Good Morning Palo Duro Canyon

Today I really miss Palo Duro Canyon State Park. If you don’t already know this, but Palo Duro Canyon SP is my favorite state park! I have visited the parks countless times in the last 10 years. I literally lived 12 miles from the entrance of the park. I only had to take 2 turns once I left my apartment complex to get there.

A lot of my visits to the park were in the early morning hours on Saturdays. I would wake up super early, put my coffee in a thermos, and head straight to the park. Something about that fresh canyon air in the morning really just made life so much better. Sitting on the edge of the canyon and watching the sunrise will always be some of my favorite memories there. I tended to try to go to the park early in the morning because in the mid-morning to late afternoons the park would start to become busy. If I ever came to the park in the afternoon it was almost nearly impossible to find a parking spot at the lighthouse trail parking lot.

The picture at the bottom of this article is from one of my early morning runs that I did out to the lighthouse rock formation. I have hiked the trail out to the lighthouse numerous times but never got to be the first person to see it for the day. So on the morning of April 30, 2016, I decided that was going to change. As normal I woke up early and ran the 2.7 miles to the lighthouse and got to sit and enjoy the last little bit of the sunrise as I caught my breath. No matter which way you look in the canyon there is an amazing view of nature! A lot of the times on these runs/hikes I tried not to use my phone or camera and just unplug for a little while to enjoy nature.

I also knew if I got to the park early enough I might be able to see a little more wildlife before the crowds scare them off. Almost every time that I came to the park I either saw or heard the wild turkeys! One of the most popular places I used to see them at was the Hackberry camping area. I would either see them there or the Fortress Cliff camping area. I will never forget the time I was camping at Fortress Cliff and around 20 turkeys came into the area and they got spooked and took off. I don’t know if you have ever heard 20 turkeys fly, but it sounded like a helicopter was taking off.

I always feel so lucky that I got to live so close to one of the greatest state parks in Texas. If you are looking to make plans for the summer, fall, spring, or even winter, I would highly suggest that you add Palo Duro Canyon State Park to the list of places! Make sure to get a reservation ahead of time before coming to the park. Like I stated earlier that park does get very busy throughout the entire year. CLICK HERE to take you to the TPWD reservation system. -“Cheers”