Palo Duro State Park

Monday, April 29

"Nothing to make a shadow", that was the first thing to pop into my mind as we left the rolling green of northern Texas Hill Country and entered the plains area of the Texas panhandle. Flat....as far as the eye can see, the sky becomes so large it dwarfs even the modern day wind generators slowly rotating above the dwarfed farm houses and outbuildings. 

Sometimes it's a lone windmill, other times the entire farm seems to have been given over to "wind farming".  The book title I mention above was written by a woman recalling her very early days as a settler on the plains of South Dakota. I wonder what she would think of the Texas plains. Not much in the way of shadows here, even now.  

I can't begin to imagine the surprise of those who arrive from the eastern states so many years ago, traveling across the miles and miles of flat-flat-flat land known as the Great Plains, only to come upon this, an 800 foot deep canyon laced with layers of red and white with glistening rivers and creeks flowing through a small forest of trees and shrubs.

We're staying in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The Spanish name "Palo Duro", which translates to "hard wood" refers to the Rocky Mountain junipers that grow here. The canyon also contains mesquite (also a very hard wood), cottonwood, willow, western soapberry and hackberry. A variety of shrubs and other greenery fill the canyon floor, especially this time of year when many things are in full bloom.

The early development of Palo Duro Canyon as a park relied largely on the work of the Civilian Conservation Corp. First came the road, a fascinating and very steep involving many switchbacks. Then came the El Coronado Lodge. The building serves as the visitor center and gift shop today, but a photo tells of the rustic luxury of the Mission era when it was first completed.

The many retaining walls and stone bridges found throughout the park are also the work of the CCC. 

Palo Duro Canyon was formed over millions of years. of water erosion by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River with a bit of help from the famous the West Texas wind. The cliffs, gullies, layers of color and ever changing shadows are a joy to watch as the lighting changes during the day. Some of the formations have been given fanciful names, like the Lighthouse, taken as the symbol of the canyon. We also learned about the Sad Monkey, which can be viewed from the area behind the Old West Stables. 

Many years ago there was a small railroad that ran in that area, providing visitors with ongoing narrative about the canyon and it's history during the ride. The name "Sad Monkey was inspired by a rock formation, and the sprit is kept alive in the name of a mercantile just outside the park. The historical Sad Monkey Railroad is no longer running, a victim of regulations and insurance costs, it has been restored and sits on display in Neblett Park in the nearby town of Canyon. In 2019 a state historic marker was placed near the train display in the park. The tracks have been removed and bits of them are available on Ebay as souvenirs. 

The nearby town of Canyon (20 miles away) is worth visiting, if not for the train, then for a visit to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the beautiful collection of artifacts, art, and cultural presentations. This is truly a beautiful museum, with the most artistic, informative and professional presentations of historic artifacts, art objects, and the range of cultures in the area over time. I couldn't help taking a few photos, though it's difficult to truly present the experience without being there. 

The Native Americans knew about Palo Duro canyon long before the settlers arrived of course, they had been living in the canyon and hunting the abundant wildlife for generations. That fact and the desire for the settlers of the westward movement led to the Red River War. (more here Red River War) It was not just one simple battle, but part of a process over several years that led to the complete destruction of the Native American culture in the plains area. The Panhandle-Plains Museum does an excellent job of illustrating the complexities of the cultural changes of those times. 

The park is a network of trails and offers surprising things to discover along the way. We heard the turkeys long before we saw them, and it took some serious hunting to find the dugout style cabin. Wildflowers and shrubs we've never seen before decorate the slopes, and there are several small creeks crossing the trails. Horses, bicycles, dogs and humans are all welcome here. 

Our site is #90 in the Mesquite Camp area. It's a great site, with  couple of drawbacks. The first is, there is a giant dumpster placed exactly where a vehicle needs access to in order to make the swing when backing a trailer into the space. The second is that the shelter and picnic table assigned to this site are actually closer to the adjacent site than to this one. This is probably the result of changes in site design over the years, and we have a table of our own as well as the shade of the awning so all is well. We have lots of space and a great view to the canyon out the back window. 

The dogs are loving all the room for sniffing, and the many trails for our frequent walks. Though all the spaces seem to be occupied by evening this doesn't seem to be an especially busy time of year for the park.   

The book mentioned is  Nothing to Make a Shadow. Faye Cashatt Lewis. 1940

 More photos in the album, along with some explanatory notes. 

    

Skyline Regional Park - Buckeye, AZ

The current popularity of RV camping has really put a crunch on the ability to schedule a multi-night say anywhere these days. We often have to piece it all together to make a lengthy stay in a single area. Such is the case when planning for our reunion event. We needed 5 nights in a row in the White Tank Mountain Regional Park. It seems that wasn't possible, so the patchworking began. 

