Camping in a Canyon! Our adventurous welcome to the West

One of the driving forces behind launching out again this year was the call of the West. We hadn't been out there since Season 2 (2023) and, to be honest, we missed it. During our travels, we've found places along the way that have captured our hearts, and so the travel life ends up being not just about going where we've never been. It's about returning to familiar comforts all over the country. Having both prospects – the new adventures and the familiar places – almost makes RV life even more appealing. We had found ourselves forming a pattern to head west every other year. Then, after buying land in NH, we knew that soon our remaining full-time RV years would keep us closer to home. This effectively meant that 2025 would be our last chance to head west for a while. We needed to take advantage.

We routed our westward journey so that we could visit the Texas Panhandle, a place that would be new to us. A heatwave was ushering in extra warm and dry temperatures in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, and even though we had never been, we knew that it would be a great match. That's one of the perks of heading west for a second time; we use our first trip as reference, to better decide what we'll like and not like this time around. We love a good canyon, everything from the rim we camped on at Lake Mead to Mr. Grand himself.

Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in the US, spanning 120 miles long and 800ft deep. We descended most of it the evening we arrived, as all the campgrounds are below rim. What a view coming down the park road! We shared the video in the last blog post, but here it is again if you missed it (or if you just want to watch it again).

We booked 6 nights at the Hackberry Campground, which gave us plenty of time for outdoor exploring. We would definitely need to get our hiking legs back in shape. Besides a couple of short, easy hikes over the past couple weeks, we were completely out of practice. Every website boasted the same top hike, Lighthouse Trail, which would be 5.9 miles. We made this our highest priority adventure.

Two years after our last arid landscape hike, our feet hit the rust-colored sands of a trail lined with cacti and yuccas. The Lighthouse Trail is named for a rock formation that resembles a lighthouse, and is the main feature on this hike. It's an easy trek until a climb at the end, which leads to the rock. The 3 miles to the rock went by quickly, thanks to the relatively flat terrain. Then we wandered some off-shoots near the rock, before heading back the way we came. We clocked just over 6 miles total.

The following day, we took an active recovery hike on the short Palo Duro Caves Trail in the morning before work. We had a special guest come with us.

The trails in Palo Duro State Park are all dog-friendly. Tanner can't hike as much in his old age, but while we were stationary in MA, we spent a lot of time figuring out a health plan for him to make him more comfortable. We finally got him on a meds regimen that seemed to give him a boost. After being unable and unwilling to hike with us since last summer, he got some bounce back in his step!

The trail was only about 1 mile out and back, but it had a special feature: a slot canyon! We had never hiked one, which may come as a surprise given our aforementioned love for canyons. This was a great beginner-friendly one for us, and manageable for Tanner. We couldn't believe that the dog we thought wouldn't be able to hike again was now rock scrambling by flashlight in a slot canyon in TX! Just one of many moments of realization that life is hugely unpredictable.

Palo Duro Canyon is in what's known as a semi-arid climate, so it does get rain. Quite a bit, actually, with the average annual rainfall clocking around 20 inches. Flash floods are a real concern here, and so we were glad to hit a week with no rain in the forecast any of the days. Otherwise, we probably would have skipped the slot canyon.

Our last hike was the CCC Trail, which also had rave reviews and was recommended by a fellow RVer on the RV Life website. The trail technically begins on the rim and descends into the canyon about halfway, but hikers can choose to either start high and descend first, or start low and ascend first. We're mountain hikers, so we prefer to get the ascent over with, but this time, we formed a plan. We would start on the rim, do our descent, and then hike back up in time for sunset.

Only, none of this ended up happening. We read a couple reviews that said the trail was tough to navigate unless you follow a downloaded map. We had ours downloaded on All Trails and still got off-course almost immediately. When we finally found the trail, it was closer to the edge of the cliffsides than we felt comfortable with. We had a lot working against us at this point. We were still getting our hiker legs and weren't feeling quite stable. We weren't used to the terrain, and these trails had tons of loose rocks. I was still breaking in new hiking boots and didn't totally have my footing. Plus the increases in temperature and elevation were giving me bouts of vertigo. We still went about a half-mile down the trail because the views were incredible, but the lower we descended into the canyon, the less views we'd have. So we turned around. The trail was undoubtedly the most scenic of the three we hiked, but we need to prioritize our safety. If we're not feeling comfortable for whatever reason, we don't continue forward.

