Hiking Palo Duro Canyon (September 19, 2019)

We hiked the Upper Comanche trail in Palo Duro Canyon, about 30 miles south of Amarillo.  The canyon is the second largest in the US, at 120 miles long and up to 20 miles wide. Late in the summer of 1874, Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa warriors led by Lone Wolf left their reservations and sought refuge in the canyon.  They laid in supplies for the winter.  On September 28, 1874, in one of the last battles of the Texas-Indian wars, the US Calvary forced the warriors from the canyon, back to their reservations.

So dry! The Panhandle drought conditions are evident.

Do you see the turkey?

On the trail

Strange formations of heavy rocks on top of crumbling red soil

Papa Tom on the trail

Old windmill and cistern.  See the pipe running from the well to the cistern?