What to Expect:  The landscape in this loop exhibits an intricate pattern of mixed-grass plains and oak grassland intermingled with the dominant mesquite grassland plains.  Here within the open canopy of the short and extremely thorny mesquite trees can be found the Verdin, the only bird restricted to mesquite grasslands.  The mesquite seed pods are consumed by many species of wildlife including thirteen-lined ground squirrel, kangaroo rat, scaled quail and ladder-backed woodpecker.  This area in southwest Oklahoma is drained by the Red River and its tributaries which have such high salinity content that only two species of fish are present:  Red River pupfish and plains killifish.  Most of the landscape appears as gently rolling plains but in the northeast part of the Loop, the western arm of the Wichita Mountains rises spectacularly above the plain in what appears to be squared boulders stacked upon one another.  These mountains may be considered short (1500 to 2000 feet above the plain) but they are 250 million years old which makes this mountain range one of the oldest in the United States – not to mention extremely fun to explore!

Special Note:  Be aware that cellular phone signal availability is limited within this Loop.  Gas stations are available in Altus, Mangum, Hobart, Granite, Willow and Blair