Texas State Parks and Travel Tour: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, 6/13/15 & 7/11

29. We did not camp at Palo Duro Canyon - this visit was a small part of a much larger trip in which we didn't bring the Scamp or camping equipment. (We stayed at the Knights' Inn in Canyon, which was AWFUL.)
We started off the day with a hike - got about a 1/2 mile up the Rock Garden Trail when the skies opened up and dumped rain on us! We ran back down the trail and jumped into the car to escape to higher ground, as the creeks and ephemeral streams quickly filled up with water! Once the storm passed, we went back to the trail and hiked to the top of the canyon. All the way up the trail, we saw little streams and waterfalls and it was just lovely. At the top, we found a suitable spot at which to sit down and eat our lunches while enjoying the immense view. On the way back down the trail, we noticed that all the little streams and waterfalls had already dried up! Once at the car, we went back to our motel to clean up before our evening back in the park.

We had the Chuck Wagon BBQ dinner at the park before the "Texas" show. The food was good, atmosphere was really fun. Non-Texans probably love it!

The show started and we were about 1/2 an hour into it when it started raining on us! Everybody ran under the eaves to try to stay dry. While we were standing there, we realized that the people standing in front of us had microphone packs on their waistbands - out-of-costume performers! We were all waiting for the Director's decision, but the actors broke into song and continued performing for us under the eaves! It was really cool. Eventually the Director cancelled the show, but the actors sang the Finale and the fireworks were shot off (wet fireworks are very unstable - better to just shoot them) and rain checks were passed out to those of us still there.

I believe our Palo Duro Canyon experience was highly unusual because of the rain, potential flash flooding and dramatic scenery, but of course we'll go back and see "Texas" when it's not raining!

Before the rain, first time up the trail.

Second time up the trail, ephemeral stream and waterfall.

Gordie at the top.

Same stream, now dry, on the way back down.

Chuck Wagon dinner!

Left side of the "Texas" stage.

Canyon is the nearest county seat and it has a lovely old, restored courthouse. It's also home to West Texas State University, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the 2 homes were Georgia O'Keeffe lived and took her meals, and is a Texas Main Street City.

2018 visit: We Scamped in site #9, successfully saw "Texas" to completion, and again experience Palo Duro with a little rain! The morning of 7/12 I walked to the bathroom and it was sprinkling, but the sun illuminated the cliffs and turned them gold for about 2 seconds. A few seconds after that I saw a rainbow! That little shower (and others upstream from the park) resulted in water flowing in the stream behind our Scampsite, but only for about 24 hours! We hiked the Juniper trails, the part of the Sunflower trail that connects them, and the unofficial trail along the stream behind our Scampsite. We also found the Goodnight Dugout and saw a wide variety of wildlife: wild turkeys in our Scampsite, a Mississippi Kite on its nest, Blue Grosbeaks, and a porcupine ambling down the road!