Read more: COLUMN: MeersBurger will put you in your place

With summer around the corner, it’s almost time to unwind and relax. If you are looking for somewhere close and cheap after finals week, check out the Wichita Mountains.

The Wichitas are located just northwest of Lawton on State Highway 49, about 10 miles west of Interstate 44 and 75 miles southwest of Norman, a little more than an hour drive.

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is a great place to connect with nature, and good food and scenic areas can be found in the areas surrounding the refuge.

The refuge contains several lakes for fishing and swimming, many hiking trails of varying difficulty and length, various rock climbing routes, several campsites and large free range herds of bison and longhorn cattle. Here, you can catch a chance to see prairie dogs and other flora and fauna.

The Visitor Center gives some background on the refuge and other features of the area. Mt. Scott, the second highest peak in the range, can be climbed up by hand or driven up by car. The refuge also contains the Holy City of the Wichitas, where a play based on Jesus Christ’s life is held every Easter weekend.

Near the refuge are two small towns of interest at two of the entrances to the refuge: Medicine Park at the east entrance and Meers at the north entrance.

Medicine Park was built in the early 1900s and is unique because since its founding, much of the town has been built primarily out of cobblestone. Medicine Creek, flowing from Lake Lawtonka, runs through the town and is a prominent swimming spot in the summer.

Overlooking Medicine Creek is Riverside Café, one of the two good restaurants worth dining at in the Wichitas, along with the Meers Store in Meers. Diners can eat out on the deck over the creek and throw bread out the window, where ducks below will scramble to get it. Also, Riverside Café makes a good steak.

Meers is one of the smallest towns in the United States, boasting a residential population of three, but their claim to fame is the Meers Store. Built in 1901 in Meers’s heyday as a mining town, the Meers Store has become renowned for its MeersBurger, a 7 inch diameter burger made from Longhorn beef. The MeersBurger is widely considered one of the best burgers in the United States, having won critical acclaim from Food Network and Travelocity.

I like the burger, although my server jokes I don’t order a real MeersBurger (I generally only prefer cheese and ketchup on my burgers.) When they brought my burger out, it looked more like a personal pan pizza due to its size.

The aesthetics of the Meers Store were even more appealing, still possessing much of the original building with some additions. There is a working seismograph inside, which has monitored seismic activity in the area and beyond since 1985. The building itself is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Most of the lodging in the area is down in Lawton itself, although I believe there are houses available for rent in Medicine Park on a weekly basis. Other sites in the area pertain more to the history of the area, notably clashes between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes in the late 19th century. Geronimo’s grave is located at the Fort Sill National Cemetery just outside of Elgin, northeast of Fort Sill and Lawton.

Various museums exist in the area for anyone who would be interested in the history and culture of the area, but the main appeals of the area are the various photo opportunities on the refuge. Miles and miles of the area can be seen from the mountains, and you can photograph animals in their natural habitats.

If you do come to the area, bring a camera. You’d make good use of it.

-A.J. Lansdale is a professional writing sophomore