Destination 12

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX

The View

One of the best outdoor experiences of our road trip happened in a place I had never heard of before, Palo Duro Canyon State Park. This second largest canyon system in the country (after the Grand Canyon) is located about 4.5 hours east of Santa Fe, and only 30 minutes south of Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle. We booked a "mini-cabin" Airbnb right at the entrance to the park, which made it especially easy to get up early, enter the park when it opened at 7, and trek the popular Lighthouse Trail before it got too hot to handle.


Truthfully, it started to get warm as soon as the sun broke through the morning fog, and continued to heat up until we finished the trail at about 11:30. We had fortunately followed the well-posted advice to bring a lot of water with us, and consumed every drop of the 10 total bottles of water we carried in, plus more when we got back to the car. It was well worth it. While the first 2.3 mile segment of the trail was scenic, it was not especially challenging, even for me (which is just how I like it). The last half-mile up to the Lighthouse was a different story, involving scrambles up some rocks and a few nerve-wracking drop-offs. Even so, I put my fear of heights to the side, and was elated to make it to the top and explore the Lighthouse plateau (see very tiny me, below right).

We had the place somewhat to ourselves at that time of the day, which was wonderful, but probably contributed to us getting lost on the way back. After heading down the wrong riverbed for about 20 minutes, we realized our mistake (thankfully before we were miles off track and out of water), and made our way back to the main trail.

Also Check Out

We also enjoyed driving to other scenic spots in the park and viewing the longhorn cattle who roam in the fields. We decided to buy tickets for the Texas Outdoor Musical, shown nightly in the park's amphitheater. This energetic and unabashedly patriotic show depicts romance and changing times in the early pioneer days of the Panhandle, and includes not only music and dancing, but impressive pyrotechnics, water features, numerous scene and costume changes, and horses both on the stage and on the canyon wall which serves as the backdrop for the action. They even sold pints of Texas-made ice cream to the crowd. It was a lot of fun, and really different from anything we would do at home in NYC.

The Room

We loved the Lighthouse Mini Cabin Airbnb, which was small but new, perfectly clean, well-designed and very comfortable for our two night stay. The AC was fantastic and the location in a small, scenic and quiet RV park 500 feet from the entrance to Palo Duro was ideal (the cabin faced away from the RVs and toward the canyon).

The cabin was very well-stocked, making it easy to prepare breakfast inside and grill steak and veggies outside, while enjoying the shaded porch. I highly recommend this property, located on the end of the cabin row, or any of the somewhat larger Palo Duro cabins in the same location, all of which are new and nice looking.

A Great Meal in Canyon, TX

Our second night at the park, we drove 20 minutes into the small city of Canyon, and had a generous and tasty comfort food dinner for a very good price at Canyon Ranch, on the historic town square.

Take a Look at Historic Route 66:

On our drive from Santa Fe to Palo Duro on Interstate 40, we often intersected with historic Route 66. We took brief detours in the towns of Santa Rosa and Tucumcari, and caught a glimpse of the many abandoned hotels, restaurants and gas stations that once populated this route in its heyday. We were happy to see some of these establishments have embraced their history and mid-century aesthetic, and are still operating and drawing travelers today. Next time, I will be keeping my eye out for a stay at one of these fun mom-and-pop properties.