Camping at Palo Duro Canyon TX 2008

We "discovered" this State Park last Spring

when we stayed a few days in Amarillo and promised

ourselves we would return to camp in the canyon.  I

think these pictures will explain why we are glad we

did.

Cathy wants me to start an album of Views From Our Front Door, so here and in the next picture is our View in Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas. 

 

Palo Duro Canyon is called the Grand Canyon of Texas and is second in size in the US only to the Grand Canyon.  Palo Duro is 120 miles long and 800 feet deep and was formed less than a million years ago as the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River carved its way through the Southern High Plains.

The oldest rocks in the canyon are those near the bottom and consist of the bright red claystone and white gypsum layers.  Higher up are yellow, gray and lavender mudstone layers.

The canyon has been called "an erosion in time"; from the natural forces of wind and water which have created the scenery we see there.

Hiking and mountain bike trails take one close to the sides of the hills and cliffs.

Deer were nightly visitors in the campground and they were very accustomed to and unafraid of humans.  We heard coyotes howling every evening, sometimes seeming to be quite close by.  And on our very first afternoon in camp, we were visited by a pair or roadrunners foraging and darting in their own comical style.  Of course the camera was not ready to catch their short visit and we did not see them again in the 5 days we stayed.

This formation is called the Fortress for obvious reasons.  It is part of the caprock which has yet to yield to erosion.

The cause of the erosion is this present day stream, the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River.

Palo Duro is Spanish for "hard wood" in reference to the juniper trees common to the area.  From 1876 to 1890, most of the canyon was part of the JA Ranch operated by Charles Goodnight.  At its peak the JA comprised 1,325,000 acres with 100,000 head of cattle.  Goodnight farmed the canyon too because of the ready water source and relatively milder climate at the floor of the canyon.

Here is a view from the top looking toward the bottom of a small section of the canyon.  It is difficult to capture the immense vista one is confronted with in a single photo.

If you use your imagination a little, you can see in the shadow the figure of a man on the back of a rearing horse.  This picture was taken near sundown.  Note the deep red-orange color of the rocks.  In treasure lore, such shadow signs are said to indicate trail markers to treasure locations!  I know of no such lore for this immediate area, however.

Here is the same shadow figure at a greater zoom, but on a different day and at an earlier time when the sun was higher.  See the different colors showing on the rocks compared to the previous one.  Such is the fascination of being in this beautiful landscape.