New Mexico Trip #39, Part 2: Texas Hiking, and NM Arrival

This is Part 2 of a series.  To begin at Part 1, scroll down.

 

 So far all of the hiking had been just warmup ones, to keep our blood circulating and our muscles from seizing up on our long drives.  It was time for the first of the 'big' hikes.  We have always zoomed past Amarillo, a mid-sized Texas city sitting in the middle of the very flat Panhandle.  But I had always wanted to stop and see Palo Duro Canyon, and this was our chance.  The canyon is the second largest in the US, and is a state park.  The park is filled with campgrounds, as well as hiking, biking, and horseback trails.  It is a short drive south from Amarillo.

 

We had stayed at a hotel in the south end of the city, and so we arrived at the park early Monday morning.  The plains seem endlessly flat, and then suddenly there is an enormous canyon.  After paying our fee we drove down to my trailhead, the Rock Garden Trail.  The trail begins at the road at the bottom of the canyon, winding its way up to the top of the cliffs, and back the same way.  I ended up hiking 5.5 miles, and gaining 774' in elevation.  This is exactly the kind of hike I had trained for, and though I found it challenging enough, it was well within my grasp.  Both Texas hikes featured panoramic views throughout the hike.  I was always stopping to look around me, often to catch my breath, but also to take photos and to marvel at what I was seeing.

It isn't called the Rock Garden Trail for nothing.  Nature's gardens are usually the best, and there were some very pretty ones here.  Cactus abounded, mostly prickly pear.  On my descent, which I took a bit too quickly at one point, I slid a bit, then went over on my side.  I landed directly on a large prickly pear.  A lot of pain ensued, and we were picking out tiny cactus spines even on our return home two weeks later.  This is a hike I would happily repeat, minus the cactus slide, so if you want to go, let me know!

 

Rock Garden Trail, from our GPS route on Google Earth.

The canyon is wide and deep, with colourful rocks. 

 

 

 

 

One of many rock gardens along the trail.

 

At the top of the canyon, looking back across to my trail.

 

View from the top, from my lunch stop. 

 

While I enjoyed my climb to the top, Deb remained below and did trails along the canyon bottom.  She did pretty much the same mileage as me, without the troublesome elevation gain.  Our altitude here was about 3,000' at canyon bottom.  Here are a few of Deb's pics, using her phone.

 

Three images from Deb's wanderings in the canyon. 

 

We left the canyon area in early afternoon, with a drive to New Mexico to look forward to.  One of us was hurting a lot, and still full of cactus spines.  Just outside the gate of the park is a commercial establishment called Sad Monkey.  Not only did they have beer taps and great beer in their fridges for purchases, but even more importantly they had fine tweezers for sale!  Nurse Deb was to be very busy at our first New Mexico hotel. 

Clovis, NM isn't too much different from many of the Texas towns we passed through.  This is cattle country, and there are some very depressing scenes as we continually passed vast holding areas filled with cattle misery and stress.  As a result, there were flies everywhere, and we always seemed to have a few of them buzzing around the car cabin as we drove.  There is also a smell that is never forgotten once sampled.  A brewery in Clovis that was open on Mondays was closed, so we had a sad time after returning to our hotel.  Luckily we had our own ale.  It was a bit warm from being in the car all day, but the hotel ice machine took care of that.  Vegan meals from Wal-Mart often kept us alive, usually Amy's brand.

Clovis, like Amarillo, sits on the Plains.  We were not to see any mountains in New Mexico today or tomorrow.  On Tuesday we spent a leisurely day driving south, exploring a new part of New Mexico for us.  Cattle and oil country have left permanent scars on the land, but it is still often a very pretty drive.  Nothingness surrounds one, and prairie towns pop up seemingly out of nowhere.  No sooner is one small town passed than the "prairie skyscraper" of the next town can be spotted just above the horizon.  We visited New Mexico towns I had only seen on maps, such as Tatum, Lovington, and Hobbs.  The latter is quite a large town, close to the Texas border and far from the governing body in Santa Fe.  There were plenty of Trump signs down this way.  We found one place in Hobbs that had a vegan option, so we stopped for lunch before turning our wheels westward, towards Carlsbad and the Guadalupe Mountains.  We stayed two nights in Carlsbad, before heading north, deeper into NM.

Outside the county courthouse in Carlsbad.

 

Inside the courthouse looking out.

 

We made two visits to this brewery, which was near our motel.  The second visit was after my Guadalupe Mountain hike, which is featured in Part 3.

 

Mapman Mike