Palo Duro Canyon Day 3 & 4

We made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Our campsite had electricity so Alycia and I brought our electric griddles. When we camp I like to eat well. We took a short hike to see an old cabin that was built into the ground. Gavin, Blake, Sam, and Nick went on a hike above our campsite and climbed some boulders. Sam also took some pictures of our camp from up there.
Alycia, Trey, Carter, and I left the park to pick up some supplies we forget from Wal-Mart. It took us 30 minutes to get out there and when we got back we had to weight 45 minutes to get back into the park because of the line of cars waiting. We did get some ice cream from Sonic to make the trip worth while. Carter slept most of the way back.
That evening Sam and I took Gavin, Blake, and Sydney on a three mile hike. We left around 7 and got back a around 8:30. It was the perfect time to hike and the trail was really fun. The kids were racing each other and climbing rocks. We were a little nervous about getting them back before the sun went down because they were a lot slower on the return trip. They all did great and when we got back Alycia had roasted bananas with chocolate chips and marshmallows. We also had smores!
Sam and I both went on morning runs the next morning. I had never done a trail run before and it was a lot different than road running. I was a lot slower since I had to watch every step but the views were amazing. After showers and a big breakfast we broke down our camp. Before we left the park we drove the length of the park and I took a few pictures as we went. The drive home was uneventful, thank you portable DVD players.
We are planning another trip to Palo Duro in October. Nick wants to do a 50 mile race there. Alycia and I are going to do the 20K. It really is a beautiful place to go and we saw so many animals. Deer just run around and there are wild turkeys in the camp every morning. I saw a coyote one day and we heard them every night. The kids loved it and the hiking was awesome.

Palo Duro Canyon Day 2

We packed our backpacks with snacks and water and took off on Lighthouse Trail to see Lighthouse rock. It was six miles round trip and the temperature was in the 90s when we finished. The kids did fantastic. It took us four hours; we stopped a lot and took a long break for lunch. The views were beautiful. We felt like we were in Southern Utah again with all the red rocks. Lighthouse rock was magnificent and the kids were troopers and climbed up to it. We saw so many lizards on the hike and even a horny toad.
There were some really steep parts with loose gravel trails but we made it!
That afternoon we put on our bathing suits and took a walk up the creek. We stopped several times to sit in the cool water and the kids made mud slides on the clay riverbanks. Because the red rock is sand stone it made the water red too. It looked disgusting, but we were really hot, so we went in anyway.
That night a park ranger put on a presentation about all the animals that live in the park. Gavin loved it since he loves everything science. After the presentation the kids got to look at all the rangers’ skins and skeletons.