Jun 29, 2012 - Reflections Upon Palo Duro Canyon

Beautiful, vast, foreboding, hot, windy, busy, treacherous, historical The Canyon is beautiful. I can’t begin to imagine the surprise of the Spanish explorer when they were traveling across the vast Llano Estacado (“staked plains” – names that because there were no trees to tie their horses to so they had to hammer stakes in the ground to secure their animals) when they encountered the canyon. The thing that makes it the most spectacular is the vibrant red colors from the iron in the soil. The Canyon is only 800 feet at its deepest, but it...

Jun 25, 2012 - The Plains Panhandle Museum - the largest history museum in TX

PPHM is the largest history museum in the state of Texas and it is great! If you are ever in Canyon, you need to take time to visit. I spent about 5 ½ hours touring the many exhibits. The first room I walked into had a life-size oil drilling derrick (with the top cut off). Inside the wooden structure, all of the drilling equipment was there to see. A nearby display identified each piece and its function. Once I saw this, the drilling process became clearer. A nearby room had been turned into a cave-like structure with several displays...

Jun 18, 2012 - Cadillac Ranch, The Big Texas & Historic Rt. 66

Time for another couple of days off and time to play tourist again. After sleeping in, I drove to the Cadillac Ranch. You, like me, have probably seen pictures of the row of Cadillacs half-way buried in the dirt. It is a sort of Pop Art thing. I decided that it was time to see the real thing. As I was reviewing my plans for the day with one of the rangers, he advised me to buy a can of spray paint and take with me. Visitors are allowed to add to the graffiti. Twice a year, the cars are painted a solid color (pink in October for Breast...

Jun 17, 2012 - Enjoying My Days at Palo Duro

I have had a busy work week at the park. I ended up with three shifts at the Visitor Center. Keeping the Sagebrush Campground cleaned up takes a lot of effort. I check on the availability of campsites for the front office. Additionally, I pick up trash and clean out fire pits. The bathrooms require daily cleaning. We have had very unusual weather since I have been here. We have had Severe Thunderstorm Watches and/or Flash Flood Watches at least seven times. The area is really greening up. The flowers abound. My campground has wild turkeys...

Jun 11, 2012 - The Rough and Ready Jeep Tour

This is my first official day off. I am going to adventure out of the park and do the “tourist” thing. I went to the Elkins Ranch located next to the park for a three-hour jeep tour. Since I can’t climb down into the canyon, I decided to try a ride down into the canyon. Our jeep, decorated like a cow with pink trim was named Swanee. Our guide, Cathy, did a great job. The Elkins ranch is a working ranch almost five sections large (a section is 640 acres). They have anywhere from 200 to 800 head of cattle. The ranch was once, like Palo Duro...

Jun 10, 2012 - My First Week at Palo Duro

Camping down in the beautiful canyon with red mountains surrounding me is a wonderful opportunity. But, it is very cut off from the outside world, i.e. “No Service.” So, for the month of June, I will write about once a week and I will post it when I get to ‘higher ground.’ My first two days in the park were very uneventful for me. But, with the bikers that stayed through the storm, the rangers were very busy. They had to clear the slimy clay off of the water crossing roads as the water receded. The clay makes for a very slick service and...

Jun 1, 2012 - Palo Duro Canyon

Since I had only been at Copper Breaks for two nights, I hadn’t had time to mess up much. It was easy to get the trailer ready for the road. I have the shorter half of the trip left, about 180 miles. I arrived at Palo Duro around 4:00. I went into the entry office and they called the campground host coordinator to come and meet me. I met Shirley, a campground host volunteer herself. She led me to my campsite in the Sagebrush section. There was a very steep, windy road on the way down to the campgrounds. I first put it into 2nd gear, but...

May 5, 2012 - Palo Duro State Park - HOT, HOT, HOT!

Saturday, May 5, 2012 Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, TX Yesterday, we made the short drive to our destination. I had read many things about this canyon, and we had never been to this part of the Panhandle. Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the US. The campground is on the floor of the canyon with large sites and electricity to run our air conditioner and keep cool in the 100 degree heat. There are lots of families with small children here, and the kids are riding bikes and playing outside despite the heat. We visited...

Apr 27, 2012 - Friday in Palo Duro Canyon

Today is day 2 of the Warrior 100K Ride with ex-President GW Bush. The rangers let us know where to stand for good viewing and when to expect the riders. They brought in rangers from other state parks for this event. We enjoyed waiting for the riders at our spot with the other 5 campers. Leading the pack was George W. Bush. He rode by and high fived the guy next to me. Everyone was cheering them on and calling out Hey, Mr. President…He spoke, “Hello, Darling!” Was it me? Or the lady next to me? It may have been a collective Hello, but I was...

Apr 26, 2012 - Hiking the Trails of Palo Duro

We got up at sunrise and enjoyed a cool morning. I waited for more light and drank a cup of coffee. As I was looking out the window, I saw a dark shape slowly walk through an empty campsite across the way. My first thought was wild pig…no those are in Florida. Black panther? Bear? I sent Tommy and Bob over to check it out. I stayed inside the motorhome to comfort the cat. We never did figure out what it was. In my mind it was four legged and about the size of Tommy. I guess it could have been a coyote or bobcat. I got my camera ready in the...

Apr 25, 2012 - On the Way to Palo Duro Canyon

We left Eisenhower State Park around 8:00am. This part of Texas is very green and lush. The fields and meadows are filled with wildflowers. I love the way the farmlands undulate as we go along. The further west we drove, the drier it became. It is still somewhat green, but there are patches of brown. It is much greener than last year. Driving along Texas roads I am tickled by the signs I see along the road. We passed a metal sculpture store. They had giant chickens and the often seen silhouette of the smoking cowboy. This particular place...

Apr 6, 2012 - The Canyons

I previously mentioned that Texas has some fantastic state parks. We went to another two. Caprock Canyons and Palo Duro Canyon. Palo Duro is the largest canyon system in Texas and the experts say it is second to the Grand Canyon. Palo Duro extends about 120 miles and up to 800 feet deep in place. The Grand Canyon is deeper of course. Caprock Canyons State Park Caprock Canyons is about 50 miles south east of Palo Duro so we visited that first. In the early days, it was Indian territory and of course the white people came along wanting to...