Road trip

From Palo Duro Canyon outside Amarillo Texas...
Occasionally, a song lyric gets stuck in my mind, and becomes a minor obsession.  I first heard this line about 15 years ago, when Guy Clark's album "Cold Dog Soup" came out.  I've been a fan of his since the mid-seventies, and this song really struck a chord.  I didn't know anything about the Palo Duro - I don't think many people do, have ever heard of it, or have any idea of the history, but I found myself drawn to the *idea* of it, and the possibility of visiting. West Texas is not country for everyone.  I like it, but I wouldn't want to live there!  Few trees, plenty of thorny plants, and the ever felt presence of wind.  I've covered a fair amount of Texas over the years, but I'd not been up around Amarillo and the headwaters of the Red River.

Headed cross the plains to the coast of Oklahoma... 
I had some subliminal need to see this place.  So spring of 2013, I found myself with a week before I started a my current job, and we did a bit of a road trip.  3000 miles of driving in my 1994 Suburban "Clifford".  We did a 'grand tour' hitting Taos and Santa Fe, and then chasing a spring storm full of sleet and rain from Santa Fe eastward to Amarillo and the Palo Duro.  As we left, we could see buckets of rain, thunder and wind. It really didn't seem like a night to camp...


So here's to Charlie Goodnight and Mr. Loving too...
Palo Duro is (if I got it right) the largest canyon east of the Rockies.  It carves a beautiful path through the sandstone, and even on a cold, windy day was worth the drive.  There's a nice interpretive center and gift store, with a fair amount of the history. One of the original ranchers of the region, Charles Goodnight is mentioned prominently.  Charlie Goodnight led a life that spawned a thousand westerns, fighting indians, settling the land, making some of the first longhorn cattle drives north, and along the way inventing the chuck wagon.  In his later years, he was also a newspaperman and started a college, even though he could not read.  The west was settled by some very interesting folk.

The Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River Flows...
 A reminder of the volatile temper of Mother Nature.  Palo Duro is the start of the Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River and the signposts indicate the depth of water overflowing the road.  Flash floods are very common, to the point that roads are built to be easily washed _over_ instead of bridges to be washed out.

The park has a number of hiking and mountain bike trails, several campgrounds, and apparently some kind of a featured interpretive 'play'.

Red River I know you, I know you of old...
The canyon flows southeastward in the general  direction of Wichita Falls, opening up onto the plains of the Texas Panhandle and becoming the border with Oklahoma.  It is starkly beautiful country, and worth a visit.  One caution - there's not a lot anywhere in the immediate area in terms of food or drink. If you are afraid of small town cafes, it's going to be a long drive!  In our case, we were off toward Abilene, San Marcos, and eventually Oklahoma City.  But that's for another post.

Lyrics from "Red River" by Guy Clark