The face of the landscape shifted as we crossed the Oklahoma border, mountains sinking back into the earth and replaced by an ocean of meadow grass expanding in all directions. Humidity reappeared, becoming an ever-present house guest and creating a palpable contrast to the arid climate of New Mexico. The land flattened and the sun disappeared behind an impenetrable blanket of dull soiled cotton clouds. Storm pockets sprouted across the horizon sheeting rain like tentacles dangling from invading alien behemoths. Lightning lanced from the otherworldly creatures, clearly a laser weapon employed by our new cosmic overlords to further their reign of terror. We arrived in the town of Woodward before the monotony of driving in a straight line across open prairie propelled my wandering imagination further down the rabbit hole.

Boiling Springs State Park is one of the many recreational areas created across the nation by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Constructed between 1935 and 1939, Boiling Springs exhibits the fine craftsmanship found throughout the other CCC parks we’ve visited including solid stone structures and water features manufactured with local raw materials. Dolomite, the whitish-gray stone used in many of the buildings, was quarried southeast of Woodward. The parks in western Oklahoma were intentionally built in a Southwestern aesthetic and the use of native stone, rough-hewn timbers, and straight lines reflects the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style.

The park is situated amidst a semi-arid climate with sparse vegetation, making it a genuine oasis with the abundance of fresh water, lush plant life, and diverse wildlife. Spanish explorers with Coronado’s expedition are believed to have visited the area as early as 1541 on their fabled quest for the Seven Cities of Gold. General Thomas Jane established a fur trading post in 1823 near what is now Woodward, and Nathan Boone (son of Daniel Boone) explored the area in 1843. Pioneers flocked to the region during the land rush of 1893 as word of the prime farming and hunting location spread. The lake in what became Boiling Springs State Park was a favorite local swimming hole in the early 1900s as pioneers discovered the recreational potential of the area.

Today the park welcomes over 200,000 visitors annually offering two main camping areas, cabins, group camps, picnic facilities, a pool, and the five-acre lake. We apparently missed the rush, as we were the only people staying in the Springhill Campground upon arriving the day after Labor Day. We enjoyed a near-vacant park, with only a handful of other campers pulling in later in the week. The summer vacation season had clearly reached its artificial calendar-driven conclusion once again.

Water rising rapidly from underground streams creates the boiling springs effect for which the park is named. After the Western Interior Seaway receded in the hundred thousand years following the Cretaceous period (give or take a few), ancient rivers appeared during the Great Ice Age between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago. These rivers deposited sand, gravel, and clay from the Rocky Mountains in present-day Oklahoma. Much of the sand landed along the north banks of Oklahoma’s rivers, where the wind blew the grains into dunes and sand terraces.

Boiling Springs is located on one of these sandy terraces near the North Canadian River. Underground streams flow through the Permian limestone layer and forcefully bubble up through the soft sand covering the harder rock layers below. When these limestone layers approach the surface, cool clean water escapes creating natural pools throughout the state park. The constant influx of fresh water as it jets through the sand into existing pools creates the boiling effect captured in the following video.

Boiling Springs contains many of the same facilities found in what we consider a typical state park – campsites with electric and water hookups, showers (coin-operated in this case), lots of manicured picnic areas with pavilions, playgrounds, easy strolling trails, a dump station, and paved roads. The 20 individual sites in the Springhill Loop have long, mostly flat gravel parking areas. This campground closes in the winter, but the Whitetail Loop is open year-round. Whitetail features ten premium pull-through sites, nine water and electric sites, and 12 primitive tent sites.

With the exception of the boiling springs, this park could be any one of the wooded parks we visited back east last year as they all share overwhelmingly similar features. Lightly forested areas and manicured grassy spaces create a familiar but slightly generic appearance, and the humid, cloud-covered days evoke late summer on the East Coast. If you frequent state parks, you’ll likely find Boiling Springs to be an expected typical state park camping experience.

We had full cell service within the park, which was a welcome change from our time in northeastern New Mexico. While readily-available immediate access to the internet is certainly convenient, the temptation to frequently check social media or look up something not exactly pressing persists. By the fourth day of drizzling rain and overcast skies, I was ready to pack up and drive back to New Mexico just to see the sun. The persistent Oklahoma rain carried the bonus of added practice time on the mandolin, so I can’t complain about that.

It’s easy not to waste time mindlessly sifting through the internet when you have to make a conscious decision to locate WiFi or a cell signal. Spending time outdoors is never a chore when the sun is shining and the air is pleasant. As we transitioned into the “RV lifestyle” a few years ago, we made deliberate efforts to get outdoors as much as possible and improve our ability to adapt to various weather conditions. Over the past year we’ve consciously developed productive habits in place of traditional employment. Along with a dedication to improved nutrition, we’ve more recently tightened our focus on how we truly want to spend our days and what the next phase of our life together might become. Maintaining the healthy, fulfilling habits we developed over the summer will certainly take a bit of effort when the internet is always at hand and the weather isn’t exactly great, but undertaking self-imposed challenges carries the potential of lasting fulfillment.

Our time at Boiling Springs served as a reintroduction to the “active travel” part of our currently mobile lifestyle. We’ve found that we enjoy RV life the most when living seasonally in a specific region, rather than moving to a new location every few days (not to mention the slightly lessened environmental impact from driving fewer miles overall). We’re heading back to the Keys this winter while taking our time to get there over the next couple of months. As summer slips into fall, we too transition from our deliberate, introspective way of life in New Mexico to a more frenetic, unsettled mobile period. It doesn’t represent what we desire for sustainable, long-term living, but it serves to illustrate and illuminate what we might actually be seeking: finding a balance between productivity and recreation, exploration and growing roots, seeking new experiences while maintaining tradition – or somehow finding a way to blend those seemingly opposite concepts into one cohesive ideal. Maybe that in itself is the true journey.