Hiking The New Horizon Trail Up Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma

“That’s not a mountain, it’s a hill.”

How wrong we were!

Shae and I recently stayed in Altus, Oklahoma on our 50 state road trip and wanted to go hiking. We’d seen Quartz Mountain Nature Park was 20 minutes north of our hotel and that you can hike to the top of the mountain.

The route to the peak of Quartz Mountain is via the New Horizon trail. Parking at the trailhead can be found between the Nature Park’s office and convenience store on the left.

A sign by the parking lot provides a little more information about the trail. We’d stopped by the park office before that and they’d also given us the heads up that there could potentially be rattlesnakes on the trail, so to be careful where we stepped. Eek!

As we reached the bottom of the mountain, we crossed paths with a family who’d just hiked along the trail. We spent a few minutes chatting to them and they shared the New Horizon trail isn’t a specific trail. Instead, it’s more of a Choose Your Own Adventure type of trail where you find your own way up. The sign above had said there were trail blazes, but we didn’t notice any (although we’re apparently not great at following trail blazes anyway).

One of the family members said that in general, you need to head up to the left, then back up to the right to reach the summit. He also mentioned that he’s been hiking at Quartz Mountain Nature Park for many years and has only seen rattlesnakes a couple of times.

I couldn’t decide if it should put my mind at ease that he’d only seen them twice in all that time, or if I should be worried that he’d actually seen rattlesnakes there in the past! Either way, we decided to proceed up the mountain.

We’d brought along our small dog Truffles as she loves hiking. She’s hiked 7-8 miles before and up steep trails, so we figured the New Horizon trail wouldn’t be an issue.

There were a few problems with this though. The first was the potential for snakes. The second was that the trail had a lot of cactus plants along the way. Although they were small, Truffles is as well and we were worried the long spikes would poke her in the eye if she wasn’t careful.

The third issue was the steepness of the trail. There were times where her pawpads simply didn’t have enough grip to climb up. In the end, I had to carry her most of the way up and back down.

That wasn’t ideal as it meant I only had one free hand to help clamber over the rocks. As you can see in the photo below, the New Horizon trail isn’t very easy in areas where there are no footholds or handholds.

We paused about halfway up the mountain to take a look around. There are some beautiful views of the surrounding area and weren’t at all what we expected for scenery in Oklahoma.

After a few minutes, we continued climbing up the mountain. Larger boulders were a welcome sight at times as those were easier to maneuver over than the smoother rock faces, especially with Truffles in my arms.

I think we took a longer route up Quartz Mountain than necessary, but we finally reached the summit.

It was well worth the effort though as the views from the top of Lake Altus below were stunning.

Quartz Mountain’s summit is the perfect spot to pause and relax, so we stopped for lunch and enjoyed the views.  The day we visited was hot and sunny, but there was a lovely breeze all the way up that helped keep things cooler, with the wind even stronger (and thus even more refreshing) at the top.

Having eaten, we made our way back down the mountain. The family we’d spoken to on the way up said to expect the downhill journey to take about twice as long as the uphill journey. It ended up being the opposite for us – the journey down was much quicker, but I think that’s because we found a much quicker route. Part of the reason for that is that the incline at certain points was easier to traverse when heading down than it had been on the way up.

Shae and I were both hot at the end of the hike, so we headed over to Lake Altus to dip our feet in the water. Shae went one step further and went in for an actual quick swim.

Truffles isn’t the biggest fan of water, so she stayed on the beach chasing after her ball. Given that she didn’t end up doing much hiking, she still had loads of energy to expend.

From the beach, we gazed back up at Quartz Mountain, willing to grant its status as a mountain rather than a hill. It had certainly felt like a mountain while climbing it anyway!

Final Thoughts

The New Horizon trail up Quartz Mountain is only half a mile long, but it’s more difficult than expected. The effort was worth it though as there were beautiful views all the way up and at the summit.

If you go hiking up Quartz Mountain, be sure to wear hiking boots, bring plenty of water and be aware of cactus and possible snakes. If we went hiking there again, we’d likely leave Truffles at the hotel as it wasn’t a great trail for dogs.

Address

Quartz Mountain Nature Park, 43393 Scissortail Rd, Lone Wolf, OK 73655