Thirty Oklahoma Girl Scouts, seventh through 12th grade, recently toured Northwest Oklahoma.

The first stop on the two-day bus trip was the Route 66 Museum Complex in Elk City, which included the farm and ranch, transportation and old town areas .

The girls rode the carousel in the city park, which was opened up especially for the group.?The carousel, with its hand-carved wooden horses, was built as part of Oklahoma's centennial celebration.

Next stop was a historic bison kill site on the back 40 of the Flying W Guest Ranch in Sayre.?Ancient bison bones protruded everywhere. In Cheyenne, the scouts walked around the Washita Battlefield where Chief Black Kettle and the Cheyenne were camped along the Washita River in 1868.?They saw a movie re-enactment of the massacre by Gen. George Custer and his troops from Fort Supply.

The scouts were able to pay an early season visit to the Selman Bat Cave and waited for the bats to leave the cave.? After a few scout bats?appeared and an owl and a red-tailed hawk perched on high lines to scope out dinner, the girls saw thousands of Mexican freetail bats leave the cave in spirals.

After spending the night in Woodward, they toured the Alabaster Caverns and the last remaining sod house in Oklahoma near Aline, fished at the Byron Fish Hatchery (they caught white bass, bluegill and catfish) ?and ate dinner at Roman Nose State Park.

"The trip was envisioned and instigated four years ago for girls to take an affordable overnight bus trip and to go to places in the state where most likely they would not have been before," said?Pam Moser, a volunteer for Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma.

The last three years, GIrl Scouts have been to the Trail of Tears drama in Tahlequah, caught crawdads in the stream in Beaver's Bend State Park, visited the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and the Cathedral of the Osage, both in Pawhuska, and spent the night in the former Kerr Mansion in Poteau.

Plans are now under way for next summer's Explore Oklahoma.

Area girls from Moore were Kylie Alexander, Audrey Bayliss, Jamie Dawson, Michaela Kewley, Stacy Pickens, Melanie Rogers and Kerstin Schroeder.?Norman girls who attended were Tina Adams, Katie Collins, Alexis Hecksher, Chelsie Hess, Sara Kozak, Samantha Mason and Jessica Weiss.?Kaylee Blalock of Noble also participated.

In addition to Moser, volunteers Barbara Thompson of Moore and Bridget McElreath of Hobart, and Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma program director Paige Mills-Haag led the trip.?