Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / Oklahoma / Eastern Oklahoma

Robbers Cave State Park Backpacking Loop

Robbers Cave State Park, San Bois Mountains (north of Wilburton)

Robbers Cave State Park, in the San Bois Mountains of eastern Oklahoma, is named for a sandstone cave where, as Wikipedia tells it, outlaws including Belle Starr and Jesse James found shelter after the Civil War. Its trail system links the park’s lakes, and hikers can string the trails into an overnight loop of about 11.5 miles with hike-in campsites.

Backpacker described the park’s loop in 2013 as one that “explores Jesse James’s old hideout then links gurgling streams and quiet ponds in the rugged folds of the San Bois Mountains.”

The hike

OuachitaMaps, whose guide was published in March 2026, lays out a “Mega Loop” of about 11.5 miles that starts and ends at the Robbers Cave parking lot, using the Multi-use Trail east of Highway 2 and the hiking trails west of it. TrailGroove, in 2024, describes the same idea: the Mountain Trail, about 4.8 miles from Deep Ford Campground along the western shores of Lake Carlton and Lake Wayne Wallace, joined to the Rough Canyon Trail by the multi-use trail.

The crux, OuachitaMaps says, is the Deep Ford low-water dam over Fourche Maline Creek: if you can’t cross it, the trip doesn’t work. The multi-use trail is the hardest part to follow, with intermittent tread and yellow-blazed horse trails that cross and overlap the hiking trails. Wikipedia says the Civilian Conservation Corps and WPA built Lake Carlton in 1937.

Past Lake Carlton, the Mountain Trail climbs about 200 feet up a bluff. TrailGroove warns that “the main trail goes above the bluffs, not below,” since a spur toward the bluffs is easy to mistake for the route. A 300-foot climb leads to the ridge above Lake Wayne Wallace, and the Rocky Top campsite comes at about mile 7.4 in OuachitaMaps’ count.

The loop then passes Cattail Pond on its way to the Lost Lake campsite at about mile 10.3, which TrailGroove says has a rock dam and a stone structure. The Rough Canyon Trail finishes at the cave parking lot. The cave itself is a short, steep climb, and TrailGroove describes narrow rock passages below it that resemble slot canyons.

OuachitaMaps notes that the park has many pipeline traces and old access roads, which add to the route-finding. Spring brings dogwood and redbud blooms, according to the guide’s author.

For a longer trip in the Ouachitas to the southeast, see the Ouachita Trail from Talimena State Park.

Tips

Camping

TravelOK says all backcountry camping requires a permit from the park office. It lists Rocky Top, on the northern edge of Lake Wayne Wallace, as hike-in only, reached on a half-mile lakeside hike from Eagles Nest Campground, a three-mile hike on the Buzzard’s Roost Trail, or by boat from the Lake Wayne Wallace ramp, and Lost Lake as a 1.25-mile hike in on the Rough Canyon Trail. It also describes Coon Creek campground, a 3/4-mile hike from the park office, and Quarry Campground, just over a one-mile hike from what TravelOK calls Deep Fork Campground, near an old CCC rock quarry. OuachitaMaps says to register at the Cabin Office, on the east side of Highway 2 about 2.5 miles south of the cave lot, and pick your campsite there. It describes Rocky Top as having a large sign, a fire ring, and flat tent areas, and lists five water options there, from caching off Ash Creek Road to treating water from Lake Wayne Wallace.

Inside Intel: OuachitaMaps’ author found the clearest natural water at a seep-fed creek about 50 feet south of Rocky Top, though he wasn’t sure it’s reliable, and describes Lost Lake as larger than Rocky Top, open, and overlooking a small lake.

Trail facts

The Lowdown

Crossing Fourche Maline at Deep Ford:

OuachitaMaps says the crux of this 11.5-mile loop is the Deep Ford low-water dam over Fourche Maline Creek: if you can't cross it, the trip doesn't work. Learn how to judge a crossing.

Get the five tips →

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.