Camping and hiking Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX

On the drive from Dallas to Denver, I took a break by camping at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, near Amarillo TX. Another great experience!

There are several campgrounds in the park, all located on the floor of the canyon. The ranger station at the park entrance was closed by the time I arrived at 4:30pm. Fortunately I had pre-registered and printed the permit to put on Millie's dash. I stopped by the visitor center which had an interpretative exhibit and windows to view the canyon walls and floor below. The drive down the 10% grade switchbacks may be harrowing for some big rigs, but not an issue for Millie. The decision to select the Juniper Campground was spot on: although located near the end of the park road, the 18 sites were more widely spaced and private than the other campgrounds. There were modern restrooms and showers (4th photo below) in the campground.

It was cloudy, cold and very windy that evening, so I cooked dinner on the induction stove top, showered and chilled in Millie (i.e. hand quilted while listening to a new audio book). The next morning was still cold and windy but the sun was out. I decided to do some hiking. There were trails for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking, some trails were multi-use. The two trails I hiked (Juniper Riverside and Juniper Cliffside) were not very well marked, with mulitple entry points. I suppose this made them interesting to explore, although I would hate to be lost amongst the divergent paths since there was zero cell signal in the park (at least for Verizon). The Cliffside trail was the more interesting of the two, I followed hiking paths towards the red cliffs with white bands in the distance. As I got closer, it appeared that there was a path to climb up to a big cave near the top of the cliffs. The views from the approach and within the cave were amazing.

I hiked for almost 3 hours, checked out a couple of other trails, before calling it a day. It rained during the night, and got pretty cold the morning of my departure. I was afraid that the park road may be icy which would make going up the steep turns interesting. But it turned out fine, was probably too dry for water to accumulate. I drove around the park, stopped at the trading post, checked out the other campgrounds (campsites in Sage Bush and Hackleberry were closer together compared to Juniper) and trail heads located along the way. There were some dire warnings about heat stroke, etc. on the more difficult sites. I wish I could spend another day to hike a few of those trails. Maybe another time, definitely not summer though. Millie had no problem getting up the canyon road to the park exit. Found a McDonald's in the town of Canyon nearby and was able to get cell signal after two days offline. The rest of the drive to Denver was uneventul.

Jonquil Festival, Washington, AR

This will be my last post for this part of the journey. I checked out of the Cowhide Cove Campground in the morning to head towards Allen, Texas to visit with my brother and his family. Started out early and had plenty of time to make the 4 hour trip. After a few miles on the route, I remembered that a ranger at the campground had told me about the Jonquil Festival in the town of Washington, AR this weekend. I stopped at the side of the road, checked the town's location which was in the direction I was heading. Put in the new location in Google Maps and off I went. I arrived at the Historic Washington State Park and the Jonquil Festival at 9:30 am, and was directed to a parking lot ($5 parking fee) by a park ranger. The line of cars waiting to get in was starting to build when I walked over to the Festival area.

I started with the visitor center which is located in the 1874 Hempstead Courthouse, staffed by two lovely ladies dressed in costume who agreed to pose for a photo. There were photos and exhibits on the history of the town; the upper level included the court, the judge's chamber, witness room, etc. Got a flyer with a map of historical buildings to visit and the entertainment schedule. The weather was perfect for walking around and soaking in the town's history.

The B.W. Edwards Weapons Museum had displays of historical guns, muskets, and an entire case of Bowie knives. I did not know that the first knife was made here in Washington by James Black for Jim Bowie. Further down the road, James Black's restored shop had demonstrations on how knives were made then.

Below is the restored Royston Log House, built in 1829. Inside was a room with spinning wheels, cotton balls, and a "murphy bed". The other half of the house featured a kitchen, where the cook and her helper were baking cookies and pies in cast iron dutch ovens.

I also visited the print museum which housed a number of old printing presses and typewriters. The craftsperson there demonstrated how newspapers were printed in the old days, and I learned where the terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" came from. He also invited kids to move the press to print a flyer about the Festival which they took with them.

Below is the huge magnolia tree that was planted in 1839; an elderly gentleman commented to me that he could not imagine letting a tree grow that big in his yard.

This is the Hempstead County Courthouse that was built in 1836.

And what is a festival without food and drinks? On the menu were curly fries, blooming onions, chicken on a stick, corn dog on a stick, nachos, fried turkey legs, funnel cakes, lemonade, home made root beer, etc. I could feel my cholestrol going up just reading the food options. But it was past lunch time, so I settled for chopped BBQ chicken in a bun which I ate sitting on a bale of hay under the tent listening to bluegrass music.

There were also a number of crafts people selling their products. Some of the more unique ones were the glass lanterns below. There was a booth with wind chimes made from forks, spoons and kettles and another of bird feeders and bird houses made from recycled tires.

I finally got back on the road at about 1:30 pm; it was a challenge to get out of the parking lot. Cars waiting to turn into the Festival area were holding up traffic. Still, this was the best unscheduled stop ever: what a great way to end this part of my camping trip!

Looking for diamonds, Crater of Diamonds State Park, AR

The sun peeked out this morning and I was able to catch the sunrise on my phone from within Millie. But it was soon obscured by clouds; the rest of the day was cloudy, cold and windy. I did not think the weather was conducive to diamond hunting which was what I had planned for the day. Since I could not think of anything else better to do, I drove out to the Crater of Diamonds State Park after breakfast with the intention of checking out the visitor center.

When I got to the State Park's parking lot, it was almost full! I had to park in the overflow lot. A lot of families with children were loading up wagons with shovels, sifting trays, pails, etc. to go diamond hunting despite the weather. I would be a wimp if I did not follow suit, so I put on extra layers of clothes, my winter jacket and boots, went into the visitor center and paid the $10 fee to enter the mine field.

The photo above is one of two sheds for wet shifting where soil dug up by a visitor and hauled from the field was washed off so that the remaining gravel can be checked for diamonds. I did not have the gear nor the inclination to rent gear to do that. Instead I had bought a little hand shovel from the gift shop and walked around the churned up field, poking into the soil to visually search for diamonds. There were a lot of interesting rocks including agates and quartz, but no diamonds in the ground that I covered. However, I could have walked over some tiny diamond bits and never knew it. It was also back breaking labor, squatting on the ground (although some people were sitting), bending/squinting to see if there were any sparkling glitter (which was difficult since there was no sun). There were posted signs scattered throughout the mine field showing where significant diamonds have been found by visitors in the past (visitors keep what they find). No doubt this encouraged current visitors to dig around those areas. Kids of all ages were having fun digging in the dirt.

After two hours of unsuccessful effort and the beginning of a sore back, I gave up and left the park. On the way out, I stopped at a corner of Murfreesboro that had a few colorful stores, hoping to get takeout so I would not have to cook. Unfortunately there was only a tiny crowded sandwich shop, the rest were gift/antique shops.

I went back to the campground and drove through the other part of Lake Greeson where the new section of the campground was located. I like this section better although the sites were closer together, it has shower facilities. I would camp on sites 19 or 20 if I were to return in the future. Returned to my campsite, cooked ramen with veggies and an egg inside the minivan using the induction stove because of the gusty winds outside.