Day 25: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, TX: It’s the second biggest hole in the country

Yesterday’s un-reported not that exciting excitement. On our walk we saw a tumbleweed tumbling. The dude adjacent too us looked like he was having a fire (there is a burn ban on pretty much everywhere) but his fire was propane powered so that was acceptable. The people in the tent across from us may have been close to having a domestic. Add them to the list of tent people that usually fail to show you how much fun they are having. Stars were beautiful again.

We arose relatively early for us. It was a tad cold out at 4C. I got suited up in the required shorts, t-shirt and a windbreaker and headed out on my walk. My plan was to do the Canyon Rim Trail again, but go out further after the spur trail. As I neared our beloved site 35, I was immediately disappointed as the people that reserved it had not shown up. There were probably 8 sites in the small campground that were reserved and were no-shows. All of these no-shows makes me think of the Sopranos. Alas, we could have had our favourite site for another night. The disappointment didn’t last. As I neared the road I could see one bison plodding in the middle of the road as he crested the hill. Thanks for the picture bison. No, that is not the end of it. He was leading about 30 of them. I waited and got a few pictures before moving on.

Turns out, the extension of the trail I went on reaches a point where the left and right sides of the canyon come together. Pretty cool views. Here are some pictures.

I started my return and had some concern about being bison-blocked from getting back. That herd had to go somewhere. Last year, I was bison-blocked on this trail and had to make a big detour to get back to the van. This year. Dang, there is a bison on the trail right next to site 35. Go around into vacant (boo!) site 35. Kapow, two Bison at the entrance to site 35. Stop taunting us!

I looked over and saw the herd was standing along the road at the comfort station. I texted Mrs Milddogs and stopped the “workout” on my watch. Mrs Milddogs joined me at the comfort station for a little fun watching the bison.

And this concludes the bison photos. Back to the van. Breakfast done, let’s pack up. Mrs Milddogs claimed to have a few more things to do. No way! Do them at the dump station or we will lose our place in line. Sure enough, we pulled out of our site just as a huge fifth wheel was coming down the road. Aha! No one in line, we get to dump while Mr 2 dumo drains has to wait. You guessed it, still 100% faeces free! To add some context, I don’t fully engage the hose tabs on the van part as they are too hard to remove if fully engaged. I’m living dangerously.

On the way out of the park we saw 4 groups of bison (including the earlier one) all about the same size. We stopped at the store and I got a few t-shirts. I don’t normally do that, but this place is special.

On to Palo Duro. We stopped at the United Grocery Store (no H-E-B) in Canyon to provision. We checked into the park at about 1315. The campgrounds are in the canyon.

We got to our site in the HackBerry campground and the scenery is awesome. From our site you can walk out the back to a trail that runs along the currently tiny river at the base of those canyon walls. I configured my water filter / hose in what is know as “The Tony” as the filter could not fit on the spigot. Technically I was a modified “Tony” as I had the pressure regulator after the filter.

After some relax, we went out on one of the trails. There are a lot of trails. From our campground you can get to a bunch of them without driving.

Trail was nice. Amy had fun. There was a little cave. We took turns climbing up to the cave. Some a-hole left some garbage in the cave. We collected the can and the bag but not the Cheetos. I am unsure which of the items would have decayed faster; can, plastic bag or Cheetos.

Post walk we did some fixing (sealing the windows a bit) and some relaxing. The tube of Permatex silicone I procured at the Auto Zone to seal the window blew out the end. I was wearing one glove.

Dinner good. Yum. Asparagus. Pee will smell tonight.

Post dinner we went for a walk around the campground to check it out. Met a nice lady from Saskatchewan. Did not ask if she had seen a Saskatchewump. Maybe she is a Saskatchewump. Amy had a good old time and did not want to stop, so when we got back we took the trail at the back of the site along the currently small river and Amy and I basically did another loop of the campground.

That’s about it, except Mrs Milddogs is making Snickerdoodles in the convection oven we can never figure out. Tomorrow, our last full day in Texas, we will do the driving tour of the park, walk some trails, hang out, drink our last beer and take some pictures.

This park is the home of the official Texas Longhorn herd. Not as exciting as bison but you do have to give them more room.

Contrary to information on the internet, this campground has several bars of cell coverage!

Showers here are not great, but I won’t have a choice. Stay clean out there!