Surprising Landscapes

So, where is the landscape this picture portrays?  

Oklahoma! In fact, only twenty-five miles northeast of Oklahoma City, on I-44 heading towards Tulsa.  Oklahoma conjures up images of dusty plains and flat, nearly treeless landscapes, when the opposite is true for much of the state.  Not long after one enters Oklahoma from the Texas panhandle, for example, do trees start popping up everywhere.  That said, the land still has a very "western" feel to it, complete with rocky bluffs and "mid-grass" prairie, but the transition between east and west is a bit more compact down here.  

The south east corner, down where Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma have a meeting, even boasts a native population of shrub palms, Sabal Minor, along with baldcypress and other subtropical plants and trees.  In the southwestern corner, far removed from the Rockies or even the Ozarks, are the Wichita Mountains, rising from the plains.  Oklahoma is yet another example of how there are truly no "fly-over" states, and that something exciting exists even in one's seldom appreciated backyard.