The Lee Family: Off to Palo Duro Canyon!

The girls and I loaded up and headed out toward Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is near Amarillo in the Panhandle of Texas. I thought of visiting Palo Duro Canyon last summer and found that the Park has three cabins on the rim of the canyon that can be rented. However, they are booked out six months in advance. So, I made a note in my calendar and stayed up until midnight six months ago to reserve the Lighthouse cabin for three nights. Originally we thought that CK would be able to go with us, but his workload for the week was crazy, so we decided to make it a girl's trip and check out the canyon. Then maybe we'd go back with CK and explore more of the canyon.

We packed up the car with our hiking clothes, food, S'more makings, flashlights, books, and everything else we could possibly need. We said "Goodbye" to Papa and Buddy and headed out around 7:30am. We stopped for donuts and started driving toward the Park, which would be about 51/2 hours drive according to my GPS. We drove up 820 to 287 and basically stayed on 287 until we reached the Canyon. We drove through Decatur, Wichita Falls, Vernon, Chillicothe, Quanah, Childress, Memphis and Clarendon before we got to Amarillo and then the Palo Duro Canyon. We stopped in Clarendon for a bathroom break, to fill up on gas, a flat of bottled waters and new toothbrushes, since I realized I forgot to pack up the girls' toothbrushes. We got granola bars and bananas from our stash of food for snacks and continued on our way. We drove past the Big Texan Steak house in Amarillo where a 72oz steak is free, IF you can eat the entire steak and all the sides! I visited it nearly 20 years ago during a work visit to Amarillo and a burly truck driver actually did it! It was an amazing amount of food and I can't imagine how terrible he felt after!

We arrived at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park around 2pm and it is amazing how the canyon isn't even visible until you're right at the rim! We couldn't check into our cabin until 3pm, so we stopped at the Visitor's Center, watched a history video and walked around looking at the amazing views. One thing I noticed was how few cars and people were there. There were only two other cars while we were at the Visitor's Center! The Canyon has a rich history and was most recently the home to the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa tribes. The Red River War between the U.S. Army and southern Plains Indians lasted from June 1874 to spring 1875 with a decisive battle occurred in the canyon on Sept. 28, 1874. Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie led the 4th U.S. Cavalry in a surprise attack at dawn on a camp of Comanches, Kiowas and Cheyennes. The families fled up the canyon, leaving everything behind. MacKenzie’s troops captured 1,400 ponies and shot most of them. Soldiers also burned all the teepees and winter stores. With no horses or supplies, the families had no choice but to return to the reservation. The reign of Native Americans over the Panhandle plains ended soon after. The book I brought with me to read on the trip "Empire of the Summer Moon" is the story of Quanah Parker and the Comanches and tells a very fair portrayal of the betrayal of the U.S. Government and the ruthlessness of the Indians. The Canyon became a State Park in 1933 and President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the roads, the visitor center building, as well as the rim cabins.

We checked into our rim cabin and unloaded all of our stuff in the Lighthouse cabin! First, the view of the canyon was truly breathtaking! Inside the cabin is very rustic, but comfortable. The cabin has a little fridge, a microwave and a table and two chairs in a main room that includes a twin bed. Down a little hall is a bathroom that has a shower, and at the end of the hall is a bedroom with a queen bed. Each room has a fireplace, which we wouldn't be using although I'm sure it would be wonderful in the winter. The inside could use a deep clean and has far more dust bunnies and cobwebs that we normally sleep among, but it's also part of the rustic nature of our visit. Just outside the front door is a small area that included an outdoor table and two chairs. Just overlooking the rim is a park grill that we would be using for our dinners. It was so cool! I still can't believe how lucky we are to have reserved the Lighthouse cabin!

After we unloaded all of our stuff into the cabin, we threw on our hiking shoes, put on some sunscreen and headed out to explore. Our first stop was at the Trading Post for some much-needed ice cream. After relaxing for a few minutes, we continued on our way and talked about taking a horse ride either Tuesday or Wednesday. We drove through the canyon, and found the Sunflower Trail, that we decided to hike. It was flat and also pretty hot. It was a nice hike except for the horse flies that kept biting us! There were a lot of animal tracks in the red clay, which was fun to figure out what animal they belonged to and follow them for a bit. We turned back after maybe 1/2 mile and got back into our car to see what else we could find. We made it to the large cave, which is visible from the road and decided to hike to it. It's actually a short walk from the road, not really a hike. We basically had the place to ourselves and hiked up and into the cave. It was pretty spectacular and an easy climb up stones to get to the mouth of the cave. Inside the cave was probably at least 15 degrees cooler! It felt great. The girls loved it and had so much fun exploring the cave and the area. After a while, we headed back to our cabin and got there around 630pm. Olivia actually fell while going up the stairs to our car and really hurt her shin. She had a huge bump on her shin and it looked super painful! Poor thing.

We hung out and enjoyed the view for a bit before dinner. The girls "explored" around the cabin, but I made them stop after I realized that one slip would mean they were literally at the bottom of the canyon, nearly 1,000 feet below. We made our dinner around 7pm - frito pie, although I realized I forgot the cheese. We had a little bit of difficulty lighting the charcoal because the winds at the park grill were really strong! Sofia and I had to stand together on the far side of the grill to block the wind. We finally got the charcoal started and reheated our taco meat and made up our dinners. It ended up being pretty good, although it could have been warmer. After we were done eating, we made S'mores! So yummy!

After S'mores we took turns taking showers, which felt great! For the first time EVER, I got no pushback from either of the girls to take a shower. We cuddled up in the queen bed and watched one episode of The Flash! We were ready for bed by 9:30 or 10 and Sofia decided to sleep in the twin bed while Olivia and I slept together in the queen bed. We were all excited to hike and explore the next day!

Palo Duro Canyon or bust!