Palo Duro Cayon

Palo Duro Canyon 10/26—10/29.

Wild Turkey in Camp

When visiting the Panhandle area of Texas, everyone says, “Make sure you go to Palo Duro Canyon. You’ll like it.” And like it we do. Pulling into Hackberry Campground in Palo Duro Canyon State Park we glimpse wild turkeys and deer skirting around the campsites. Yellow and orange-leafed trees--hackberry, mesquite, oak, and cottonwood, create a classic autumn scene. Our campsite, #20, facing the creek has a fire pit and a covered picnic table and feels homey. It’s November and temperatures in the 70s make us Colorado girls sigh with happiness as we put out our camp chairs and sit down to sip a cup of tea. We settle in and the wildlife show begins. A flock of wild turkeys wanders through making its way among the yellow shrubs. Every so often a tom displays his tail feathers and gets into a tiff with one of the other turkeys. Golden-fronted woodpeckers swoop in and out of the trees showing off their beauty while deer meander through the shrubs below. Later in the afternoon, a wandering covey of bobwhite quail break from the shrubs and cut across near the picnic table. It’s like our own personal wildlife show.

Fun mountain biking in Palo Duro Canyon

We explore the campground checking out the bathroom to see if it has showers (it does!) and look to see what kind of trails we can find close to camp. It’s the end of October and the campground is almost empty. Most of the campsites have decent natural shrub barriers between the sites offering a feeling of privacy. A couple of trailheads are accessible right from camp. Most of the campers we see have mountain bikes attached to their cars or trailers and we see riders cycling back to camp looking tired and happy. We’re looking forward to taking our bikes out for a spin.



Annette and Shug Lighthouse Rock

First thing in the morning we grab Shug and hit the trailhead located right across from the Hackberry entrance and hike out to Light House Rock. The trail is nicely packed and well-marked. We hike out to the rock formation and climb around before turning around to wander back amongst the red rocks, mesquite trees, and quiet desert beauty to camp. We explore other trails off the Rojo Grande trail with our mountain bikes and find trails of varying difficulty and length all marked with simple signs that give the initials of the trail’s name and distance traveled in half mile increments. The visitor center provides a map that shows all of the trails. It’s often hard to find good mountain biking trails, but Palo Duro delivers.

Halfway through our time at Palo Duro, we make a trip into the nearby town of Canyon. There’s a huge and well-reviewed Western museum here that we do not visit this time because we have Shug and we don’t like to leave her in the truck for too long. We do, however, tour around the old downtown which is charming and artsy, and stop in at Palace Coffee Company. Their coffee tastes great and their warm and cozy atmosphere provides a pleasant spot for a bit of WIFI time. Everything one could need in the way of resupply is available in Canyon. A quick trip to the grocery store and a fuel fill-up does it for us and we head back to our camp.

Spider Selfie just in time for Halloween

Camp Rating: 4.5/5 Loved it and will definitely come back—probably during the same time of year

Ambience: Warm and wonderful. Wildlife, trees, and site amenities all great

Tail Access: Excellent quality and variety

Accessibility and size of the campsite: Awkward parking angles for our 38 ft 5^th wheel, but once parked, a well laid out site.

Connections: Zero Verizon connection. 2 TV stations (both were PBS). A few radio stations, including one NPR station

Bathrooms: Acceptably clean, showers could use a little retiling work, but the water was hot and the bathroom was heated.

Negatives: Flies (which may have been exacerbated by our proximity to the trash dumpster).