Go West – to New Mexico – Day 7

Awake at 5:30 am and apparently Jo wasn’t too far behind because she texted me around 7 am to see if I wanted to go down for breakfast. Strange that this hotel is probably more expensive than any I have stayed this trip and probably more expensive than we will stay on the rest of the trip but they had one of the weaker breakfasts. In any case, we were on the road to Palo Duro Canyon State Park or, translated, hard wood.

On my two cross country trips over the past few years, I had people tell me this is a must see. I learned from them about the size of the canyon and heard that you can drive through the canyon from the canyon bed. It is really true.

After a brief stop at the visitors center (worth the stop) we did begin a 10% down grade onto the canyon floor. We were low enough there were several areas with flash flood warnings posted along with depth gauges so you could see how high the water was over the road bed.

By the way, the news about crowded parks is tree. As we paid our fee for entrance ($8/person) we were greeted with a sign that said all camping facilities were already reserved or occupied.

Jo and I decided we would do a drive through of the canyon and then if we saw any trails we wanted to hike, we would do that on the return through the canyon. We also agreed we would pull off if we saw anything interesting.

Our first pull of was Goodnight Peak Scenic Loop, a 0.4 mile trail. It provided a good panoramic vista of the canyon.

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From there we drove the length of the canyon which then loops back to the jump off point to Lighthouse Trail and Capitol Peak Trail. The trailhead at Lighthouse had a sign that said “Danger!” “Heat Warning.” “Hikers need to carry a minimum of 1 gallon of water.” “Don’t attempt the trail if you have any health issues.” The trail is a 2.8 mile trail out and and back for a total of 5.6 miles. We didn’t have any health issues and we had the water but we decided to not try this during the heat of the day.

We opted for the Capitol Peak Trail which is a 3.5 mile loop, mostly used for biking. There is also a switch back for a shorter loop and that ran about 2.1 miles. That’s the trail we chose and it was around 11 am when we set off. That meant we would be on the trail from 11am until around 2 pm. The temperature was around 90°F. We had plenty of water and food and there was a delightful breeze. The trail is rated Easy/Difficult – a strange rating. It turned out to be an easy trail other than the heat.

We finished up around 3 pm and then headed to the trading post to relax a little in the air conditioned space. This is a beautiful trail and I suspect all of the trails are equally nice. Our mileage with the shorter loop was around 2.1 miles. Pretty good for two old people!

Regretfully, we never made it to the Pioneer Nature Trail, noted for the abundance of Texas Horn Frogs – really a lizard, not a frog or toad. I had to get that in the blog to continue my toad/frog/lizard theme.

Tomorrow we head to see Patrick and Sara at their cabin outside of Albuquerque. We have four nights there to drive Patrick and Sara nuts and to do a little hiking.

Stay tuned!