Palo Duro Canyon 10/26—10/29.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 5th 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).
