Full trip report - feel free to just look at pictures and ignore story:
I originally intended to go to somewhere closer, like Lost Maples State Park, which is about 5 hours away. Then we called our friends Leon and Jen to see if they wanted to join us and they informed us they were going to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We decided that sounded good since we had not been in eight years when we went for Memorial Day of 2000. So we crashed their trip. They have a one year old and were flying to Amarillo, then renting a car. We didn't want to pay for 4 plane tickets so we decided to drive.
FRIDAY
Mary Jo and I took half a day off of work. We had everything packed so when I got off of work I picked up the boys and then picked up Mary Jo from downtown at 1:30pm. Hoping to avoid Dallas rush hour traffic and interstates in general, we took highway 290 to Brenham, then highway 36 to Abilene. It's much more relaxing to avoid interstates. Traffic is lighter, scenery is better, interesting small towns are everywhere. Time slows down on smaller roads. We drove through one town and saw the side of a brick wall spray painTed "Seniors '87!". After many "Are we there yet's", we arrived in Sweetwater at 9:45pm.
SATURDAY
After breakfast, we left Sweetwater at 8:15am. Just as we were getting in the car Leon called. He said that Andre, their one year old, was sick and they were not going to make the flight to Amarillo. There was nothing anyone could do about this. Kids get sick. We'd just have to go it alone.
We stopped in the town of Post to check out an interesting looking playground and try to get the boys to burn up some energy. The playground had very old, dangerous equipment. It was great. There was a slide that was about 12 feet high. Each step was made of the word "American" and the metal slide was so slick and steep it felt like a free-fall. Standing on top of the slide holding the meager rails you felt sure that one wrong move would result in death. I felt like I was a kid again. I really don't like the overly safe plastic slides of today that you have to practically pull yourself down.
There was another slide that was shaped like a corkscrew. We flew down this one and it felt like we were going down a drain. The boys had a blast. After an hour we got back on the road. Five minutes later we heard it, "are we there yet?". So much for burning up some energy.
In Lubbock we were hungry so we looked in the Texas Monthly we had with us and found a BBQ joint in their Top 50 BBQ JointS in Texas list. We found Tom and Bingo's BBQ and ate there. It was a tiny place with schoolroom-style seats lining the walls. The BBQ was very good. An hour or so later we arrived at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. While setting up camp, a large turkey walked right by our tent. I was going to get my camera when Xander took off running after it yelling. We heard the turkey later but never saw it again. After setting up camp we went on a Xander-lead hike down a wash where Xander tried to climb cliffs and push over boulders the size of cars.
After our hike we went to the general store to replenish the ice in our coolers and get some ice cream. We stopped by the stables to get some reservations to take the boys on a ride, but the minimum age allowed was six years old so we have to wait a few more years. We drove to the top of the canyon rim to a viewpoint before dark so we could watch the colors play over the canyon. It was over-the-top beautiful. Back at camp, we took showers to get coating of dust off of us. I was very surprised by the number of mosquitos. Palo Duro was in the middle of a drought and we didn't even have mosquitos in Houston yet. We drove 650 miles to one of the most arid parts of Texas and there are more mosquitos than back in Houston.
Sunday
I woke up at 6am and saw a deer outside our tent inspecting us. After a while I got up and got our things ready. After everyone else got up, we went to do the six mile Lighthouse trail. This trail was a piece of cake when Mary Jo an I did it 8 years ago. An easy stroll. We knew this would be different with the boys. We brought our new all-terrain Red Flyer wagon to try to make the trip easier. At 9am we started out. I had my first aid kit, snacks, all four of us had water bladders on our back, we were ready for the adventure.
The boys walked for a while, then rode. Then we tipped the wagon over on a rough patch and Bryson became reluctant to ride in it. It was a very minor, slow tip but he still didn't trust it any more. So we had to carry him when he got tired hiking. Xander and I got ahead of Mary Jo and Bryson for a bit and when we stopped to wait for them, I spotted a snake next to the trail. I told Xander and as I tried to get my camera ready, Xander started yelling, "Look, mommy! A snake!". The snake quickly found a hole and vanished. We soon came in view of the Lighthouse formation and 1.5 mile later we were at the steps that led to the flat area where formation was. We left the wagon and made the steep climb. On top we snapped photos, had a snack, hiked around a little, and tried to keep the boys from running off the edge.
the lighthouse is visible in the far right
taking a rest
My wife and sons are at the base of the first formation
Things went well until we were on our way back down the steep steps. I was holding Xander's hand and he was in front of me. He kept pulling me which was causing me to slip on the rocks. Just as I was moving to get in front of him he pulled me again and we both slipped. He did a face-plant and my backpack landed on the back of his head. We got him up and he had a nice scrape on the side of his face. This is where the first-aid kit came in handy. After he was bandaged up we made it back down to the wagon and started the hike back. It took a long time but we made it. Bryson finally fell alseep so we put him in the wagon and Xander volunteered to pull him for a while. It took us 5 hours to complete the trail. It was a lot of work, but we did it. Thank goodness this was the only hike I wanted to do on this trip.
After eating some sandwiches and relaxing for a while we drove to the Cadillac Ranch. Ten cadillacs half-burried in a field is a world of fun. The wind was howling which made it even more interesting. We snapped photos and climbed all over and inside the cars. A girl loaned us a can of spray paint and we helped Xander and Bryson spray their initials one of the old cars (spray painting is encouraged here). Next we went looking for somewhere to eat. We tried three places that we had the names of. Two places were closed and we couldn't find the third. We finally gave up and ate at Denny's.
Back at camp the wind had followed us and as I started putting extra straps on the tent the park host came by and said that storm was coming with 50mph winds, rain, and hail. We quickly put everything that we didn't want wet or blown away in the car (which was everyting) and finished lashing down the tent. Then we got in the car to see what would happen nextd. I knew the tent could withstand wind and rain, but hail was a different story. About 20 minutes later I realized the storm was just winging us. The wind whipped and it sprinkled some but then it passed on by. The ground wasn't even wet.
We drove to the Canyon Rim to watch the sun set again and then came back down for showers. We discovered that all electricity in the park was our so we just used our headlamps to light the shower stalls.
Monday
We had a reservation for a 1 hour jeep tour of the canyon rim on the Elkins Ranch, which is right next to Palo Duro State Park. After some packing and breakfast we went to our tour. The ranch had these neat little jeeps to give tours in. The boys fought over who got to sit in the front seat with the cowboy tour guide. We went to several overlooks were we could see into the canyon. It was a neat little tour. When Bryson finally got his turn in the front seat he fell asleep (just has he did on our snowmobiling trip in February). When the boys are older we will go back and do the two hour tour.
After the tour we packed up the rest of the stuff and took the scenic route back to Sweetwater to spend the night at Best Western again. The hotel was brand new and had an outdoor pool that Xander had been wanting to play in. We got to the hotel at 4pm, played in the whirlpool and pool for an hour and a half, then ate dinner and put the boys to bed at 7pm. They passed right out.
