Turner Falls

Honey Creek drops about twenty-one metres over a travertine face into a natural pool, and the pool is the point - the park is run by the town of Davis primarily as a swimming destination, and in summer the basin fills with people. The Arbuckle Mountains around it are among the oldest exposed rock in the region, worn down from a range that once stood far higher. There are two caves on the property, one of them a rock house built in the 1930s that visitors can walk into, and several smaller swimming areas along the creek. Flow varies hard with rainfall: after storms the falls run heavily and the park closes for flooding, and in a dry August they can thin considerably.

What you actually see

• A fall of about twenty-one metres - the tallest in Oklahoma.
• A natural swimming basin - the reason most people come.
• A 1930s castle-like rock house - built into the hillside.
• Very old worn-down mountains - the Arbuckles around it.

When to go

May to September for swimming. A full day.

Honest expectations

It is a municipal swimming park, crowded and loud in summer. Flooding closes it after heavy rain, sometimes at short notice. Late summer flow can be thin. Rocks around the pool are slippery and injuries are common.

Nearby

Chickasaw National Recreation Area is south; Davis is at the exit.