We are finally back in Texas and spent most of this week at a campground in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. No cell signals, Wifi or road traffic. We spent this time just relaxing, did a little sight seeing in the park but beyond that just resting.
Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the country, it is about 120 miles long and 20 miles wide and up to 800 feet deep from the rim of the canyon. Even with that depth it is still ranges between 3500 and 2400 feet above sea level. The state park is only about 16 miles of the canyon but it seems much longer when you are driving around in the floor of the canyon.
They have a lot of interesting rock formation to view and loads of hiking trails.
Formation
Cabin
Canyon View
Canyon View
Canyon View
Canyon View
Canyon View
Bruce at top of one formation
Canyon view
Canyon view
Canyon view
Canyon View
Canyon View
They have some interesting rock formations in the canyon that are called Hoodoos. They have a larger rock balanced atop a smaller base. Hoodoos form when rock layers erode at different rates. The harder rock on top then protects the softer rock underneath. The Lighthouse Hoodoo is the most famous one in the canyon.
Hoodoo
Hoodoo
Lighthouse Hoodoo
We did leave the canyon one day to pick up groceries and take care of a few errands.
The canyon was surprisingly very busy. We had been here years ago in October and we were the only campers in the campground other than the camp host. Very different on this trip, all of the campgrounds were very full. In fact the day we arrived they were having a funeral for a 73 year old man from Amarillo at the big group campground behind ours. They had several signs out pointing the direction to the funeral. I don’t guess they buried him there but just had a service.
We saw lots of wild turkeys in the park. We suspect one of the campers was feeding them as lots of them were grouped around one of the RVs.
Turkeys
Turkeys
Spotted a few Road Runners while out touring around.
Roadrunner
Roadrunner
We think there was a huge group of gophers living in the campground from the little dirt mounds we saw all around our camp site.
It is a very steep (10 percent grade), winding road getting down in the canyon. I would never drive it as I would spend the whole time with my foot on the brake worrying about going over the side as there is no railing. On some of the curves you definitely do not want to meet someone coming from the other direction.
Road coming in and out of canyon
Camper on the road above us leaving the canyon
Canyon road
Not a lot of plants blooming this time of year but we did see a few.
Wildflower
We had a beautiful sunrise the morning we left.
Sunrise
Sunrise
Sunrise