When you think of “Oklahoma,” what comes to your mind? A big waterfall, swimming hole, abandoned castle, campgrounds, hiking, and a cave? Yah that’s not what came to my mind either… until we visited! I was very surprised and impressed when we found this gem in a middle-of-nowhere state.
The drive from Dallas to Turner falls is just under two hours. The first time we went, we were still hitting “winter hours”, so it was cheaper and less crowded, but we couldn’t swim or see the castle because the roads were under construction. I was determined to go back on a sunny day when the full park would be open. My family came to town in May, and I’m so glad we found time to drive up together.
We left Dallas around 10 a.m. and arrived at the park around noon. We did not buy our tickets online ahead of time, because we went on a weekday before school got out. If you go over the summer, I highly suggest buying your tickets online ahead of time in order to guarantee your entrance into the park. They only let so many people in each day.
The first thing we did when we got to Turner falls was “hike” to the cave. I put hike in quotation marks, because the hike is probably 1/4 mile. Our first trip to Turner Falls Park, my two year old boy was so scared to crawl into the cave. I basically had to drag him through. After he did it once though, he wanted to do it again and again. This time around, Owen crawled right in, then had to tell everyone how brave he was and how fun the cave is. We even caught him on camera coaxing my dad into the cave! “C’mon grandpa, just be brave like me!” Adorable.
To get to the cave, you drive over the low water crossings and drive up the hill (away from the main parking lot and waterfall). Park in the top parking lot by all the campgrounds. The trail starts with stairs. The trail then forks and will lead you to one of the two cave entrances. Each direction is only about a quarter mile, so you can’t get too lost. If you want to get in the cave via the small entrance (which I think is more exciting), you’ll need to keep heading down until you find a second set of stairs. Go down those stairs and start crawling under the rocks. When you first see it, it’s hard to believe you can crawl in this little hole to find yourself in a big cave, but it’s not that scary- I promise, just ask my two year old!
After our trip to the cave, we drove down to the lower parking lot (which is different than the blue hole parking lot at the entrance.) From there, we started walking to the waterfall. I would guess that the walk from the car to the waterfall is about 1/3 of a mile. Along the way, you’ll see dirty stairs and abandoned buildings up on the hills to your right. You can climb up these stairs and explore! The first building is pretty gross- filled with trash and graffiti. The next building is much cooler! It’s a castle! In Oklahoma! You can read the official history there, but from what I remember, someone in the early 1900’s wanted a castle in Oklahoma as their summer home. They replicated an English castle, and now it’s abandoned but you can still explore it. Watch out for spiders!
We spent some time playing around the castle, using my brother’s drone to take pictures, and striking fun yoga poses. Then we headed to the waterfall.
Coming from Utah, the swimming hole at the bottom of the waterfall seemed pretty warm! Ok… it wasn’t warm, but it definitely wasn’t that freezing cold spring run-off water I am used to! We sunscreened up, put Owen’s life jacket on, took more pictures, then swam! What a fun and beautiful place! Owen hit another excited milestone here! Before this waterfall swim, he was too scared to swim by himself, even with his life-jacket on. I think all the encouragement from my family helped him out because he was swimming back and forth from aunts and uncles the whole time!
Around 3:00 we were feeling pretty worn out, so we set up our picnic spot. We brought a cooler with food and drinks, and hammocks for relaxing. I’m glad we brought what we did, but I wish we would have brought a blanket to lay on, a table cloth, and some camping chairs.
We eventually got our second wind and headed over to the blue hole. In my opinion, this area was the most fun, so I’m glad we saved it for last. The Blue Hole is the swimming area you see right as you enter the park. There is a diving board, and two water slides. My family had a lot of fun doing tricks off the diving board and throwing our frisbee around.
Spending time here really gave me that taste of nature I crave while living in Dallas. This place is perfect if you are looking for a quick day trip and change of scenery. I love that it’s close enough for us to not have to stay the night!
Tips: Buy passes ahead of time, bring food and picnic supplies, bring life-jackets if you have kids!
