Discover Oklahoma: Forest offers look at some of state's oldest living inhabitants

You’ve heard the expression “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” But when you look at the Keystone Ancient Forest, and you see the trees, you are looking at some of oldest living inhabitants in Oklahoma!

I find it fascinating that the oldest tree found in the Keystone Ancient Forest is over 500 years old. So, where else can you go to see something that was perhaps a seedling or a sapling, which happened to be alive the day Washington Irving passed underneath on horseback?

The Keystone Ancient Forest, which is managed by the city of Sand Springs and located along the shoreline of Keystone Lake, covers 1,360 acres, and that is a significant number. The reason is this is one of the largest intact Cross Timber Forests within 20 miles of Tulsa and just over an hour’s drive from Oklahoma City. You will not find giant redwoods there, but sturdy post oaks and cedars, hanging on for life on the rocky hillsides. And those are the remnants of the Cross Timbers, a wooded belt that straddled Oklahoma from Texas to Kansas for centuries. Most of the Cross Timbers has been lost to farming or development.

Many of you know Irving as the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” But, did you know in 1832, as part of a military expedition, he went into what was then Indian Territory? His group camped in the Cross Timbers near the site of the Keystone Ancient Forest. Apparently, the journey through the forest was not an easy one because the thick growth was an impediment to both man and beast. Irving wrote in his journal called “A Tour on the Prairies,” the struggle through “forests of cast iron.”

Now, those post oaks and eastern cedars are indeed quite tough, as tough as the rocky soil in which they grow. And they have survived centuries of fire and wind to seemingly lift their twisted limbs to the sky to challenge the passage of time.

The Keystone Ancient Forest was opened to exploration many years ago, after a project that included the city of Sand Springs, Osage County, The Oklahoma Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation was completed. They cut trails through the property for hiking and nature study. Hiking now in the preserve is on select Saturdays. No reservations are needed. The gates open at 8 a.m., but the trail guides will lock the gate at 2 p.m., and no pets are allowed on the trails. Portable restrooms are available on-site. You will find volunteers to help you, but if you choose, you may hike alone, or if there are enough volunteers, and you want some company, I promise it will be an informative hike.

Along the way, some of those volunteers can help you find scarlet tanagers and buntings and some of the migratory birds that use Oklahoma as their flyway in the summertime. So, yes, this is a place that is truly alive with those birds. And the property has deer, American eagles, bobcats and over 80 species of butterflies.

But on your hike through the Keystone Ancient Forest as you look for those birds, deer, American eagles and bobcats, pay attention to what many consider the real stars of this outdoor theater. And, that would be the trees of course.

This forest truly has a story to tell. And, we can look at what Oklahoma looked like over the centuries!

For more information on visiting and hiking the Keystone Ancient forest, go to http://sandspringsok.org/175/Keystone-Ancient-Forest. And to plan your to trip to the Sand Springs area, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department website, www.travelok.com, can certainly help!

Dino Lalli is the producer, co-host and one of the reporters for the weekly television travel show Discover Oklahoma.