when you come, but not the cheap raid stuff… the wasps will just laugh at you! You need some high quality, bad for the environment toxins for these bad boys. They were large and fearless and seemingly immune to poison. Although we never actually got stung, we did end up spending a good portion of our second evening there in a tent just so we didn’t have to actively dodge these stinging devils. Also, the ants are pretty huge, but it was kind of an afterthought after the giant spiders and wasps. Even after dealing with all of this, it definitely wouldn’t be a deal breaker for returning, but we would come a bit better prepared and be a little bit more cautious.
There is firewood and ice for sale on site. The firewood is large and high quality at a better price than you’ll find anywhere else (it was 7 sticks for $10 at the time). Ice is a little pricey at $4 a bag and was frozen into a solid block; great for coolers, less ideal for drinks.
There are no showers on site, however there are port-a-potties, so you aren’t totally roughing it. We stayed on the opposite side of the creek from the facilities, which was nice to be more secluded, but it did mean that we either needed to wade the creek or drive over when my girls needed to use the restroom in the middle...
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