May 11 & 12

Checking out around 7am we are heading to Palo Duro Canyon State Park for two nights camping. Located in Canyon TX, we will be going for a horse back ride the second day.
Traffic heading out of Dallas/Fort Worth was congested but now that we are out of there it’s pretty open and flat!

About 10:00 we got another flat on the opposite side of the other one. Tom put the spare and and we found another Discount Tire about an hour from the campground. We have about three hours before we get there. Got our tire and headed to Palo Duro. Arrived at 3:30, checked in to Sagebrush area campground. Breathtaking views at the bottom of the 2nd largest canyon in the US. Our campsite is tucked into the side of the bottom of the canyon. 

We are staying in the Sagebrush campsites, very nice but very hot during the day. Restrooms aren’t very good but toilets are clean. In the evening when the top of the canyon cools down the cooler wind  rushes down into the canyon bottom and things cool off pretty nicely. The country side is such a change from what we came from. Most of the trees are scrub pine not much more then 8’ tall. We would have loved to do a hike but the weather was much too hot. Made a quick supper, showered and off to bed. 

Next day we headed over to Old West Stables, about a 2 min drive and went on a horse back ride around the canyon. It was about an hour which was plenty of time because it got pretty hot by the time we finished. The ride through the canyon was rugged and beautiful. When we returned we just hung out until temperatures reached 114, then we took a ride in air conditioning to get some relief. We had a late lunch at the Trading Post, took another drive, got gas then just hung out until it cooled off a little. Didn’t bother with supper, had a glass of wine, read and went to bed.