Palo
Duro State Park in Texas is a great park for hiking. The canyon is the 2nd
largest in the country. There are 6 different camping areas. The campground we
were in recently opened and it has fabulous views. We believe we were the 2nd
group to stay in the site. Very cool! The campground had turkey visiting along
with several road runners. The road runners were less skittish than most. While
we were washing windows, one came up within 5 feet of us…at which point I
started wondering whether they can be dangerous.
I
saw several flocks of turkeys on my hikes.
It
was funny to see the groups of people hiking. In one case we had a sorority of
girls hiking up the hill behind us. It definitely pushed us to go faster than
normal. On another hike there was a group of ROTC students hiking the trail. As
I passed, each yelled at the person behind him to “move to your right”. OK, it
was polite but weird to have a group yelling this over and over.
My
favorite hike here is the Givens, Spicer, Lowry trail. The views and rock
formations are really amazing!
There
is no cell phone service in the whole canyon. Given that the campground is a 20
minute drive from the entrance and up a steep road that meant no calls or
internet for 5 days except when we hiked up Rock Garden trail which is a 2.5
mile hike to the top. Again, the views are incredible. We heard a guy that made
a call at the top and left a message on voice mail, “Well, I hiked 2 hours to
make this call and you’re not there.” To make it more interesting for us it
started to sprinkle on the way down. It made us hike that much faster.
Some
of the rocks in the ‘garden’ look like cow pies.
Views
from another hike. On the last one, you can see the lighthouse formation along
with a silhouette of a deer.
Our
last morning was interesting. When I was in cell phone service, I found out I
had a business meeting that morning. So I drove 30 minutes to the nearest
Walmart and called in. The RV followed later. Whatever works!
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