Our family set out for Palo Duro Canyon the Thursday before Memorial Day at about 5am. We were hoping to beat the holiday crowd to secure one of the campsites on Dad and Valerie’s list of awesome campsites. They weren’t able to get off work on Thursday, so they (plus Jim, Baillie, and Nikita) didn’t arrive until Friday morning… after driving all night because they’re crazy! Spencer joined us and rode with Chris in a separate car and I hauled the trailer and the kids in the truck.
Our drive was relatively uneventful. The boys were kept occupied with the iPad and Lorelei slept for most of the trip. I was finally able to listen to the S-Town podcast (so, so good!) and an audiobook (Darkly Dreaming Dexter) that was recommended by a friend.
We wound up getting an amazing campsite– Hackberry #9, which was big enough for our trailer and everyone else’s tents. The site didn’t have a neighbor on the left side and backed up to a creek, so it was pretty secluded. We also had an amazing view of Sorenson Point.
After we got camp set up, Chris had to take off to run a work errand so Spencer and I took the kids exploring. We walked down the Comanche Trail North which is right by the Hackberry camping loop. Where we entered the trail, it’s super shaded and runs right next to the creek. The boys found a little cave area and explored for a bit. In the cave we were able to really investigate the siltstone that had satin spar gypsum running through it. Here’s a close up I took with my phone. It almost looks like a dessert, haha.
After the short hike, we took the kids to the creek to let them splash around and play with the new water squirters I picked up before the trip. The water was super cold! We came back to camp, showered and ate dinner. Our first night ended pretty early– we were all exhausted from the long drive!!
And since I used SnapChat pretty heavily during this trip, I plan to include each day’s story in all of their ridiculous glory: