Palo Duro Canyon at Amarillo, TX, From Albuquerque

April 19, Sunday.  This post is a little late because we were in a canyon for 3 days with no cell phone or internet service.  Well, they say things are big in Texas, but I think they are just as big in New Mexico!  After leaving Albuquerque, we headed straight East on I-40, and I do mean straight!  The road just seemed to go on  forever with no end.   There sure wasn’t much to see except big skies, open plains, and not much else.   

Crossing the state border into Texas didn’t change the scenery any, just more of the same!  At least we were in our state of residency as fulltime RVers,  but who would know way out here!  At least we had company on the road.  Our only other company were several groups of antelope and my favorite, prairie dogs!   

We passed through Amarillo on the way to Palo Duro Canyon, about 20 miles south of town.  Of course,  we have been constantly singing the old country song “Amarillo by mornin’, then on to San Anton’…, Amarillo by mornin’, with all that I’ve got on…”   We had purchased the Texas Parks and Recreation pass several years ago and glad we did.  We saved a little on our camping fees.  Boy, the TX state parks have gotten expensive!  The normal fee for us would have been $34.00 a day because several years ago, the parks started charging a day use fee per person per day in addition to the normal camping fee.  Pricey for no amenities and just water and electric, and other camping areas don’t have that but the price is the same.  We had a nice cozy site and enjoyed eating outside under the shade in the nice cool weather surrounded by the colorful canyon walls.  It was so peaceful and quiet. 

To reach the campground, we descended 600’ down a 10% grade for about a mile to the canyon floor of Palo Duro Canyon with nice panoramic distant views of the canyon.  It is nicknamed “The Grand Canyon of Texas” and opened in 1934.  I don’t like steep roads with no guardrail but it wasn’t too bad.  Only thing is, I will be on the outside heading out! 

The canyon is 120 miles long, 800’ deep, and the second-largest canyon in the U.S.  Less than I million years ago, a fork of the Red River carved its way through the Southern High Plains.  “Palo Duro” is Spanish  for “hard wood” in reference to the Rocky Mountain Juniper trees still seen in places in the canyon.  The scenery of the park centers around all the colored geological layers all throughout the rock formations and walls of the canyon.  There are many hiking trails  and we saw several families out mountain biking.   The park was not busy but I bet the place is busy on weekends being so close to Amarillo.

 

We had hoped to have a good old fashioned camp fire but a burn ban was in effect due to high winds.  Shucks, I had my mouth all set for a nice crispy hot dog cooked over an open fire.  We even bought some just for this occasion!  So instead, we took an evening drive to the end of the canyon and back because it was still a very beautiful late afternoon.  The night sky was clear so you could see lots of stars.  On the website, RV Park Reviews, a camper talked about listening to the coyotes.  So we slept with the fan off and the window open to see if we would hear any.  Nope, no such luck the first night.  But we had to close the window in the middle of the night because it got down to 43 degrees.  

 

The next morning we grabbed the map again and looked for some of the trails plus we wanted more views with better lighting.  There is a real nice Visitor Center built right onto the side of a canyon wall with a small museum and history films. We just took our time and stopped at several overlooks.  We wanted to take a few short hikes but the hike down to the river was not pretty at all and the river was more like a narrow canal so we gave up the hiking idea and weren’t really up to anything strenuous anyway.  So we worked our was back to the campground after more pictures.

 

There are several “river crossings” along the canyon road and they are numbered.  New bridges have been built across a few of them but the road dips down to the others and there are signs warning of flash floods.  There must have been some recent rain because water was still washing over the roads in different areas.  Glad it wasn’t too bad!  Just enough to get the truck muddy!

 

Back at our camp site, this female Cardinal saw her reflection in our windows the minute we arrived and she tried to get at “that other bird” constantly each day all day long.  Amusing to watch but didn’t want her to get hurt.  The sun was right on the big windows and so bright that there wasn’t much we could do.  The pretty red male was nearby and would court her and feed her.  Aww..cute.  At least we had some entertainment since we couldn’t watch TV or get on the internet. 

We enjoyed the quiet surroundings and being nestled in the canyon, but just were not all that excited about the place.  In our travels, we have seen much prettier canyons, like Canyon de Chelly.  There was just something about the canyon floor that was just not as pretty as we expected.  The park workers were doing right much repair and the red dirt around all the sites in the campgrounds just made the camp sites rather dirtier than other rustic state parks we have camped in.  And I hoped it wouldn’t rain and make red mud!  But it was on our bucket list and we are glad we stopped so we can say we have been.  We always try to plan for a little adventure, perfect or not.  At least we are out exploring and that’s a good thing any day! 

As a bit of interesting extra history about Palo Duro Canyon, here is a plaque commemorating the final campaign against the Southern plains Indians, including the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne that took place in this canyon.  The plaque is near the end of the canyon road: