Palo Duro Canyon State Park

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In separate conversations, Connie & Barbara S. both suggested that we make sure to visit Palo Duro Canyon sometime during our stay in Amarillo.  Soooo, we scoped it out, found out where it is, how much it costs, and what facilities and things to do were there.  It looked like we would be there a good while, so we suited up the puppy, packed the cooler with waters, charged up the batteries and hit the road.

Of course, flip flops are not the recommended foot attire for walking around trails in Texas, so we put on socks and sneakers too! This was to be Bailey's first real outing with her new booties.  She had "tried them on for size" when we first got them.  She seemed to adapt to them pretty well in Alabama, so we didn't think there would be much of an issue today.  And, to her credit, there wasn't.  Once she got them on, she was fine.  For a while, anyway....

On the way to the Canyon, we came across this field.  It's really hard to tell in this photo (we were traveling in the car, so we could drive the suggested 70 mph!  Sure makes taking photos a little more difficult though!), but this field must be several hundred acres.  And it was filled with nice, neat round hay bales.  Must have been thousands of 'em!  It was literally the most hay I've ever seen in one place, at one time, in my whole life!  I posted it on Facebook and Connie commented right away that her Grandparents' farm was in this very same area!  Small world, eh?

Here's another one of those mesmerizing windmills.  You can see how enormous they are in comparison to the itty bitty farm buildings!

With my back being so messed up, and us having the dog with us on such a blazing hot day, we knew we wouldn't be able to go far on any trail, so we decided we would geocache instead of hiking.  We're not the gluttons for punishment that Gail, Gary, Linda & Ron are, heehee.  We recorded the coordinates for about 12 caches, all close to a parking spot or the Park road, except for the first one.

The first geocache was actually just off the road, prior to the State Park entrance.  We parked on the shoulder of the road and Driver hoofed it about 200 feet, to the target area.  He looked and looked and looked.  I eased the car up a little closer, so that he wouldn't have to walk back so far and watched him continue to look for the cache.  The clue was "gold" and I thought I could see a gold flash in the tree, so I tried to direct him from across the street.  When it became apparent that I wasn't clear in my directions, I crossed over to help him look look for myself.  What I had thought was a gold flash, aka, the cache, was really only just the inner bark of a broken cedar branch.  Ha...I couldn't find it either!  The last time we went out, on Sunday, we were totally unsuccessful - we looked for 5 caches and found not a one!  Not a ONE!  That has never happened before, so we thought maybe the GPS needed calibration.   Well, the next day was moving day, as you know, so of course, we didn't do anything about it....fast forward to today...today was the day to calibrate the GPS.  Either that or we have totally lost our geosenses.  Or are just plain blind.  While Dick was working to get the GPS back on track, I crossed back over the street to read about the huge arrow sticking up out of the prairie grasses.  As we learned later in the day, this area was originally Comanche territory before they were all but wiped out by the White Man.  The artist Charles A Smith has taken it upon himself to forge a network of 23-foot-tall steel arrows and place them throughout Texas and the Southern Great Plains, marking the sites where the last of the Comanches, led by Quanah Parker, hunted, traded, lived, traveled and fought, in an effort to honor the Comanches' culture and heritage.  You can read more about the Chief, and discover the locations of the arrows, online, at www.QuanahParkerTrail.com.  

So, OK, we never did find that cache.  Not surprising, sometimes, they just really aren't there by the time we go seeking them.  No big deal, we have plenty more inside the park to find.  We travel another half mile, and all of a sudden, we are at the park entrance and the terrain has dramatically changed!  We've been looking at flat plains, that go on forever, for a couple of days, and now we're seeing a huge ditch!  We paid our admittance fee and promptly found the 2 geocaches that were located near the park entrance and Ranger Station, then followed Park Road 5 further into the Canyon.

Here is a panoramci view, and the placques below indicate the names of the mesas in view and their distance from the overlook. 

I tried to match up my pictures with the placques, but it was really hard to see my camera screen, so, often, I really didn't know what I was taking a picture of!

Evidently, the Civilian Conservation Corp was a big part of the development of the Canyon, in the early 30's.  All of the Park's structures (cabins, concession areas, rest rooms, pillars and fences),and even the road, were constructed by the unemployed men and returning Veterans of the Depression era.  Why don't we do that today?  Everywhere we go, we see jobs available and businesses are crying out for help, yet our Welfare rolls are never-ending, and we have millions of eligible employees, sitting around, out of work, and collecting taxpayer funds.  I'm sorry, let me step down off my soapbox.  I'm not against Welfare for truly indigent and those unable to work.  I'm against Welfare rewarding children for procreating or doing drugs, making themselves un-employable and undependable.

