March Camping Part 2 - Palo Duro Canyon

Monday morning we took down our camp at Caprock Canyons State Park, and made our way a little further north to the city of Canyon.  It's the biggest city we've seen in days, so we got some lunch, grabbed some groceries and supplies at Walmart, and went to the bank. There's the university in town, West Texas A&M, so there's a lot more this town has to offer than most of the nearby cities.

Palo Duro Canyon is only about 15 minutes outside of the city of Canyon, and just about 20 miles south of Amarillo, TX.  We checked in at the visitors center, which is pretty small.  Most of the park facilities were built by the CCC in the 1930's, and everything looks very cool and natural, but size-wise it's a little lacking.  

They placed a couple of longhorn cattle in a pen right by the front gate (rotating them in from the pasture) for the public to see, since the canyon has been used for ranching in the past.  Rumor has it these two are named Biscuits and Gravy.  I'm a fan of the naming.

Once you check in, you drive down into the canyon, which is about a 10-15 minute haul in low gear down, winding around the canyon wall.  We camped at the Hackberry campsites, which have electric, water, and a bathroom/shower facility.  Our first campsite, while beautiful, had what they called a "creek" running right behind it.  I went to check it out, and it actually was the fork of the river that carved the canyon out originally.  Deep, a little wider than a creek, and rushing, with steep banks.  I have a little C who is obsessed with water and fish, and I just couldn't put him in danger.  So we switched campsites, and snagged the one next to the bathrooms.  The best place to camp with little kids is next to the bathrooms.

Here's the view from the campsite:

Isn't it amazing?

We picked the site also because it had a picnic table shelter, since the sun was blazing.  There was a fire ban while we were there, so we camped next to the grill and fire ring, since we wouldn't be using them.

 We set up camp, ate lunch, and took a drive to see the park. We took a few pics of the canyon walls, saw all the river crossings, and scouted places to hike the next day.

A fell asleep in the car, so we moved him to the tent when we got back.
3 hours later we still had this:

A very exhausted A, from the hike at Caprock.

He woke up later and was upset, because he had wanted to take a drive earlier.  Turns out he completely couldn't remember it because he was so tired.  Poor baby!

They spent most of their time at the campsite driving construction vehicles in the sand. Best $5.98 I ever spent. They were content to have downtime and I didn't have to force it.

 We cooked dinner, got ready for bed, and called it a night.

Everyone woke up much refreshed and ready to hike.

The park has stables at the park, a mountain bike trail, a couple of shops, a little cafe, and a couple of cabins.  We come for the hiking, so we scouted a trail with good views that wasn't too simple and not too difficult/dangerous for the boys.  We ended up walking down the CCC trail, almost all the way to the amphitheater, and back up.

The start of the CCC trail, by the museum/gift shop area.

 There are some beautiful views from this trail, and the trail head has a nice map to name the features.

 I find it amazing that one little river can do all this work.  And the place is chock full of wildlife - they have signs saying it's a game preserve, so unlike most state parks in TX, they don't allow hunting I guess.  We had all sorts of turkeys wandering through our campsite, one that made a beeline for A at one point.  We almost had turkey dinner.  :)  The second night we had coyotes run through the campground yipping, and some very scared turkeys gobbling back.  So cool.  Of course when I woke up to them howling, I needed to go to the bathroom, but never mind. I can take on one coyote...a pack? Not too sure about that.

The CCC trail was fairly easy, with just a few parts that a feared children would run off the edge.  We had some hand holding, momma couldn't handle it.  I get weak in the knees when I think of my boys running off those sharp drop offs.

One thing that really bothered me - children that didn't know trail etiquette.  Let faster hikers by, don't block people, don't cut people off, don't pet dogs without asking...so on and so forth.  We picked up a bunch of litter in the cave (off Alt. Park Road 5), mostly water bottles.  Pack out what you packed in!  Leave it cleaner than it was when you got there.  See how many bottles Mr. Tupelo has?

On the trail etiquette - One little boy almost killed me 3 or 4 times cutting me off on an uphill boulder climb, when I was wearing C on my back.  See that trail of rocks coming down from the cave?  I was hiking up that.  With C on my back.

Oh I just wanted to tell him off.  I'm proud that I didn't.  I had a couple of little sets of ears that didn't need to hear a "hangry", hot, tired mom gripe at someone else's kid, especially in front of his momma.  I'm really mean sometimes with I get too hungry...I find it best to keep my mouth shut if I think this is the issue.

We made it safely to the cave though - and here's the view from inside the cave.  You could climb up above it too, but there were just too many people, and I was feeling overwhelmed.

All in all, we enjoyed Palo Duro - but it was a bit too busy for our tastes.  Partly because of spring break, but also because it's closer to a major city.  At night it was quiet, but during the day there were just too many people on the trails and such.   I'd love to come back and rent a cabin though, and do some horseback riding.  Keep it to the spring and fall though.  It was blazing during the day for this time of year, and cool at night.  Not a lot of shade in the canyon or on the ridges either, so I wouldn't try this one in the heat of summer.

We got a lot of camping and sightseeing in during those 4 days, and we loved doing it.  Next camping trip - McKinney Falls State Park in April.  Until then, back on the crafting and sewing front...I've missed it.  The photography helps when traveling, but I missed my normal creative outlets.

I can't wait to come up with some new projects for you.  Hopefully I'll have something soon. Till then, have a great one!