 |
|
Stairs
lead down to the Goodnight cabin on the rim of
Timbercreek Canyon at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
The cabin, more than 70 years old, was built of
limestone blocks by CCC troops during the Great
Depression. It's one of three on the canyon's lip.
|
PALO DURO CANYON STATE
PARK, Texas — Buy the right ticket, and you'll have the
best seat in the theater at the summer production of
"Texas" in this Panhandle preserve.
To be front row center on
the canyon — the second-largest in the nation — you
book one of the three cabins on the rim.
The trio of rustic,
cliff-top lodgings are hot tickets during the run of the
musical drama, favorite places to overnight just minutes
from the outdoor Pioneer Amphitheater where
"Texas" is staged. But the small hideaways offer
a retreat from the world year-round.
Like the show, preparing
for its 44th season, the cabins are part of the state's
history.
In the depths of the Great
Depression, troops of the Civilian Conservation Corps came
with dynamite and hand tools and carved a state park from
the canyon's rough terrain 25 miles southeast of Amarillo.
They built roads. They built trails. They built entrance
and museum buildings and furniture for them.
And they slotted sandstone
boulders together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and
created three cabins on the very lip of Palo Duro Canyon
and four smaller shelters at Cow Camp on the canyon's
floor.
The park, officially opened
July 4, 1934, will mark its 75th anniversary this year.
The cabins, completed in 1937, are only slightly younger.
They wear their years well.
Staff keeps close watch on
maintenance, assisted by the nonprofit Partners in Palo
Duro Canyon Foundation, which last year supplied new beds
and mattresses to the rim and Cow Camp cabins.
Nature also has a hand in
the durability of all the CCC structures.
Volunteer Henrietta Doss
points to thick rock walls at the interpretive center and
judges, "We'll be here forever."
But longevity and
popularity don't mean luxury in the five-star-resort
sense.
The luxury of the canyon's
lodgings is in location, location, location.
The rim views are
spellbinding panoramas across Timbercreek Canyon, a finger
of the 120-mile-long Palo Duro gorge. The Cow Camp huts
nestle well below the rim near the turnaround on the
park's 19-mile loop road. Colorful rock layers cupping the
one-room cabins were laid down as long as 250 million
years ago.
Each rim cabin has two
rooms, at least one fireplace, a picnic table, grill,
heating and cooling unit, microwave, small refrigerator,
and toilet and shower. Cow Camp cabins are short the
bathroom, which is across the road at Mesquite Camp Area,
and indoor running water.
Each of the three rim
cabins has something to recommend it. Placed side by side
on the canyon's brow, they flank the park's main road,
protected from the curious by a high fence and locked
gates.
Goodnight cabin, closest to
the park's entrance three-quarters of a mile away, offers
a virtually unimpeded view of the canyon through a post
fence.
Lighthouse, just above the
interpretive center, has a picnic table shaded by trees,
which curtail the vista.
In the middle and largest
of the three, Sorenson is ideal for families. A chain-link
fence keeps kids from the precipice, though the wire
filters the view. A large, sloping yard behind the cabin
invites romping.
Sorenson, named for artist
Jack Sorenson, who grew up on the canyon's rim, is a snug
haven in an early spring blow.
Wind, like an impatient
visitor, stamps its feet outside the door, and when you
open it, barges in, leaving a trail of dried grass and
leaf litter. The broom is in the closet; cleanup is your
job. No ranger comes to tidy the place each day.
Gusts whistle and moan
around the large, tabular stones of the cabin's outer
walls. Inside, the coziness whispers, "Nap
time."
A full-size bunk bed made
of pine logs shares one room with the fridge, microwave
and coffee maker. In the second room, a queen-size bed,
also built of the blond logs, accompanies nightstands, an
extra chair, a small chest holding spare blankets, and the
AC unit, which cycles on and off with a noisy growl. A
fire ban is in effect, and the cabin's two hearths remain
cold.
Bedding and four sets of
towels are provided. The shower is strong and the hot
water plentiful, although fresh air is the only hair
dryer. The extras are minimal, and their simplicity makes
you smile: a spare roll of toilet paper and two small bars
of off-label soap.
But you didn't come for
name-brand suds. Here, higher than the turkey vultures
sideslipping on updrafts over the canyon, you put
binoculars to your eyes and marvel at what a million years
of sculpting by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River
created, abetted by the nearly ceaseless wind.
"The whole canyon is
an erosional event," says park specialist Jeff Davis.
You can see it plainly.
Boulders are tumbled down where softer supporting layers
crumbled. Broken rock reveals remains of huge animals gone
to fossil epochs ago. Slick slopes are so shattered by
erosion that not even plants can hold on.
Landmarks disappear.
Weather and water took the Kneeling Camel, Roman Nose and
Devil's Tombstone formations, says Davis. Someday, the
park's iconic Lighthouse pinnacle will fall, he adds,
although, "We hope not soon."
