Red Rock Canyon State Park, located near Hinton in Caddo County, Oklahoma, was a favored winter camp for the Plains Indians. It was also landmark and camping area on the California Road. Settlers going west used this sandstone canyon for collection of fresh water and wagon repairs. On the west side of the canyon, along the California Road Trail, you still can see the wagon ruts. The canyon and the surrounding land were owned by Samuel Handley until his early death during the Depression/Dust Bowl. His widow sold the canyon and the rest of the lands and moved her family to California. The canyon has the only remaining site of native Caddo maple trees.
Located in west central Oklahoma, the park and campsites are located in the canyon among the canyon walls. In addition to RV and tent camping, the park offers picnic areas, nature trails, a small fishing pond, and playground equipment. The canyon walls are a favorite for rappelling and open exploration. In season, the park operates a swimming pool with bathhouse and adjacent food concession and the group camp, which offers overnight sleeping in bunkhouses, and a kitchen/dining hall for meals or meetings. Group picnic shelters are also available. The park and surrounding area has good opportunities for fall foliage viewing.
Famous quotes containing the words red, rock, canyon, state and/or park:
“If you don’t begin to be a revolutionist at the age of twenty, then at fifty you will be a most impossible old fossil. If you are a red revolutionary at the age of twenty, you have some chance of being up-to-date when you are forty!”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Margaret: Some people have life made for them.
Frank: That’s right, Mrs. Hammond, and some people make it for themselves. It’s about time you took that ton of rock off your shoulders.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)
“In a world that holds books and babies and canyon trails, why should one condemn oneself to live day-in, day-out with people one does not like, and sell oneself to chaperone and correct them?”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
““Hear me,” he said to the white commander. “I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. Our chiefs are dead; the little children are freezing. My people have no blankets, no food. From where the sun stands, I will fight no more forever.””
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?”
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)