# What's there to do in Enid, Oklahoma? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878 "2014-05-21T00:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/1 "2014-05-21T00:27:21Z")
A friend of ours is flying out to visit her sweetie, who is stationed at Vance AFB. They have a few days to do day trips and the like. So I throw it out to our Oklahoma Dopers: What the fuck is there to do in or around Enid? I’ll take any recs - restaurants, scenery, events over Memorial Day weekend, anything. Help out a friend. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![stw004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stw004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stw004)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/2 "2014-05-21T02:08:36Z")
I’ve spent a good amount of time in the area for work, unfortunately there’s not much in the way of entertainment. Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge isn’t too far away, during the right season you can catch a glimpse of a few migrating Whooping Cranes there. Gloss Mountain State Park is also nearby, it’s worth about 10 minutes. Sorry, but that’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/3 "2014-05-21T07:47:20Z")
Yeah, Enid is kinda in the middle of not much excitement. If your friends like caves, [Alabaster Caverns State Park](http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.110) is about an hour and a half drive west and a bit north of Enid. It’s the largest gypsum cave open to the public in the world. The trip to the caverns takes you up on the Blaine Escarpment - also known as the [Glass Mountains](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Mountains), or Gloss Mts. as **stw004** said. On the west side of the Great Salt Plains Refuge, you can dig for [selenite](http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.3204) ([gypsum](http://www.fws.gov/refuge/salt_plains/)) crystals. The crystals are just beneath the (salt-covered) surface - not much digging is required. ETA: If you stop at the little pullout on Hwy 412 at Glass Mountain State Park, you can find very transparent pieces of gypsum lying around. Watch out for rattlesnakes there. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/4 "2014-05-21T14:32:34Z")
That’s kinda what I thought. OK, let’s expand the question. What’s there to do in Oklahoma City or Tulsa? Maybe I can sell them on just heading away from base for the weekend. Any good restaurants? Plays? Hootenannies? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/5 "2014-05-21T15:05:39Z")
The Tulsa zoo is a pretty good one if they like that kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/6 "2014-05-21T20:20:16Z")
OKC has the [National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cowboy_%26_Western_Heritage_Museum). It also has an excellent zoo close by that museum at Remington Park. There’s a track at RP as well - don’t know what the horse-racing schedule is, though. I haven’t eaten in OKC for quite a while. There’s [Cattleman’s](http://www.urbanspoon.com/m/r/46/500243) south of downtown - well-known steakhouse. Used to be a lot of good Vietnamese/Thai/similar places west of downtown along 23rd Street. Of course, OKC also has the [Oklahoma City National Memorial](http://m.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org). It’s downtown and is a stirring and inspirational place to visit. IMO, Tulsa is bit too far to drive for the reward level upon arrival. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/7 "2014-05-22T22:24:21Z")
Since it sounds like kind of a dull place, try walking around town with a copy of John Grisham’s “The Innocent Man” and see if anyone raises an eye 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/8 "2014-05-22T23:21:04Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > Since it sounds like kind of a dull place, try walking around town with a copy of John Grisham’s “The Innocent Man” and see if anyone raises an eye 😉 Excitement is in the eye of the beholder. I always liked driving through Oklahoma but you have to make most of your own entertainment. Restaurants and bars in some of the smaller towns can be a hoot. Most of it is fascinatingly flat which gets old after a while but is kind of surreal for a day or two. It is also in the heart of tornado alley. Don’t complain too loudly that the place is boring with nothing to do because that is what makes god darken the skies in a hellish fury and turn the blender on. Nobody ever claimed they had a boring day after seeing an Oklahoma thunderstorm let alone a close encounter with a tornado. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/9 "2014-05-22T23:53:53Z")
She can go to Tulsa & become the reverse of the order of the letters in the city name. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/10 "2014-05-23T00:20:35Z")
According to its city anthem: “You’re right in the center where the best wheat grows And you’ve got your share of the oil that flows” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/11 "2014-05-23T00:37:34Z")
There is high speed internet and a low crime rate, but there isn’t a model railstore store. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/12 "2014-05-23T01:02:13Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That’s kinda what I thought. > > OK, let’s expand the question. What’s there to do in Oklahoma City or Tulsa? Maybe I can sell them on just heading away from base for the weekend. Any good restaurants? Plays? Hootenannies? I don’t know if it’s still the same, but back when I was traveling through there regularly, there weren’t any bars in OK City. There were all sorts of BYOB places where you had to take your own after picking it up at a package store. Bars were outlawed. Maybe it was that way in the whole damn state! Might want to check into that. You could go to church in Tulsa. It attracts all sorts of fringes. I heard an old high-school friend of mine in Texas ended up there, founded some sort of End of Times church. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/13 "2014-05-23T07:11:37Z")
Liquor by the wink has been gone for quite a few years now. Normal quantities and varieties of alcohol, wine and beer available in all bars, restaurants, etc. The Hanson brothers (_M-m-m-bop_) just last Saturday sponsored a hop festival in downtown Tulsa. Apparently they’ve started their own microbrewery. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/14 "2014-05-23T15:23:27Z")
If in Enid, you’re are about an hour and half away from OKC and maybe two away from Tulsa. It’s going to be really rainy this weekend, too. You could always visit some small towns like Hennessy, Okeene, or Pawnee. Check out the thrift stores and garage sales. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/15 "2014-05-23T15:30:45Z")
If you end up in OKC, go to [Ted’s](http://www.tedscafe.com/) Some of the best salsa in the oklatex region, and a pretty good med price lunch menu. Dinners cost between $12 - $24, lunches as low as $7 or so. Besides the regular TexMex fare, they have some specialty dishes that are very tasty. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/16 "2014-05-23T15:49:15Z")
Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater is restaurant with a reputation and I don’t remember why. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve been, but it was one of those “we have to go there” places. ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/17 "2014-05-23T17:24:58Z")
If you go to Tulsa, you have to go to Ron’s Hamburgers and Chili, if only to get [this](http://burgersdogspizza.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ron3png.png). Yes, it looks nasty, but it’s the sausage chili cheeseburger. You won’t need to eat for a week. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > You could go to church in Tulsa. It attracts all sorts of fringes. I heard an old high-school friend of mine in Texas ended up there, founded some sort of End of Times church. What’s the name of the church? I have a few guesses in mind… ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/18 "2014-05-23T19:45:59Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater is restaurant with a reputation and I don’t remember why. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve been, but it was one of those “we have to go there” places. Like Hideaway Pizza, it was one of the “cool” places to go in the 80s-early 90s for both students (OSU) and tourists. Esk Joe’s has karaoke, good wings, and a souvenir shop that rivals Disney World. Their t-shirts are even sold in local stores at the malls in OKC and Tulsa. Probably in Lawton, Altus, Ardmore, and McAllister too. I think they have a liquor license, too (I remember seeing drunk people). Hide Away Pizza has sites throughout the state now, and that is some good pizza. Not NY, not Chicago, but a nice mix. The Big Country pizza is a meaty heart attack! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/19 "2014-05-23T19:48:23Z")
[Buy your clothes at Eskimo Joe’s](http://eskimojoes.com/) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878/20 "2014-05-23T19:49:50Z")
[Hideaway Pizza](http://www.hideawaypizza.com/) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-there-to-do-in-enid-oklahoma/688878.md?page=2)