Unimaginable tons of rock
are gone from Palo Duro's great gouge. To where? "A
lot of it winds up in the river," says park education
director Bernice Blasingame.
"Things happen, and
nobody sees it. The canyon changes all the time," she
says. "Palo Duro is a constant work in
progress."
You leave your rim aerie
for a closer look and find a narrow, meandering, muddy
river on the canyon floor instead of the imagined
rock-grabbing torrent. Nature is a patient artist, it
proves.
Mule deer, their big ears
protruding like the namesake pack animal, graze beside the
road. Wild turkeys strut in the Hackberry campground, the
tom herding his harem toward hoped-for handouts.
Golden-fronted woodpeckers sample seeds at feeders behind
the trading post. Another 230 species of birds seasonally
circulate, feed and nest in the brush and juniper,
mesquite and cottonwood trees at the canyon.
Trails thread the gorge,
many relatively flat, but all safest for sure-footed,
well-watered early risers.
Reminders of cattle days,
when the canyon was part of cowboy legend Charles
Goodnight's ranch and the southern anchor of the famed
Goodnight-Loving trail to Colorado, are corralled near the
park entrance. Biscuit and Gravy, two in the official
Texas longhorn herd, look up from the feed pellets
Blasingame has brought them, adding historical color to
the multihued landscape just down the road.
"The beauty of Palo
Duro Canyon," Blasingame says, "is that it's so
accessible if you want to drive through or stay. We don't
forbid people from going anywhere in the park."
The road that dips into the
canyon from the rim cabins leads back to them after
explorations and the amphitheater's entertainment.
Beneath a sky spattered
with countless stars, you sleep, snugged into the warm bed
and lulled by nature's night whispers.
Below, the river continues
to carve.
———
WHEN YOU GO:
GETTING THERE: Palo Duro
Canyon State Park is about 375 miles northwest of Dallas.
It's 25 miles southeast of Amarillo via Interstates 40 and
27 and State Highway 217.
If you don't plan to stop
in Amarillo for gas or groceries, Loop 335 south from I-40
near the airport on the city's eastern side connects to
I-27 north of the turnoff to the park.
Southwest Airlines flies to
Amarillo International Airport (www.southwest.com).
THE PARK CABINS: Four
persons are allowed per cabin. Deposit is $50.
No cooking indoors. Picnic
table outside; only a small occasional table indoors.
No pets allowed inside or
tethered, crated or left in vehicle.
Book as much as a year in
advance for summer stays.
Reservations for cabins or
camping: 512-389-8900; www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
RIM CABINS: The Goodnight
and Lighthouse cabins cost $110 per night plus tax and
park entrance fee ($5 per person; free, 12 and younger).
The larger Sorenson cabin
is $125 per night plus tax and park entrance fee.
COW CAMP CABINS: Cost per
cabin is $60 plus park fee.
Each of the four has a
full-size bunk bed. Guests provide their own bedding.
Sleeping on the stone floor would call for an air
mattress.
No running water indoors.
Toilets and showers about 100 yards across the road.
Cabin 4 is the most
popular; it's farthest from traffic. Cabin 3 is next in
demand. Reserve early for these.
Cabin 1 is handicapped
accessible.
CAMPGROUNDS: The
nearly-30,000-acre park has backpacking sites (accessible
by hiking; fires not permitted; $12 for four persons),
equestrian camping sites (corrals; restrooms nearby; $12
per site), primitive areas (restroom and shower a
half-mile to two miles away; $12 per site) and electrical
sites (tables, some shade shelters, fire ring, paved
parking, water and electricity; $25 per site for two
vehicles).
WHERE TO EAT: Other than
the big burgers at the trading post and snacks or barbecue
at Pioneer Amphitheater during the Texas season, there are
no restaurants within the park. Bring your own food or
drive 12 miles to Canyon to eat.
If you fly to Amarillo,
rent a car and drive to the cabins, easy stops for
groceries are the Wal-Marts at I-40 and Grand Avenue or
I-27 South and Georgia Street.
MUSICAL DRAMA:
"Texas," the official state play, celebrates
Panhandle pioneers of the 1800s. It's performed at 8:30
p.m. Tuesday through Sunday night through Aug. 15 at the
outdoor Pioneer Amphitheater in the park. Tickets are
$9.95 to $29.95. A steak dinner ($16.95 for adults;
$12.70, 12 and younger) is served at 6 p.m. by Amarillo's
Big Texan Steak Ranch. Backstage tours ($5) are available.
Contact: 806-655-2181; www.texas-show.com.
ANNIVERSARY EVENTS: The
park will mark its 75th year during the July 4th weekend.
Admission fees will be waived Saturday and Sunday.
"Texas" will include a patriotic encore and
additional fireworks July 4. Boz Scaggs will perform July
5 at Pioneer Amphitheater; tickets at www.texas-show .com.
Park staff will offer special programs and hikes during
the weekend.
RESOURCES: Palo Duro State
Park: 806-488-2227; www.palodurocanyon.com
Texas Parks and Wildlife:
www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
|