Arizona 2024: Day 6: Palo Duro Canyon State Park: Lorem Gypsum
Yup same location as yesterday. Well technically, same park, different campground. Was a wonderful night last night as we went to sleep listening to the coyotes. No traffic noise. No people noise. Temperature dropped through the night but the furnace on its lowest settings kept us plenty warm.
Morning walk was along the Kiowa trail. I had planned on doing a different trail but the difficulty was higher, it was cold and the ground was damp. So 4.4km on Kiowa it was!
Post walk we had the usual breakfast and lounged while we planned some of the upcoming route.
Oh, Oklahoma. I forgot two things. As we were packing up, a older fellow (I am aware that to the majority of the population I am an older fellow, but to me, he was an older fellow) drove up and asked me if my van was “high”. I asked him to repeat and the same question came out. I thought of the three possible things he could be asking: 1) How tall is the van? 2) How expensive is the van? 3) Has the van been smoking the weed (kind of like Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Given the demographic I decided to eliminate the third option. I offered answers to the other two options and said “9.5 feet, and yes, they are expensive”. He seemed to want to learn more but I was standing there with power cord in hand and right after offering how fast the van was to pack up, I stated I was busy packing up as we were about to hit the road.
Next we were having lunch at the gas station, a dude with real spurs on his boots drove up and walked into the store. I have owned pickup trucks. I can’t imagine them responding to a humane prod with the spurs. Must not be good for the carpet! You must dress the part to live the part!
Today’s drive was to the top of the canyon to do the paperwork for the old switcheroo and then all the way down to the furthest campground called Mesquite. On the way back we stopped at the store (aka Trading Post) and had a gander at the merchandise for sale. We also kept with tradition and got some onion rings. Best idea? Probably not. But tasty!
Mesquite is very different from the Hackaberry campsite. Our spot is pretty good but tomorrow’s is better. There are plenty of trails around here. We went out for a nice walk in the cool breeze. Nature offered us a small amount of fluffy crystallized rain along the way.
Post walk it was shower time. Conclude: 4/10. Not much privacy. Water was warm once I found the secret combination of the two knobs. Yes, it should be obvious. No, it was not.
We did more route planning and tried Campnab for the first time. And, we got success within a few hours. Campnab allows you to set alerts for when campsites become available at specific campgrounds on specific dates. It is a for fee service and was started by a couple of Canadians both named Eric.
Dinner was a lentil curry Mrs Milddogs had made pre-trip and froze. It was very good. We re-heated it using the induction stove top. It was a bit too windy to cook outside.
Post dinner I needed a bit more walking distance so I headed over to our next campsite to check it out. I grabbed some pictures of the van from that side.
Displeased with my reviews of the showers, and for some reason keying on the fact that literally anyone could walk in and see you showering, Mrs Milddogs opted for the minimal water van shower. Amy relaxed while her mom was “away”.
That’s about it today. Weather could have been better. Hard to imagine a better view. Tomorrow we head back up to the top of the canyon to do the paperwork to change sites again. Looking forward to site 81. I’m getting much more comfortable driving the scary road. I doubt we will get onion rings again tomorrow.
Pretty much every roadside attraction sells fudge. Why?
