The Grand Canyon... of Texas

26 Jan 2025

From Arkansas, we drove straight through Oklahoma on our way to our next major destination: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas. But unfortunately, we discovered a bit of a leak in one of our tires. We filled it up a few times thinking it might have been the cold and the dealership not filling it up all the way when we bought it, but it was definitely a leak. However, from Hot Springs, AK to the next major town was hundreds of miles, and we had already gone 100 miles by the time we were sure.

We decided to risk it, and just filled the tire enough to not be dangerous and minimize the pressure on the leak. 300 miles later, we arrived in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and got the dealership to take a look. They found a nail deep in the groove of the tire, pulled it, and patched the tire in less than an hour. They didn't even charge us!

With leak repaired, we continued on toward Texas. We stayed the night in Amarillo since it was pretty cold and we didn't want to set up camp in the dark. This gave us a great opportunity to go to Cadillac Ranch in the morning.

We also toured down historic Route 66 and took pictures of all the murals in the town.

It was getting cold and we were looking for coffee, so we stopped in at the 806 Coffee and Lounge, and even they had murals! We also got some coffee and fancy bagels.

Once done with breakfast, it was back to mural hunting down Route 66 downtown!

And then it was finally time to go to the park! Welcome to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas!

Just inside the entrance to the park, they had longhorn bulls chowing down on lunch. Sara could have jumped over the moon at the sight of the cows.

From above, the canyon stretches all around and as far as you can see.

We headed down into the canyon on Park Road 5, originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Since it was still early in the day, we took our bikes out for a ride around the park.

At the opposite end of the canyon we parked our bikes and headed out for a short hike.

Along the canyon walls, the water has formed dozens of little caves over the centuries.

This first set of caves had mostly collapsed. Cory decided to climb up a bit to see if there was a cave you could actually enter.

Not only did he not find anything, he was not prepared to descend either.

But he did eventually make it back down.

The next cave we saw was viable and we were able to travel a couple hundred feet back into it.

Along the trail we kept seeing these awesome red cactuses.

We biked back and set up camp. It was very windy so we set up the tent on the gravel driveway next to some thick shrubs. We had a heck of a time getting the tent staked down. Cory was very glad he remembered his hammer to pound the stakes into the hard-packed ground!

We got our second campfire-cooked meal of the trip, green bean casserole. It was excellent despite Cory over-heating it a touch.

In the morning we got some good sunrise photos, and then headed off to Lighthouse Trail.

Lighthouse Trail is a 6 mile hike out and back from a rock formation that got carved into a lighthouse shape. The trail was cold, with a 10-20mph wind constantly, it felt like 10° out even if it was all of 20°. The sun didn't even come out until we were almost back!

But it was still beautiful, even if we were trying to take photos too fast and forgot how short Sara is...

We kept passing over places where smaller streams flowed, and they all looked to be carved another dozen feet down in tight channels.

And then, after 2.7 miles where we climbed 200ft, it was time to climb the last 500ft in just 0.1 miles. The figures in the distance are only a hundred feet apart, but you can see how fast we're going up:

We made it!

It really doesn't give you a sense of scale though, so here's one with a Cory for scale. You'll have to look closely near the base.

If you still can't make him out, here's a close-up of what he looks like in that last photo. But if you still can't make him out, we don't blame you. That's the smallest he's ever looked.

On our way off the clifftop, we spied some gnarled wood under one of the hardy shrubs.

Sara found a wonderful photo spot too, overlooking the whole canyon and the outcropping we were on.

Then it was time to go down... Sara went first of course.

About 2 miles back along the trail our strength was flagging, so we paused at an overlook to grab a shot of the formation we had just climbed.

Again, it looks so small, so here's a tighter shot.

The sun came out! Directly into Cory's eyes...

Sara's happy to be nearing the end of the path.

On our way out, right at the start of the trail, we did spot a lighthouse-shaped rock formation. We were wondering if that was the lighthouse we'd climb up to. But instead it's just another cool rock formation.

We planned to finish the lighthouse hike and head toward the Big Cave and walk out to that, but we were so beat from the lighthouse hike that we just took a picture on our way back to camp.

We had worked up a healthy appetite, so we went to the Big Texan Steak Ranch for dinner. It turned out to be a really built up destination. It had a motel, dog park, crazy big statues, and even a horse hotel.

They had a full brewery on premises, so we had to try the big sampler. Sara even got a boot to boot!

From there we headed back to camp and caught a pretty sunset over the cow fields.

But in the morning, Sara captured this incredible moment as we were breaking camp.

We had a great time in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas. But we're only halfway to the Pacific, so it's time to get moving and enter Mountain Time!