Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas - October 15th to 19th, 2023
Before heading home for the season, we had one more stop after the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas. Some people call it the Grand Canyon of Texas. It doesn’t quite measure up to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but it was a wonderful place to reconnect with nature, relax, and take in the beautiful scenery.
Sunday we got up at 7 am. It was the last session of the Balloon Fiesta, but it was too windy to fly. We were hoping to see a few more balloons before we packed up to leave, but it was not to be. So we packed up and were on the road by 9 am. We swung by Target to pick up a few items, then drove across town before hopping on I-40. It was a pretty uneventful drive on I-40 to Palo Duro Canyon, just south of Amarillo, Texas. There were lots of balloon trailers on the interstate, heading home from the fiesta. We were surprised to see so many semi trucks on a Sunday. Just before reaching Amarillo, we passed Cadillac Ranch, then turned south. We’ll visit Cadillac Ranch on our Route 66 trip planned for 2026.
This area of Texas looks pretty flat, with grasslands, cows, and wind turbines as far as the eye can see. Then, unexpectedly, the ground opens up, to reveal Palo Duro Canyon. The road into Palo Duro Canyon State Park winds down into the canyon. There are several campgrounds on the canyon floor. Our reservation was for the Hackberry Campground. The camp sites are nestled among the trees, providing nice shade to relax in.
We arrived around dinner time. Eating outside in our chairs in the shade, we listened to the crickets and frogs. It was a nice contrast to the crowds of people at the Balloon Fiesta. Sounds of nature always seemed to soothe our souls.
Monday, we went for a hike. It was cold in the morning, in the 40’s, so we let it warm up a little bit before starting the hike. It was after 10:30 am by the time we left our camp site. We hiked to the Lighthouse, via the Givens, Spicer, and Lowry Trail, starting right from the campground. We like being able to hike without having to drive to a trailhead.
There wasn’t much elevation gain until the last half a mile up to the Lighthouse rock formation. Along the way, we passed right by colorful rocky canyon walls and some hoodoos. The sunny day lit up the variety of colors for us. The landscape was more like what we think of for the state of Utah than for the state of Texas.
The trail was pretty easy until the climb up to the Lighthouse. We took a different trail on the way back down than we did on the way up. The trail on the way up didn’t seem as bad as the one we took back down, but we always have more issues with down than up. There was loose footing and a little bit of scrambling, but we took it slowly and were fine. The view of and from the Lighthouse was worth the effort. We sat down next to the Lighthouse and enjoyed the views along with our snacks.
By the time we returned to Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO), we covered 9.4 miles with an elevation gain of 827 feet in about five hours. It was hike number 51 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023. Only one more to go!
Tuesday was a more relaxing day. We hung around camp until after lunch. Then we drove around the rest of the park to check it out. The park road continues for a few more miles past the Hackberry Campground. The park provides a map with points of interest. However, we couldn’t find them all. They are not well marked and the map doesn’t provide a lot of details about each one. One of them was Dugout which looked like it was along the road before the Soapberry Day-use Area, but we didn’t see anything. Perhaps it was in the day-use area, since we didn’t pull into there.
Next was the Big Cave. We just happened to see a couple of cars parked alongside the road and glanced up at the cave in the canyon wall. Again, no signs. There was a maze of social trails leading from the road over to the cave. It wasn’t very far, but it is a rocky climb up to the cave.
The park road forms a lollipop and starts heading back towards the park entrance. As we passed by the Hackberry Campground, we stopped at the Lone Star Interpretative Theater. It is an outdoor amphitheater, but a sign indicated there was a short trail behind the amphitheater that led to ancient grinding holes in a rock. This was not one of the points of interest on the map, but we walked over to check it out. We’ve seen similar grinding holes in other places, such as Big Bend National Park (Big Bend National Park: Rio Grande Village, Texas - July 27th to 31st, 2023).
At the Palo Duro Trading Post, there is a wildlife viewing blind. The bird blind overlooks some feeders and a water source, to attract the birds. There was a sign on the Trading Post saying “World Famous Hamburgers”. We didn’t have any of the food, so we can’t say how good the hamburgers are. Incredibly, we passed on the Blue Bell ice cream and just purchased a couple of drinks.
We missed the CCC Fireplace, continuing on to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is in the El Coronado Lodge, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) back in 1934. There are some lovely displays inside along with a video about the history of the canyon. Outside was an overlook with nice views out over the canyon.
