Palo Duro Canyon Visit

Well it looks like we might have out smarted ourselves. The severe weather east of us, we thought, would be clearing up by Monday. Now it looks like it will be raining our entire route home for at least the rest of next week. So again we’ll have to take it day by day – I hate traveling in the rain. But we do want to get home. Anyone want to buy a 40’ Class A diesel RV? Getting sick of being in it. Almost seven months now. And heaven knows what we’ll find when we get home, between the roof leaking again and the water heater self destructing.

Watched some NASCAR yesterday – what wasn’t rained out anyway. The race last night was delayed three hours by rain.

Boy the wind is BLOWING again. Everything in here is covered with a fine coat of dust and visibility is pretty low because of flying dust. [We are right on the edge of the sevfere weather moving into Oklahoma City tonight.] We went out for a little bit to go for lunch at Famous Dave’s BBQ.

Then to Best Buy ‘cause Bill’s monitor took a crap. Then coming home we found two more painted horses. One at the Chevy dealer. Simply called “Chevy” wonder why…

One in front of Hooters. Named “Hooter’s Philly” at two or three a day it will only take 45 more days to find them all.

Back to yesterday – we drove across the flat land heading towards Palo Duro Canyon…How could there possibly be a canyon around here?

Palo Duro Canyon is a State park with lots of campgrounds and a very beautiful place. Called “The Grand Canyon of Texas.” Easy road to drive and lots of trails to hike and bike. It costs us $10 to enter – day use fee. The whole area at one time was a privately owned ranch. In 1933 the CCC – Civilian Conservation Corp – was brought in to develop it. Some info about the CCC and the park.

Just a wall of the Visitor Center before going inside.

Looking out over the canyon from the Visitor Center

Another look. Reminded me somewhat of Sedona area.

This was one of the nicest Interpretive Visitor Centers I’ve been in. The displays were very interesting and set up really nice.

Info about the area.

Drawing of the layers of earth.

There was also a lot of information about the CCC. When my Dad was a young man he worked with the CCC. I now wish I’d paid more attention to his time with them and where he worked.

CCC Facts.

The daily routine for the men. 

Thought this was interesting.

Driving out into the canyon. Lookout point looking across the canyon. 

Some of the different colors of the rocks.

More scenery the road twists down into the valley.

 

A really good look at the layers.

Some of the plant life on the valley floor. Trees, cactus, long dry grass and a little plant with red berries.

The road has five water crossings with warnings not to cross them if there is water present. If the water is up to the 5 – watch out. Those are measurements in feet. Not a drop on the road yesterday. I wonder how many people have driven into 3 or 4 feet of water. 

Water next to the road though on both sides.

You can see how high the water has cut into the banks.

The first three crossings are now getting bridges built over them. So there was still a narrow road to cross the wash. Lots of big RVs back in the campgrounds - so it's not as narrow as it appears.

Just more scenery. Red cliffs and dry, dry grass. There is a high fire warning throughout Texas. And today with the wind it could be a disaster if a fire started.

It was a very pleasant drive. And only 25 miles from Amarillo. 

So that was yesterday.

Waiting now for the NASCAR Cup race to begin. We are really rocking and rolling from the wind. I don’t see any satellite dishes up on any ones RV. Glad we have a dome instead of a dish. Bill just remarked that he's had enough of the f***ing wind. Me too.;