Feb. 2 - First night in the area, Buckeye's Skyline Regional Park.

This is a fairly new park and isn't on a lot of lists for the area. It's an 8,700 acre mountain preserve located in the southern White Tank Mountains. It's situated just outside of Buckeye. 

When we arrived we were delightfully surprised to find one of the most spacious campgrounds we've ever seen. Each site is easily 4 times wider than sites are in many other places. There are only a few sites, but most are adequately deep to accommodate even the largest rigs, and the access road is wide enough to make backing in easy. 

In the photo at the right you can see our rig way at the back, in the center of the photo.

There are multiple hiking trails, all well marked, and lovely desert scenery too. The park is open for campers, hikers, bikers and horseback riders. Clear signs list special trail instructions for each group in the few areas where it's necessary ( i.e. no horses on the bridge).

In the afternoon we head into Glendale for the "Say Hi before you die" reunion activities (a little dark cop humor there), a 30 minute drive away, leaving the pups to guard the trailer. 

This first evening was casual with a delicious spaghetti dinner, time spent getting reacquainted with people we hadn't seen for a year, or more, and an early "to bed" for everyone who had traveled to the event.

One little, very important, detail.... this is a "boondocking" RV parking situation - that is, no power and no water, you'll need to be prepared for that. We're used to coping with cold weather and all the other "opportunities" when we travel, so it's not a problem, but it might be for others. This park has very nice restrooms, but no showers. 

No electricity meant no heat all night while we were asleep. We were very comfortable though, having used our propane heater before going to bed. 

The dogs however, had a different opinion. "What do you mean we have to go outside? It's cold!"

If you are interested in using the hiking trails be advised, a lot of other people are too! We noticed the parking lot filled to near overflowing very early in the day on Saturday, and mostly cleared out by dusk. 

Park entrance is free for day use, and you can rent a campsite via their website. Currently (2024) the price is $20 per night. 

Time to move on to another nearby location. 

Feb. 3 - So, one night taken care of in Skyline, now we need 4 more. We move to White Tank Mountain Regional Park, space #28 for one night. 

 

White Tank Mountain Regional Park

White Tank Mountain Park, near Waddell, Arizona, is to be our home while we're here in Arizona visiting friends we haven't seen for several years. It's a "mini reunion", and lots to catch up on. 

Our site is in the Family Campground, one of many small groupings of campsites distributed along a winding road through some of the most beautiful Sonoran desert we've seen. 

The cactus and shrubs are beautiful, even though the area has been short on rain fall for quite awhile, and the birds are plentiful. Some of them have the strangest voice! I'm hoping the visitor center will provide names for them. They're rather bashful so I haven't been able to get a photo yet. 

Shall we dance?

There is a network of trails throughout the park, all clearly labeled on the park map, and ranked according to difficulty. The signage leading hikers to the trails and intersections along the way is clear and the map in the brochure exactly matches the Google map, so there's no confusion. That's probably the first time I've seen that happen! 

There's a brief description of the human history of the area here. And the White Tank Mountain Conservancy has more detail on the history on their website. 

Considering the numbers of birds happily singing their spring songs around our site, many of those birds new to me, I thought this would be a good time to try out the Merlin app I had downloaded a few months ago. It's a product of the Cornell Lab, and I've used some of their online resources before with good results.

The app, how it works and how to get it, are here. It took me a little while to figure it out and get my Cornell account set up, and then I went to work recording and trying to identify one of the really strange, gravelly calls I had heard frequently. Bingo! It's a cactus wren. 

Immediately after I played the third recording the system had offered as a possible match to my sample one of the wrens swooped in, landed on our retracted flag pole and started calling back to the electronic voice he had heard. I felt really bad that I had to disappoint him (or her?) but there was an answer from across the campground loop so I hope they met up. 

There are multiple ways to identify birds using the app, so I think I'll get a lot of use out of it after little more practice. 

There is a wide variety of wildlife in the park, and each has its own preferred "hours of operation". It wasn't until evening, coming home from one of the gatherings in town, that we saw a pair of coyotes near the road. They are smaller than those is some areas. These two had gray-tan coloring, and looked quite healthy, and calm, as they know they are safe within the park. Several times during the night we heard them singing. There seem to be several of them around the area, including several young ones that are still learning all the notes. Their presence probably accounts for the fact that we haven't seen many rabbits, chipmunks or other types of rodents.

We've had a good time here, walking the trails in the morning and then going in to Glendale to visit friends from the "old days" when we lived in Orange County, CA. Lots of stories to be told and things to catch up on.  We'll be leaving Monday for Indio, CA. to visit family. Our trail hikes led us to an area thick with ancient petroglyphs....see the next post for photos of those. 

The Old Timers Club

The Arizona and New Mexico album is here