A "Grand" experience

I love exploring!  Here are some beautiful views of Grand Lake that tourists don't often get to see.  This is up on the north end of the lake heading past Elk River and towards the Sycamore Creek area.  It's called Blue Bluffs.  

We could hear them hear them before we could see them!  Geese on a fly by. But you know what I think is curious?? Look above goose #1's head.  Above the tree line.  

It's a cell tower!  Out here in the middle of nowhere!  

Hello beautiful!

I can't wait to go back when the pelicans get here.  Should be another couple of weeks!

Look at this cedar tree.  Growing on a cliff straight out of the rocks and hanging upside down.  How amazing is that?  I wonder how old it is?  To think of all the things this tree has gone through... ice storms, blizzards, Oklahoma winds during storms... yet there it hangs.  

This tree was at the top of the cliff and I thought it was beautiful.

All that's left of another tree

These cliffs are called Blue Bluffs.  And I learned that they are really great catfish holes.  Especially when the water is up.  Our lake level is low right now and so you can see all the places that normally sit just under the water.  

Joe was demonstrating how Zen this area is.  Haha!  He's going to be mad at me!

Have you ever heard of Okie noodling?  Where you stick your arm in a catfish hole and let the fish bite your hand (or arm) and grab it and pull it out??  Well, here is a place that a person could "noodle".  I have seen people do this but I would NEVER even imagine doing it myself.  I'd end up catching a snake or a beaver instead of a catfish.  Or the fish would drown me.

The water level on our lake has risen many many times and has flooded.  You can see where the water has eroded the rock here on the river bed.  I was nervous about going up under these outcroppings....

For good reason! 

But did it anyway to get a better view

This is Oklahoma folks!  Who knew?  

We are in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and it is beautiful here.