WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - MORE Storms! Hugo Lake COE in Oklahoma

Before I start this blog, I just wanted to give another shout out to our granddaughter Whitney. She is 10 years old and has been reading our blogs and watching our YouTube channel for this entire trip. I just get a hoot out of this email she sent me:

And she finished it up with a couple post scripts: 

What a silly little goose. Thank you so much Whitney!

Okay, back to the blog. When we last left you, we were exiting Pat Mayes Lake and searching for somewhere that we could get out of the path of some of these storms.  It just seemed like every other day there was a wave of huge horrendous thunderstorms coming across from the southwest. 

We managed to find our way into Hugo Lake, just over the Texas border into Oklahoma.  The actual name of the campground is Kiamichi,  and it's part of the Army Corps of Engineers system. It is normally $18 a night with electric and water, but with our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass, it's only $9 a night.

We reserved the campsite for seven nights in a row.  $63 for a whole week, some people pay that for just one night! But... now we wish we hadn't reserved for 7 nights. 

The park has a lot of beautiful nice level concrete campsites, each with a picnic table, fire pit and charcoal grill. Most of the part was shut down and only one loop in one area was open. But there were only two other campers in there, located way up at the beginning of the loop. Looks perfect!

Nick checked our site over while Steve was getting ready to back up the motorhome. It got the sniff test. He approved. There was a large grassy area where he could play with his fetch toyv while on the end of his 100 foot long orange rope.

Steve got us all backed in and set up into place. It's so easy and nice and level and perfect. We didn't see any piles of ant mounds anywhere, so we didn't even have to think about insect prevention like we did in some of the Southern areas.

We figured that if the winds came blasting in from the north we would be somewhat protected on the southern edge of this little peninsula.  (Or so we thought!!!)

As we looked up in the trees we noticed these big clumps of green leafy mounds. But the rest of the tree is not budded out or leafed out in any way. So I did a little Googling:

Mistletoe – Mistletoe is a common, native parasitic plant in Oklahoma, often appearing as green, bushy clumps in deciduous trees during winter. As Oklahoma's official state floral emblem, it grows by penetrating tree branches to steal water and nutrients. While it can weaken trees and make them susceptible to stress,7, 14}, healthy trees can often tolerate minor infestations. 

Key Facts About Mistletoe in Oklahoma

Appearance: Green, leathery-leaved, ball-shaped shrubs found in the canopy of trees, especially during winter when trees are dormant.

Native Status: It is native to Oklahoma, with species like Phoradendron tomentosum and Phoradendron leucarpum commonly found.

Host Trees: It affects various hardwood trees, including oaks, elms, and maples.

Spread: Birds, such as cedar waxwings, consume the sticky white berries and deposit seeds on other branches, spreading the parasite.

Impact on Trees: It is a parasitic plant that can weaken trees, reduce growth, and make them more susceptible to drought or disease. However, a healthy tree can often withstand small amounts.

Removal: Simply breaking it off usually results in regrowth. The only effective removal method is pruning the infected branch 1–2 feet below the mistletoe attachment point.

So it sounds like it's pretty darn hard to get rid of!

We did find some deadfall branches that were just laying in the middle of the loop. Steve hauled them over and we used our little electric chainsaw to cut them up. If the winds died down, we might be able to have a campfire! He piled them up underneath the motorhome to keep them out of any potential rain coming our way.

This sure was a pretty cute place, and a very peaceful campsite. There isn't a lot going on in this area of the state so early in the season. But I bet the middle of summer this is quite busy.

We spent two nights here, relaxing and not doing a lot. But the second night we had such a downpour of rain that the waters of the reservoir went up between two and three feet!  We could see it along the shorelines where the water was now overflowing the banks. We were up pretty high, but still, it makes you nervous. 

We thought all of the storms were done.

The sun was shining and we decided to set out upon a bike ride and explore the rest of the park. 

Most of it was gated off to vehicle traffic. But with the e-bikes we could pedal around the gates and go into areas that weren't even being used this time of year. We actually went into some areas that don't even look like they were used at all --- for a long long time.

Off we went, with little Nick in his cart. It's so peaceful to pedal along throughout the park, with the birds singing and the sun shining. We really enjoy the E bikes and getting exercise and fresh air.

We were all about 5 miles away from the camper when the wind started picking up.  That seems strange, the weather report said we were all done with the storms??  We were all the way out in the far top of the screen in the pic below. 

Suddenly the sky turned very dark and angry!!! It's like it almost happened within a minute. Things were churning around and storming and we could feel a heaviness in the air. We started pedaling back to our campsite as quick as we could go.

Whew! We made it back in time. But boy were we getting blasted by the wind. Steve was struggling to put away the bikes, and poor Nick was blowing away in the breeze at the end of his leash. I got him stowed into the motorhome and we secured everything else that could possibly have blown away.

Once we got inside, we fired up our Starlink and took a look at the radar. Oh boy, look what was coming tonight! We are the "Blue Dot". 

What should we do? We were pretty exposed out on this point. We had seen the rising Waters from the last rainfall overnight as well as big white caps coming in across the cold. The waves were splashing and the wind was blowing.

We were getting battered from the side and it was really tearing at our slide topper awnings. The whole motorhome was shaking in the wind.

So we decided the most prudent thing was to pull up stakes, pull in the slides, and head on to a more protected area. We found two other campgrounds around the same lake that were also part of the Corps of Engineer System. So we took off and headed to one to see if we could find a more sheltered campsite. 

We didn't do too well at that one, it was pretty wide open. So we drove on to another one up on the North side of the lake called Rattan Landing. There we were able to pull in and find a secure spot away from the worst of the storm before it hits.

 

I went online to try and transfer our reservation. It would not allow me to remove our reservation from the Kiamichi Park on Hugo Lake and change it to the Rattan Landing, even though they're all part of the same flowage.  Finally I called the help desk at Corp of Engineers through Recreation.gov. The lady there told me that unfortunately, the Kiamichi Park is run by vendors, and it's up to their discretion of their park manager whether or not to release us from our reservation. She did put in a request saying it was "weather related".  But she said we would have to wait until they contacted us back whether or not we could get a refund on our reservation. (They never did)

The problem is... In the meantime our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass number is tied up with that reservation for five more nights. That means we cannot use that discount pass on any other campsites for five nights. Bugger! So even though we were safe and sound at Rattan Landing, we had to pay full price. Oh well, at least we were safe!!

MEANWHILE,

 BACK IN WISCONSIN, 

WE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE!

Thisvis the You Tube video that goes along with this blog:

30 miles traveled today 

1,279 miles traveled so far