Palo Duro Canyon

Well it took long enough, but I have finally gotten around to uploading the pictures and creating a post for the trip we took to Palo Duro Canyon in October. We had a great time, and were able to really experience God throughout the trip. It took an hour less than Google maps said it would, and when we got there we were not only able to pick the campground we wanted to stay at, but we able to pick the actual campsite in that campground!! We chose the furthest south campground, and then were also told to pick a particular site. It turns out that the site we got was the best one in the park! As you can see from the pics, it has a absolutely amazing view. The volunteer thats in charge of our campground goes around to each campsite as campers leave and picks up any left over firewood. He came up to us as soon as we arrived and told us about the firewood he had and said we were welcome to as much as we wanted. So we had a fire every night!! Unfortunately though, after about 5 pictures with our digital camera, it died. So we had to run in to the local Wally World to get a cheap disposable one. That also gave us a chance to get all the other stuff we forgot :) The nights were VERY cold, and we found out the the awesome tent we have was made for the summer. By the last night, Liz put up towels around the outside of the tent, just underneath the outer rain jacket, and it sure did worked!! We were able to just have a very relaxing time together hiking everyday (total of 9 miles throughout the 3 days), and relaxing each night by the fire. We would eat dinner and then pull up the chairs by the fire facing each other with the cooler in between with the lantern on it, and play rummy till we were ready for bed. We slept in as late as we could (7 or 8), get up and make coffee, then head out for the trails. We would come back to camp and eat lunch and then back out till evening. The best trail their was the Lighthouse Trail. It was also the longest, 6 miles round trip I think. It was a very deceiving trail too. Of the 3 miles one way, 2.9 is nice and flat and very scenic, but of the last .1 miles, it was literally straight up. We could see the lighthouse for most of the way to it, and we were asking each other "at what point do we go up?" We'll, we found out that at the very end is when we go up!! But the veiw was well worth the hike. All the other trails we hiked the rest of our time there were considerably shorter, but just a scenic. We both agreed that Palo Duro, by far, was the best place we have been so far! The campground was very well laid out, and I guess we just came at the right time of the year, but we were I think 1 out of like 10 at this campgound of 30 sites. So it was very quiet and peaceful. We are looking forward to coming back in the future!!

Pictures from Palo Duro Canyon