Dusty Gator's
Palo Duro Canyon Trip
The Cabin
The following are a few photos I took while visiting Palo Duro Canyon the weekend of May 9-11, 2008. This is a great place and I can't wait to do it again. I may even make this an annual even each spring near the end of April. Weather was perfect. Bugs were minimal. Follow the link for more about Palo Duro Canyon. We drove out and back. The driving time was 6 hours and we only slightly bent the speed limit.
We found a great family restaurant in Childress named Dawson's and I highly recommend it if you enjoy good down-home family cooking. It's on the left side of US-287 if you are going west.
Betsy, AKA Mrs. Gator, has had enough tent camping for one life-time, so now camping must include hot showers, clean sheets, air-conditioning and room service if possible. So we got a "cabin" on the rim near the entrance to the canyon.
The photo above shows the front door and patio. The "cabins" are made of native stone, have two sleeping areas, each with its own fireplace, and a bathroom with shower. It is also air-conditioned. With night-time temps around 50 and day-temps in the low 80's, we didn't need either heat or air. All rooms, including the bathroom, have a view of the canyon.
The next photo shows the patio as seen from the steps going down to the "cabin".
The photo also shows the great view of the canyon from the patio. There was a "burn-ban" in effect, so couldn't use the charcoal grill and had use a portable gas grill instead.
The "cabin" photo below shows us relaxing the first evening at the cabin.
The first day was the "mandatory" trip out to the Lighthouse. Below is a shot of the scenery including Mrs. Gator. Notice the "hoodoo" near the center of the photo.
Below, another photo of Mrs. Gator along the Lighthouse trail.
Below, the Gator himself coming up the trail on a Gary Fisher Paragon.
Parts of the trail are sandy, so the 29 x 2.3 tires came in real handy. Made it to the Lighthouse as seen below.
Below, coming back from the Lighthouse.
One of the rock gardens on Caldera.
Capitol Peak and Givens, Spicer, Lowry Trails
I also rode the Capitol Peak and GSL trails. If you do them all at once, you are going to get a workout. I don't have any photos of these trails as Mrs. Gator and my step-son who was also there are not really off-road riders, and I didn't want to bring a camera along.
The GSL is fairly technical in spots and will work you out. I recommend parking at the trail-head for the Lighthouse trail and taking the Paseo Del Rio to the GSL trail-head as a warm-up. Ride the GSL to Little Fox Canyon Trail and use the Little Fox for recovery before moving on to Lighthouse and Capitol Peak.
Take the Capitol Peak Trail off of Lighthouse and stay to the right to ride along the peak. This trail is fun and moderately challenging. Ultimately, Capitol Peak will bring you back to a parking area near the Lighthouse trail head. Go left and on the Juniper Trail and you will end up back at the Lighthouse trailhead in less than a mile.
Next time I'll plan for more than three days. By the time we got there late Friday afternoon and got unloaded, there wasn't much time available to ride before getting dinner started.
Saturday was the only full ride day. I could only get in a couple of hours Sunday before packing up and heading back to Dallas. I could have used another day or two. Besides, if you are going to use the gas to get there, you might as well make it worth while. I may even consider renting a travel trailer and staying 5-6 days at the Hackberry Camp area.
If you have any questions, PM Dusty_Gator on the DORBA.org website.