Quartz Mountain State Park

The Wichita Mountains, of which Quartz Mountain is a western outlier, are among the oldest mountain ranges in North America, their granite forged roughly 500 million years ago and their peaks worn down over eons that predate the dinosaurs. What you see today are the resistant roots of a once-taller range, scoured by hundreds of millions of years of weather into rounded domes and boulder-strewn slopes.

The rock is largely granite and related igneous stone, not quartz, though veins of quartz and other minerals thread through it. The bare, reddish surfaces heat and cool, crack and flake, and shed the boulders that pile at the mountains' feet. Set against the flat farmland around it, this old rock landscape feels like an island of the deep past.

Lake Altus-Lugert was created when a dam went up on the North Fork of the Red River, drowning the old town of Lugert and giving the park its centerpiece of water. The reservoir supplies irrigation and drinking water for the region and offers boating, swimming, and fishing for bass, crappie, and catfish beneath the granite peaks.

The park's most surprising feature is cultural. The Quartz Mountain Arts and Conference Center hosts the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, a program that gathers talented young artists and nationally known instructors for intensive sessions in music, theater, dance, and visual arts, all set against this wild backdrop. The pairing of rugged granite and the arts gives Quartz Mountain a character unlike any other Oklahoma park.

The mixed grassland and rock of the park supports the wildlife of the Wichita Mountains region. White-tailed deer move through the draws, and the skies hold hawks, vultures, and, at the water, herons, egrets, and migrating waterfowl. Roadrunners dart across the trails, and the granite is home to lizards and, in warm months, rattlesnakes that hikers should respect.

The vegetation is a tough, dry-country mix. Prickly pear cactus, little bluestem grass, and scrub oak grow in the thin soil among the rocks, and in a wet spring the slopes flush with wildflowers. Along the lakeshore, cottonwoods and willows give shade and shelter to birds and small mammals in an otherwise open landscape.

Spring is the finest time, when the air is mild, wildflowers color the slopes, and the lake is full from winter rains. Fall is nearly as good, with cool, clear days ideal for hiking the granite and long golden light on the rock. Both shoulder seasons bring the best conditions for scrambling and the fewest crowds.

Summer is hot, and the exposed granite can become punishing by midday, so hikers head out at dawn and the lake becomes the main draw for swimming and boating. Winter is quiet and often mild, with crisp days good for walking, though cold snaps and wind sweep in off the open plains.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.