Palo Duro Canyon

Yesterday after checking out of our cheap motel in Santa Rosa, we stocked up on some groceries and headed East, always East. Once again, we were back up on I-40 with a steady wind out of the South. A VW bus, for those of you not so privileged as to have ever driven one, is like trying to push a giant Kleenex box through the air. Beautiful as they are, they are not very aerodynamic. The steady wind from the South tries to shove us to the left, overpasses are bad and underpasses are worse as the air flow changes drastically. The only time we seem to go straight is when a big rig is passing on the left (and they all pass) trying to shove us to the right and the wind is trying to shove us to the left and we seem to be in a sort of blissful one second equilibrium. Not that I'm complaining. There are many wind farms out here but there should be a lot more.

I digress. We made our way to Amarillo TX, where Kathy had hoped to see an armadillo but no such luck. South of Amarillo on TX 27 is a state park called Palo Duro Canyon. This is not grand like the Grand Canyon but it is pretty darned good! Whereas the GC exposes rocks down to some 1.8-2 billion year old basement, the Palo Duro (PD) exposes rocks to the Permian, those whose source material was deposited in marshy, near shore or beach environments about 280 million ago. Unlike the GC where you move about on the rim and hike down into the canyon, in the PD you drive down to the bottom of the canyon and hike up, if you so choose. Our campsite then, was along the Eastern portion of the canyon. It was beautiful. Again pictures do not tell the story but I'll put some in anyway.

Surrounding canyon and balancing rock in foreground.

Our campsite from several hundred feet up.

Like so many of the places we've camped on this trip, the night sky is incredible! Without the typical light pollution of cities the number and clarity of stars is amazing. We heard coyotes singing around 0300. During breakfast, we had the privilege of hearing our camping neighbors start their morning off with a bang (or two, couldn't tell). Reluctantly, we broke camp and after checking out the visitor's center, built by CCC workers in the 30's headed back into the wind on I-40. We stopped for some additional Rte 66 weirdness but camped for the night in an Oklahoma state park in Foss, with a beautiful reservoir.

This is billed as the largest cross in the world, found in Groom, TX.

This was our campground for the night. Foss Reservoir is a State Park in (where else), Foss, OK. We were the only ones here until two guys from Philadelphia, on their way to CA, stopped in.

One commenter asked about Black Bart's. Turns out that the restaurant typically hosts bus trips. On the night that we stopped for dinner, no fewer than 5 bus loads of hungry travelers came in to enjoy the food and the singing waiters. One lady at the table next to us passed out and had to be taken away by the local paramedics. Kathy offered first aid but a doctor and a nurse were on the same trip. We hungrily eyed up her dessert which the wait staff served to her empty seat, but we did not take advantage. The campground was just what we needed but there were some semi-permanent residents whose trailer homes could only be described as slums. As with all the places we have stopped, however, everyone we met was gracious.