Name: West Loop
Rating: 3.3

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Family Friendly It's in a State Park with a small nature trail, small beach area, camping, RV sites, and the trail is great to hike. There are docks for easy fishing and plenty of places for the kids to play.

Need to Know

The closest town with amenities is 7 miles so you should come prepared with food, drinks, etc. There are restrooms and showers near the RV park. This trail is rocky and very hardy. It can get a little sloppy in a few areas, but overall it holds up very well to the crazy OK conditions.

Description

The West Loop is five miles of granite rock trail. You begin at the trailhead near the boat ramp shown on the map. You can hike this loop in either direction.

Counter-clockwise (as shown): Hit the trail at the trailhead sign just a few feet southeast of the old restroom building. Within a few hundred feet you'll come to a "Y" with signage. STAY RIGHT! The left is a short warm-up loop that we will open soon and I'll get it added on the map later.

You'll navigate a variety of cool sections that will require some careful footing. There will be many climbs that will get your heart rate up.

At the three-mile mark, you'll come to a particularly challenging climb. Upon dropping down into and crossing a small grassy area you'll take a right directly up a rocky chute that leads to a rocky shelf. Past this part there is a slight left and you continue up the rock face for 100 feet or so.

You'll finish the climb right after that onto some huge granite boulders. I recommend at this point you continue east for a few feet onto and through some large granite slabs. This is one of my favorite vistas. I often just sit there and soak in the view of the lake and nature all around.

*This vista area is also the top of a linkage trail that takes you directly up and down the mountain from the main parking lot area. Once we get this opened, we'll get this trail added to the map as well. This is a fun little up and down hike to test your skills and also for the great view.

You'll now finish up several fun little areas. Eventually, you'll come to the middle Connector leading to the East Loop. However, for this West Loop, you skip that and take a left and curl around onto a rock slab and prepare for a one-mile finish back to the trailhead.