At that point, waiting for sunset wasn't worth it. We already got to see the sunset on our drive in. What we really wanted to experience was sunrise because the rim overlooks face east.

This was a great week to experience sunrise at the canyon. The short winter days meant we didn't need to wake up early. Most days, we were already up before dawn anyway. The sun rose around 7:40am up on the rim, and much later, around 8:30am, from down in the canyon. Anthony and I watched one sunrise from our campsite, and on our final day at the canyon, drove to the rim to get the full sunrise experience.

I had a couple of solo adventures, choosing to hike portions of the Kiowa Trail on my morning walks. Palo Duro Canyon is carved by a fork of the Red River, and the Kiowa Trail runs right between the water and the canyon wall. We had access from the entrance of the Hackberry Campground Loop, close to our site. The part of the trail I walked was very easy, with a couple small hills and a switchback that took me up to a higher level, where I got a new perspective on the river. This trail seemed like a great beginner-friendly mountain bike trail. I loved the peaceful sounds of the flowing water and the close-up look at the rock layers in the canyon wall. It's not a trail I'd necessarily seek out in the park, but for an alternative to a campground walk, it was perfect.

As for the campground itself, we chose Hackberry because it put us between the park entrance and the Lighthouse Trailhead. The only RV campground closer to the entrance is the Sagebrush loop, but there weren't as many site availabilities. Further into the canyon are the Juniper and Mesquite Campgrounds, plus other tent-only campgrounds. We don't think you can go wrong choosing any of these loops, as long as you do your research and make sure you will fit. Some sites are relatively short, while others claim to fit "60ft RVs" according to the website. We don't think we'd encourage someone to take a 60ft RV down the steep canyon road, however.

At most, our loop was probably only half-full, as we were there in the off-season. However, visitation is high in the warmer weather. Even on the day we left, which was a Saturday, the line at the entrance gate was dozens of vehicles long with day-visitors waiting to get in. We enjoyed our large site and the peace and quiet of not having neighbors most days. However, our site was more sloped than we expected, and we needed to stretch our new tongue jack's limits with an almost-full extension! (It worked great, and we couldn't feel any difference in stability. We could not say that about our old jack)!

The fun thing about a site that slopes upward is that, when we put down the patio, it feels high off the ground. We joke that our patio has had a spectrum of levels. It's been low to the ground, which we call "patio level." A little higher and it's "deck level," then "porch level," and finally, "balcony level." In this site, we had a solid porch level.

We had only stayed at one TX state park before this one, but we've noticed that covered picnic tables seem to be common. We love this, especially in a state that sees a lot of sun. We also had a fire ring, which we unfortunately didn't use because half of our evenings were under red flag warnings due to the warm, dry air and wind.

TX state parks require campers to pay their overnight fee in addition to a daily entrance rate, which we are not fans of, but at least they allow us to purchase the day permits in advance, unlike other states that shall remain nameless (unless you read this blog post). We ended up getting a TX State Parks Pass because it was cheaper than paying the permit fee for 7 days. Our cost per night was $36.50 including all taxes and fees, for a water & electric site. For these views? Absolutely worth it.

We had been fast-moving with short stays and long drives. Palo Duro Canyon gave us time to be still for a little while and truly enjoy our surroundings. And what amazing surroundings they were! Our love for canyons has reached new depths...800 feet deeper, that is.

We're glad we chose to brave the descent into the canyon and have a wonderful week in nature, but we chose to stop in the TX Panhandle so we could visit our next town along Historic Rt 66: Amarillo. In our next blog post, we switch gears and talk about whole new kinds of adventures, visiting a couple towns that boast a lot of tourist fun. But were they all they're cracked up to be?

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