This is the view out one of the large plate glass windows in the Visitor Center.

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There was an extensive collection of pottery in the Visitor Center, and it was all for sale.  Lucky for our wallets, it doesn't mesh well with our coastal and flamingo decor.  We were able to admire it, but we left it all on the shelves.

There was a whole section dedicated to how the Canyon was formed:

And a whole room dedicated to the CCC workers:

I thought it was interesting to learn the roots of the saying, Another Day, Another Dollar.  Apparently, each worker was paid just that - one dollar for each day's work.  And it was HARD work, too.  I just can't imagine any of today's workforce working so hard for so little.

This photo gives you an idea of how high these canyon walls really are.  That's a line of men, building the road that winds through the park.  They look like little ants, don't they?!

There were placed I had to look away....

I truly fear heights and roller coasters, and this road was both!

I was relieved when we reached the bottom, about 400 feet lower than the rim, according to our GPS.

There are several areas dedicated to camping down inside the Canyon.  And there were SEVERAL campers already set up!  Even a few tenters!  You can make out a 5th wheel, barreling down the lower hill and a little travel trailer up on the higher level.  As we drove through the campground areas, Dick kept pointing out various sites that would fit our motorcoach.  Ummmm....I had to wonder if he had simply lost his mind for good this time.  There's absolutely no chance, in this world, or any other, that I would allow him to drive our camper on those narrow & twisty roads.  NoWAY!!  And yet, there he would go, pointing out another one!  Nooooo, babe, NOOOOO!  Just.Plain.N.O!

Some of the rocks looked like they would tumble in a strong wind...

At the gift store, we even found the perfect T-shirt for Gail, for when she loses the shirt off her back.  I should send it to her son, so he can present it at the heart-to-heart he holds for her. HAHAHA, that would be funny, wouldn't it??

And, of course, we all took a break in the air conditioning, while Driver chowed down on his butter pecan.  We didn't mind waiting at all!  :)

We didn't lose sight of our objective, though; we were there to find geocaches along the way.  This would be standard search posture.  Because it was so very hot, we took turns seeking out each cache.  One person went out with the GPS and whatever clues were available, while the other stayed in the car, keeping the A/C running for the pup.  

 At one point, we passed a directional sign for the Lighthouse Trail, pointing to a small, dusty clearing that passed for a parking area.  We hadn't seen or heard anything about a Lighthouse, but our interest was piqued, so up we went!  It was kind of like spotting a Yard Sale sign on Friday morning!  You knew it would be good, right?  So, you can imagine our disappointment when we read that it was a 6 mile trek, round trip. And a gallon of water per person was recommended.  But, you see that last line?  Do not attempt if you have medical problems.  Well.  That sure disqualified me, right off the bat!  (whew, what a relief!!  I mean, not like I wanted to hike 6 miles, ya know?  Not this week.  Probably not next, either, so don't even go there...)

Pictures don't lie.  I believe this is some of the hottest temps we've ever experienced when we were out and about.  We've had high temps like this before, but we have always been inside or non-active at that time.

 So I walked a few feet down the trail, which was really UP the hill, and I came upon this formation.  Personally, I thought it looked more like a women's body part than a lighthouse, but, what the heck, maybe there had been some erosion.  I walked back to the car, and found Driver studying a kiosk off to the side of the trail.

And, wouldja look at that?  A photo postcard of the actual Lighthouse formation.  Looked more like a lighthouse than what I had seen...

 And, old Eagle Eye himself, found the true formation and pointed it out to me....we just had to walk a bit more than a few steps up the hill.

There were about 6 "water crossings" marked on the map.  Every single one of them had a flood stage marker such as this.  And there was one on each side of each bridge.  I an only imagine the quantity of water that it would take to make the little creek flood to this degree.

Lolly, this one is for you and Allen:

And this is the current status of the creek, looking northward at water crossing number 6.  Dry as a dusty old bone!

And looking Southward, still dry and dusty.  Not a drop of water.

I found this description of one of the final battles between the Indians and White Men is truly disturbing because of the atrocity of it all.

I took this photo because, when we were up at the other end of the canyon, on the rim, Dick had thought there were some cliff dwelling off in the distance.  I'm pretty sure this is what we were looking at.  And maybe they are dwellings for someone....like a bear of some foxes?  This is a zoomed in picture; we were pretty far off, and in no mood (or shape!) to go check for occupants!

And now, we have full bellies, been walked and showered, dishes and laundry are done, and we are all too pooped to pop!

'Till next time!