Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the United States! Alex & I are expanding our weekend camping trips to reach outside Oklahoma. While researching, Palo Duro consistently ranked as one of the top state parks in Texas. A relatively quick trip, only four hours from Oklahoma City, we decided to take one of the few weekends that Alex is home to visit.
We left around 9:00 am since we couldn’t check in to the campsite until 1:00 pm. Plenty of time to pack up the car and grab a quick cup of coffee before heading out. The drive is simple and easy; get on I-40 going West and don’t stop. Which gave us a copious amount of time to catch up on our favorite podcasts! This time, we chose to revisit Radio Rental, starring The Office’s Rainn Wilson. It hits the perfect spot between spooky and silly; a podcast-style take on Tales from the Crypt. Stories that made us yell “what the fuck!” are balanced with lighthearted vignettes featuring a weird video store owner and his cat.
We planned a number of stops along the way, including lunch in Amarillo. If you’re into burgers then you need to stop at Blue Sky Cafe. They (the burgers) are thicc. The Amarillo location is perfectly located on the way to Palo Duro Canyon so there’s pretty much no excuse to pass them up. The onion ring and french fry sides come in generous portions, and are a step above your average joint’s fare. Blue Sky Cafe instantly earned a top place in our list of best burgers.
Once we finished eating, we drove ten minutes down the road to Cadillac Ranch (cue Cadillac Ranch by Bruce Springsteen). It’s worth the trip. Free, accessible and unique. The type of roadside attraction that constitutes part of the great American road trip. Although we snapped a ton of pictures, we couldn’t help feeling a little left out watching other guests spray paint the Cadillacs. Thankfully, there’s a trailer onsite where you can purchase a plethora of spray paint colors (and snacks).
At long last, it was time to enter the canyon. However, before committing to the final leg of the journey to the park, we needed to resolve a vital issue: coffee. Despite Alex’s list-making and route-planning, coffee grounds for our camping pour-over were forgotten. This omission put the entire endeavor on a knife’s edge. Frantic Googling brought us to Palace Coffee. They don’t sell pre-ground bags but they’ll kindly grind beans for you. Their venue is attractive and was filled with a variety of folks grabbing a cup to go or settling in to work or study. We owe the success of our trip to them.
Okay. Canyon Time!
The first time Alex visited the canyon, he was around 13 years old in the Boy Scouts. It made an impression and he’s wanted to come back ever since. Finally seeing it justified that feeling.
<picture – Palo Duro Canyon>
The drive dramatically descends to the bottom of the canyon, where when the sun hits the right angle. When authors write about the beauty of the desert, Palo Duro Canyon would serve as ample inspiration.
Our campsite was in Fortress Cliffs campground, nestled under the cliffs for which it’s named. Paved roads lead you right to your campsite, where you are provided an awning, fire ring, concrete picnic table and a metal post to spring up a lantern. There are enough sturdy trees to rig up your hammocks, the awning is strong enough to provide a hammock anchor if required. Sadly, the trading post in the park was sold out of firewood during one of the rare periods the county isn’t under a burn-ban.
Our tent went up in good order, despite us being a bit out of practice. We finished our setup with a string of fairy lights that Taylor got during a previous REI sale. It was also the inaugural expedition for our Pack-Away Bin, which swallowed everything we threw inside.
We usually choose an easy dinner on the first night of the campout. Stovetop nachos are a well-worn recipe… as long as you remember the shredded cheese… and something to cover the frying pan with so they bake at the top. Due to the heat we momentarily considered leaving the rain cover off our tent. We noticed clouds quickly moving in before dark, and threw it back on an hour before the rain began. We were treated to an impressive lightning show from the cover of our awning.
Our tent held fast and we stayed perfectly dry throughout the storm, and we enjoyed a restful night to the sound of rain. Next morning’s breakfast, blueberry pancakes, fared much better. We got our pans and dishes camp-clean and set out on the trail. The Lighthouse Trail is a flagship hike of the park, leading to the eponymous Lighthouse Rock.
Mercifully, the trail is pretty flat, only difficult in the handful of muddy portions from last night’s rain. The first half meanders along the canyon walls and through low scrub. Popular, well traveled and well marked, it’s one of the trails where you can’t help but make trail friends. Which we did, of course. Granted, our trail friends joined up with us as insurance against a very prominent feature of the park…
There are a ton of tarantulas in the park. Big ones too. Our poor trail friends were terrified and clung to us for moral support to step around them. They’re harmless, but keep in mind that this is their home; we’re just hiking in it. Lizards too fast to positively ID constantly scampered in and out of our line of sight.
The Lighthouse Rock is spectacular. One side is occupied by a flat outcropping of rock, great for a snack break. You can climb to a higher point but it’s unclear whether it’s truly part of the trail or forced by visitors. Wishing to practice leave-no-trace principles, we erred on the side of caution and admired the view from where we stood.
A feast of pre-made spicy chicken wraps awaited us at the car, which we then took to a souvenir/convenience/brewery outside the park.
We each had a beer flight on their patio, where a trio of longhorns from next door watched us dry out after the morning’s hike. Their store has a limited grocery section, which luckily for us, carries cheese! Aside from ruining the nachos, the lack of cheese also posed a problem for the night’s dinner: stovetop chili mac.
With daylight to spare, we pulled up the park map and began knocking out their highlighted points of interest. The Big Cave lives up to its name. Alex got to indulge being a history nerd at the ruins of the CCC Fireplace. The Wildlife Viewing Blind added one or two new species to Alex’s life list, the birds come by to nibble seed and sip from the fountains once it quiets down.
By chance, we also visited on the centennial anniversary of the park. In celebration, the park put on a carnival on their amphitheater grounds. We arrived as it was winding down, but still got to see a handful of wagons set up by the reenactors. If you can, it’s worth visiting during a festival like this, the atmosphere plus the backdrop of the canyon is hard to replicate anywhere else.
We supplemented dinner with a pack of local brews from Sad Monkey, followed by some smores (our stove had to suffice for a campfire). We could safely leave the top off the tent that night, which got surprisingly chilly. The cold turned out to be the least of our issues while trying to sleep that night.
WARNING: getting on a soapbox!
We’re in a public space, everyone has the right to enjoy any given campsite, we’re all just trying to make it in the world, etc… but please turn your music down. We have a small Bluetooth speaker and will enjoy some music while making dinner or cleaning up, but never at a volume the other side of the campsite will hear. Some other guests don’t abide by the same logic. An hour or so of jams during the afternoon, no problem. Staying full volume right up to lights out? Less pleasant.
Leaving camp is always bittersweet, the drive back up to ground level felt like leaving another world. It leaves one with a sense of gratitude that amazing natural places are at our fingertips. Even though it’s not federal land, Palo Duro Canyon can stand tall all the same. We only scratched the surface. After all, there are still a handful of points of interest in the park to explore and craft brews at Sad Monkey to try!