We got an early start on the 28th for the short drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We were thrilled that Philip discovered it was nearby, since it's the second largest canyon in the country after the Grand Canyon! Half of the park was closed for a couple of weeks due to public hunting, but we were still able to tackle the signature hike. It's only a 6.5 hour drive from Wichita so we could totally return in the future to explore some of the other areas which were closed at this time.
Despite there being Multiple signs like this at the trail head, we saw Many people with little to no water on the trail later in the day
It was a beautiful trail with lots of variation in terrain. Despite Philip and Keenan finding a ridiculous number of geocaches along the way (15 to be exact), the rest of us had plenty to look at while we waited or hiked ahead.
The geocachers
The cacti came in so many beautiful colors!
Taking a break (he wasn't sure about a 6 mile round trip at the start)
I loved this heart shaped one!
Goofing around while they looked for another cache...trying to "hide" Caleb behind Riah's pompom
Oof! Some serious steep climb before the halfway point of the hike
I did video of this part
(Turn your sound off if you don't want to hear me desperately trying to breathe)
What a beautiful place!!
It had not occurred to me that the "Lighthouse Trail" was called that for a reason - this huge "lighthouse-looking" structure was our destination!
Last climb
There was a totally flat part between the "lighthouse" and a tall structure on the opposite side, with a fairly sheer drop off each side
A sweet family from NY did a photo taking swap with us ;)
Love this one!
Obligatory panoramic from Philip
This little trail led around the side of the fin to a few more views
Back toward the Lighthouse
Scoping out a cache that less than 200 horizontal feet away, but down a steepdrop
We decided to head back down and take a flatter but longer route around to the geocache. A regular sized (ammo can) cache with a working stamp inside (the "Letterbox Hybrid" type of cache)...
Philip and the kids signing the log and getting the stamp
Then they headed over to check out some table-like structures in the distance
Keenan gives some scale to these "little" tables
Caleb by one of the taller ones
Oooops, guess he shouldn't have leaned on that one so hard! 😉
Can you find all four of them in this photo?
Can you find me in this photo from them looking back to me?
Hiking back down the steep part
By this time, the trail was getting quite busy, so there was a bit of a jam at the narrow part
We took a detour, down into a dry "wash" to find another cache. It was also a nice break from all the people now on the trail:
Waiting on the cachers again
I loved this view, down the wash with the wall rising up on our left
The dudes
We were all happy to get back and be able to have our picnic lunch. Glass bottle Cokes were a highlight, although, Philip's multi tool did't have an appropriate opener, so one got busted in the process ;)
Yum!
;)
Another beautiful view near the visitors center on our way out
One more 360 view from Philip
The kids were able to do a Junior Ranger program here as well gathering info about the area from the Visitor Center and describing their highlights from our hike. They also had a nice relief map which showed that we were still very much in the narrow part of the canyon.
When we got back to the house, I took a shower and a Glorious nap before doing some laundry and making dinner.
Caleb found Twister in the cabinet and decided we should play
I hadn't played in forever!
I got pretty twisted up
There was much laughter (I definitely lost), until Caleb ended up with a bloody nose after he collided with Moriah's head. Oops!
After dinner, Philip, Keenan and Moriah watched Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, while Caleb and I watched an animated movie on Netflix in my room. Then we all slept like rocks!
