If you’re a regular Family eGuide reader, you’ll know that last fall our family was invited to Chickasaw Country for a family visit. We had such a fabulous time, we decided to partner with them again!
Visit Chickasaw Country
Chickasaw Country is located in south-central Oklahoma. It includes Ardmore, Davis, Sulphur, Ada, and more! There’s a wide variety of things to do and see, from wildlife reserves such as The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park and Arbuckle Wilderness Park to Riding ATVs and exploring Turner Falls. There’s also LOTS of shopping!
Lodging
Depending on your preferences, you can stay at an upscale hotel, such as The Artesian, (where we stayed last time), camp in tents, or choose the perfect compromise… Rent a cabin! During this visit, we were fortunate to get a cabin right in Turner Falls Park!
If you’re familiar with Turner Falls, you might recognize this cabin. It’s inside of Turner Falls Park at the final place where you can park your vehicle before making a short walk to the falls.
Staying here offered an incredible opportunity. Not only were we able to go on a number of short hikes throughout the weekend, but being in the park after hours was REALLY fun. We felt like we had it all to ourselves:)
View photos INSIDE the cabin and learn more about our visit here.
Hiking Turner Falls
Throughout the weekend, we were able to go on several hikes. Turner falls offers a wide variety options from those that are relatively flat and wide, to some pretty intense climbs. But if you dare to make those climbs, you’ll be rewarded with some AMAZING views!
View photos of our Turner Falls Hikes HERE.
Dining
During our weekend, we enjoyed a variety of meals…
Friday evening Kerri’s Daugherty Diner offered some great home cooked meals.
Warning: The servings were HUGE!
Fortunately, our cabin had a refrigerator and microwave, so everyone was able to enjoy leftovers on Saturday:)
Breakfast on Saturday included freshly baked donuts at Donut Palace – Yum!
On Saturday afternoon, we were able to enjoy lunch at one of the many picnic tables in Turner Falls:)
Saturday evening included fine dining at Springs at The Artesian. If you’ll recall, we stayed at The Artesian during our last visit, so we were really looking forward to our meal – and it didn’t disappoint! The entire meal was scrumptious!!
We finished our indulgent food weekend with Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies on Sunday!
As you can see from the crowd, this is a local favorite!
Did you know you can get savory pies, too! Rave reviews for the bacon, egg, and cheese!
And they’re all made fresh, right here in the store:)
Fun Things to Do
In addition to lots of hiking and eating, we had fun attending a local festival and visited the Chickasaw Cultural Center.
Footloose Festival
“Celebrate the town that inspired the 1984 movie “Footloose” with a trip to Elmore City’s Footloose Festival. This event commemorates the famous 1980 prom that ended the ban on dancing and inspired the community to get up and dance.” This year, the day was full of rain, but that didn’t stop the festivities! Everything moved into the local high school and we were able to enjoy lots of great music and dancing, vendor booths, and more!
Chickasaw Cultural Center
One of our favorite activities of the weekend was visiting the Chickasaw Cultural Center. The Chickasaw Cultural Center offers demonstrations, cultural classes, hands-on activities, and more. It’s set on 109 acres, next to the Chickasaw National Recreation Center.
The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and the history is amazing.
There’s even a historically accurate 1750-era Chickasaw village with Chickasaws demonstrating the crafts and techniques from that time.
Learn more about Chickasaw Cultural Center and see LOTS more photos of our visit here.
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View posts from our previous visit:
Camping Lewisville