The Palo Duro Canyon is beautiful. Stupidly beautiful, really, and incongruous in the Texas Panhandle. You could drive right past it and never guess the brown, flat plains drop away to something so colorful and dramatic.
I think the canyon deserves a better park. Don't get me wrong, I love state parks, and Texas Parks and Wildlife does very good things with criminally limited resources. But something this lovely really could use nicer facilities and more sophisticated educational programs and literature, plus more firepower when it comes to acquiring more of the canyon and making it accessible. This really should be more of a destination in the state. It's a shame that it's not.
Still, the park is pretty damn cool. Look at the CCC cabin we stayed in! It was very cute. Although it had a mouse, and the roof leaked when it rained really hard the first night, and while the bathrooms were close by, it's never close enough when you have to put on a coat or don a poncho every time you have to pee.
Besides all that, the chimney didn't draw properly, so even though we followed the instructions to keep our fire small, it was a windy night and the room filled with a disturbing and then dangerous amount of smoke. Our romantic anniversary fire ended with Eric pitching damp, smoldering logs out the door with a pair of hot dog tongs while the smoke detector shrieked and I stamped out embers all over the floor.
Also Randall County, like most of the Panhandle, is dry, so for god's sake bring lots of beer, or at least be sure to load up in Lubbock.
(The whole weekend was kind of a mixed bag, in case you couldn't tell.)
The drive there and back was extremely entertaining. There is so much to look at in a seemingly empty landscape, and on the way home we had a really good oldies station out of Lubbock to help us along.
So we had kind of a weird, soggy, not-very-well planned weekend at the Palo Duro Canyon, but there was a lot to look at and think about, and it was mostly fun and almost never boring. I know the park does have nicer cabins with bathrooms in them available. I have no idea if the chimneys in those are more effective, but if I go again I will spring for one and find out.
