Salt Palins National Wildlife Refuge is divided into three main sections. The Great Salt Plains Reservoir, salt flats, and natural woodland. It's a very interesting area and worth a stop if you're in Oklahoma.
We camped in Great Salt Plains State Park, which was in the reservoir section of the refuge. Our campsite was right along the river. We were hoping to see the sandhill and whooping cranes that migrate to the area in the fall, but we were a little too early for them. However, we were treated to throngs of white pelicans instead. There were hundreds of them.
In addition to the pelicans, there were egrets and herons, too!
The 11,000 acre salt flat was the big WOW factor in the refuge! White as far as the eye can see. See the map above for detailed information about this salt flat.
A unique feature of this salt flat is the existence of selenite crystals with hour-glass shaped sand incased in them. There's an unpaved road that you can drive along to get to a designated "digging" area to search for crystals.
The administrators divide the flats into seven sections. Each year, one section is opened for digging. Rotating to a different section each year allows the dug up section to renew itself and for new crystals to form.
We spent an afternoon digging and found a bagful of crystals. The process is very messy.
Once they're out of the ground, you rinse them off and allow them to dry and harden.
Here's the final product. They come in all sizes. These are very small, but the hour-glass shape formed nicely.
The third section of the refuge is the woodland area. We took a walk on one of the paths and drove through it, but didn't see much. It's most active during spring migration when the ponds are filled with water. This is the extent of our wildlife observation that afternoon....an armadillo, a deer, and a box turtle.
No comments:
Post a Comment