Wichita Mountains: Bison, Granite & Open Sky

Ninety miles southwest of Oklahoma City, the Wichita Mountains rise improbably from the Great Plains as a 60-million-year-old granite island — jagged boulders and rounded domes above tallgrass prairie, with free-roaming bison herds that outnumber the cattle around them. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge protects 59,000 acres and has maintained a bison herd since 1907 as part of the early American conservation movement; today roughly 650 bison share the refuge with Texas longhorns and elk. Mt. Scott, at 2,464 feet, is the only paved summit drive in the refuge and delivers panoramic views of the Oklahoma plains in every direction.