Keystone Ancient Forest

I almost hate giving a relatively low rating to this place, as it is definitely an asset to the community where it’s located. My husband and I caught wind of Keystone Ancient Forest online and since we make pretty regular visits to the Tulsa area we thought it would be a great place to check out. Unfortunately, it is volunteer staffed and only open for hiking on certain days. At some times of the year, it’s only open one or two days per month if at all. In the Fall it seems to be open more, though only on Saturdays from 8 – 2 at the time of my writing (Nov 2015). When we arrived, we met friendly volunteer guides and signage indicating two trails, easy and moderate. For us, even the moderate trail was extremely easy though it was a lot of fun and a comfortable 2.6 miles long. The landscape was unremarkable to be completely honest. It’s just woods and a few rocky areas overlooking Keystone Lake. We did not really know what to expect, and perhaps we were imagining some of the grandeur and wonder of National Parks we frequently visit. But that was our error. Anyway, I would not go out of my way to visit here unless I was already in the area for some other reason. The Frank Trail which is considered moderate, was well marked. They supposedly have a Wilson Trail that is more difficult, and it is described on their website but when we were actually at the park it had been scraped off a lot of the maps and we only found mentions of it «coming soon». While we would likely investigate this further and return to complete a more challenging trail, I was a little disappointed especially given the very sporadic availability of these hiking areas. We visit many superior parks and trails in this part of the country that are open dawn to dusk every day of the year, so Keystone Ancient Forest is a bit of a puzzle to us in that way. They don’t have a visitor center or anything like that, and porta-​potties are the only «facility» on site. It is clean and well kept, and the easiest trail is just over ½ mile and completely paved so it would be somewhat accessible even for small children or those with limitations in their mobility (though maybe not wheelchairs, in my opinion).