Black Mesa State Park & Nature Preserve
Oklahoma State Park And Nature Preserve; State High Point At 4,973 Feet; Dark Sky Park · Kenton, Oklahoma
The far north-western corner of the Oklahoma Panhandle, where a lava-capped mesa rising from the Cimarron valley holds the state's highest point at 4,973 feet. The basalt flowed here from a volcano in New Mexico about thirty million years ago, and the hard cap has protected the mesa while the softer land around it eroded away. The marked summit trail runs 4.2 miles each way, 8.4 miles round trip: about three level miles of shortgrass prairie with almost no shade, then a steady climb of roughly 800 feet up the mesa face, with a shade structure about halfway up and a granite marker on the flat top. The park rangers ask visitors to allow at least four hours. The state park itself lies about fifteen miles away on 349-acre Lake Carl Etling, with campsites, two boat ramps and showers. Both are free, and the park is a designated dark-sky park.
11546 North Lake Road (state park); summit trailhead on County Road 325 near Kenton, Kenton, Oklahoma, 73946, United States
Black Mesa State Park open daily, year-round, free, with dark-sky quiet hours 11 PM-7 AM. The Black Mesa Nature Preserve and its summit trail are open dawn to dusk only, with no camping inside the preserve (check travelok.com or call 580-665-8396).
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