Day 26: Palo Duro State Park, Canyon, TX: Onion rings in a canyon

Sleeping in is fun to do when you let it be good for you. Normally at home life, I awaken between 0515 and 0630. Get up, go for a walk and commute to the basement for work (please don’t let that commute change). By about end of work day, I’m good for a nap. On this trip, like last time, no naps. Even laid in the hammock and no nap occurred. Maybe I just need to always live in the van.

Apparently the coyotes were close last night. I did not hear them. Sorry, coyotes, I’ll sleep lighter tonight. OK. Wake up and go for a walk. But where? So many trails. I decided on a section of the Upper Comanche Trail. I went about 1.75 km on the trail before I turned around. Trail started to get a bit narrow on the sloped edge of “I’m going to die if I fall”. To compensate, I overshot my starting point and did a bit of the south end of the Upper Comanche Trail. The Saskatchewump had warned me of how narrow that trail was and she was right. Turn back, go to van. I tend to be cautious as I am walking alone and we aren’t home. Home as in “free” medical care if you can get it. Anyone know a Doctor taking patients?

People tend to depart early from these campgrounds. The site on our right was vacant by 0900. Soon after “Mom got a settlement and bought an RV and brought a shit ton of teenagers with her camping” arrived. Dang! They parked poorly, made some noise and then walked away.

Back at the van we planned our day. We decided to to at least the main part of the Lighthouse Trail to see the park’s signature formation. Minimum distance is 1.5 miles one way. The trailhead is a few miles down canyon from our fort so we drove to the trailhead. The trail was beautiful. Not too hard. Amy had a great time but doesn’t like to drink much when we are on walks. Weather was about 12C when we left but it felt warmer. We took many pictures and Amy had to smell all of the smells. We were not after a good pace, just a good time. We made it to the first viewing point of the lighthouse rock formation and turned around there. The lighthouse is a further 2 miles away. Our total walk was 5km.

Post completion of our walk, we hopped in the van and continued down canyon on the scenic drive. We stopped and had lunch at a picnic area. We were alone. That’s fine. Post lunch we finished the loop. We toured the Mesquite Campground. When we come back here we will try and get that campground. It is surrounded by clear views of the red canyon walls. Up here in HackBerry we have vegetation. Animal sightings included deer, turkey, roadrunner and a little lizard that we named “Wally the fast little palo duro canyon lizard”. Wally does not understand proper capitalization so we don’t bother trying to get it right.

We overshot our campground and went to the Trading Post. We got a few things and some onion rings. We talked with a nice German couple there (while our onion rings got cold). They were in a rental RV and we had seen them at Cap Rock Canyon. Back to our fort to eat some onion rings and do some relaxing on our last day in Texas. Just as I got my hammock set up our new neighbours arrived and commenced to setting up their tent. Step 1, music on. Dang! How does that make sense? In nature, listen to the birds. I gave it a few minutes and I approached them. A brave thing to do in Texas cause everyone is more armed than I am. Dude asked immediately if the music was too loud and I generously said “yes”. He offered to turn it off and I replied “that would be nice”. None of those were my exact words but they were generally polite. Back to the hammock! On the good news front, the mom’s settlement crew were just squatting in the site next to us and had moved to squat in another. Mom’s settlement gives her privilege. Our new neighbour drives a Travato! All 3 of the other Travato owners we have met on this trip are SFTs (Single Female Travellers). I am unsure if there is a correlation between getting a Travato and no longer needing / wanting a partner or whether the departure of the partner opens the door to a Travato.

We basically just relaxed and stared at the wonders of nature for a few hours. Then we packed up to go see the cowboy dugout and the scenic canyon drive with different lighting. Both were cool.

Back we came. Dinner was mostly leftovers. We discussed plans for the route home and made some reservations. Also selected a BBQ place to stop at along the way.

Tonight it will be windy and cold. The temperature is set to drop to -2C. We shall unplug the water line and stow that before bedtime. The total duration for below zero temperatures is less than 3 hours so we should not freeze any lines or tanks. Please, no foreshadowing!

Showers were both good and bad. It was the same setup as McKinley back in Austin with a communal naked area and separate shower stalls. Only curtains. But, I was desperate. With careful execution and planning, I was all alone for the duration. Let’s give them a 5/10 for the warm water and large(ish) shower stall.

Head east they say. Or do they??