At the park entrance is the Longhorn Pasture. We saw a couple of long horns when we arrived on Sunday, but this time there were no longhorns in sight.
From there we drove into Amarillo to go out to dinner. We couldn’t resist trying the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Yes, we know it’s a tourist trap. No, we’re not about to try the 72 oz challenge. We’ve just driven by the place numerous times and have seen videos of others visiting the place, and we just wanted to see it for ourselves. The Big Texan is right along I-40. It has been a Route 66 attraction since 1960. They have a “Free 72 oz steak”. The catch is, in order for it to be free, you have to eat it, along with all the side dishes that it comes with, all by yourself in one hour. You have to pay $72 up front to try. If you finish it, they give you your $72 back. If you don’t finish it, you get leftovers to take home with you. About a dozen people try every day, with only about one or two of them completing the challenge. There is a live stream if you want to check it out. Keith was wondering why they didn’t show the live stream on a large monitor inside the restaurant, but Ann thought it was better that they didn’t, just in case a contestant needs to use the provided buckets. Not something we would care to watch while eating our own meal.
When we arrived, a gentleman from Colorado was just starting the challenge. When the hour was up, it looked like he still had about half the steak to go. It looked like they gave him lots of souvenirs to take home with him, including a T-shirt. Still, we have no desire to even try something like that. It does not sound like fun. But there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of people who want to try. As we were leaving, it looked like two more people were getting ready to start.
For us, we ordered the smallest steak they had, an 8 oz top sirloin along with baked potatoes and garden salads. Of course, Ann’s potato was a sweet potato. The meals also came with fresh, light and fluffy dinner rolls. For some reason, we also got dessert. We guess we didn’t feel as full as the contestant did, so we thought we had room. Keith had the lemon cake while Ann chose the carrot cake. The slice of carrot cake was huge, Texas-sized. She could barely eat half of it and boxed up the rest. The food was decent, but the fun atmosphere is why you come.
On our way back into the state park, the longhorns were out, so we stopped and got a few pictures.
Wednesday we went for another hike. Right from the campground again, we took a short little cutover trail to the Upper Comanche Trail, then took it south to the Lower Comanche Trail.
Our planned turn around point was where the Lower Comanche Trail intersected the Rock Garden Trail. We were expecting there to be at least one rock or two that we could sit on to eat our snacks. However, there were none. Where the two trails cross, there are no rocks at all, just juniper trees. It was a rather anti-climatic place to turn around. We’re not sure where the rock garden is, either further down or up the slope along the Rock Garden Trail, we would guess.
We started heading back along the Lower Comanche Trail to find a spot to sit. We found a couple little rocks near a trickle of a stream. Not ideal, but it worked. The hike was nice, but we liked the previous hike better.
By the time we returned to the campground, we had gone 6.2 miles with an elevation gain of 748 feet in three hours and 42 minutes. It was hike 52 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023. We completed the challenge! This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve completed the challenge. Yay!
The rest of the day was spent hanging out at camp, swatting all the flies that managed to get into Red Tail. There were so many flies in the park! At least they didn’t bite. They were rather annoying, though.
Thursday was our long drive home. It was over seven and a half of hours of driving, not counting stops. We normally don’t plan that long of a drive, but we wanted to get home. After seven and a half months of being on the road, we were read to be home. We missed our kids. There was a long list of projects we wanted to get started on. It was time.
We mainly followed highway 287 the whole way. In Lamar, Colorado, we stopped at BJ’s Burgers & Fries. We like stopping at little local joints instead of chains. It was a drive-in restaurant, similar to Sonic, but they also had dine in service. That was good because we’re not sure Red Tail would fit under the awning for the drive-in slots. Inside, each table had a wired telephone that you would pick up to order. They knew by the phone which table you were sitting at and brought the food out to you. Bring cash with you, because we are not sure they take credit cards. The waitress had a coin dispenser attached to her waist. We haven’t seen one of those in decades. The food was decent and the atmosphere was charming. What a great way to wrap up our travel season.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park was not the highlight of our Season Five travels, but it was a great note to end it on. Beautiful scenery and wonderful hiking trails are never a bad combination in our book. Next time we might try to time our visit with the TEXAS Outdoor Musical, which is performed inside the park. The show runs Tuesdays through Sundays, from early June to early August.
Check out our related video: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas
(Ann)