The 'Hard Stick'........

7:45 am - Tuesday - January 22nd - Amarillo, TX - 32º F, 86% humidity, wind 24 mph out of the north......cloudy today with a forecast high of 34º F, and winds approaching 30 mph!  What a change from yesterday!

We have passed through Amarillo several times over the years, but have never visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park, so Monday it was time to right this wrong.  I wish we would have had more than one day to explore and hike this natural wonder, but we did the best we could do.

As you know if you read yesterday's blog entry, we had a wonderful sunrise.....the kind of sunrise you can only get where you have a big horizon (Cedar Key comes to mind, also).......for those who missed it, here it is again......

.....we unloaded the VW around 10 pm and were on our way south to Palo Duro Canyon shortly thereafter.  It's around a 36 mile drive to the State Park entrance where you pay $6 per car to enter.  This time of year all the restrooms in the park are closed except for the ones at the entrance, so if you have to go you need to do so before you go any further.....I wish we had known that before we drove down to the Visitors Center.....

At the Palo Duro Canyon Visitors Center

.....if asked, most people who have been to both the Grand Canyon and Palo Duro will tell you it (Palo Duro) is not that spectacular when compared to the Grand Canyon, but standing by itself it is definitely worth a look. It is the second largest canyon in the United States.

We arrived at the park entrance around 10:45 am and spent the next few hours driving the 10% grade road down to the canyon floor where it forms a large loop offering numerous places to park and hike well marked trails.  To really see Palo Duro (Spanish meaning 'Hard Stick') in all its glory you really need to hike into the back country a few miles, but did not have time on Monday for an extended hike so TLE picked one that was about 2.1 miles in length which linked 3 different trails together (Sunflower, Rojo Grande, Juniper Cliffs) making our hike a big loop, which we prefer, as opposed to an 'out and back' hike.....

 Getting started

 We wondered about these white streaks (↑) in the red clay and found out at the end of our hike what they were (↓)

.....in all we covered 2.1 miles in about 48 minutes of moving time (52 minutes over all), and burned just shy of 400 caloric units.  The temperature was perfect, and the hiking difficulty was moderate.  There are many other much longer hikes which get you to the real interesting rock formations in the park that we would like to take in the future when we pass through this area again.  By the time we finished it was closing in on 2 pm and time to head back to Amarillo where we had plans to go to The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery around 4:30 pm......as we exited the park we noted about a 1 mile line of cars waiting to enter the park.....we timed our arrival perfectly.....

.....it is difficult, if not impossible to miss The Big Texan as there are signs everywhere announcing its existence.  I ate here 9 years ago with my good friend Claude Banker as we were heading west on I-40, and thought TLE would get a kick out of it.  As I mentioned yesterday, this is the home of the 72 Ounce Steak Challenge (eat the 72 oz. steak, and everything else on the plate in an hour, or less and the $72 steak is free....good luck with that!).  Even at 4:30 pm the place was already hopping......

.....most of the seating inside is what I would call 'family style', but we were shown to a booth.  This place is also a mirco brewery, so it does not get much better for us.  I immediately ordered a pint of their Pecan Porter, and TLE their Whiskey Barrel Stout.  For our entrees I had their 'Double Cut Filet' (two 5 oz filets) with sauteed mushrooms, a baked potato, and beef steak tomatoes and red onions, and TLE their Center Cut Sirloin (8 oz).....

.....during our one hour sojourn there were no takers for the 72 oz Steak Challenge.....probably too early in the evening.  The brews were very good, and our steaks were cooked to perfection.  The portions are quite large there, and we ended up taking home two 'to go' boxes with our leftovers. We each were only able to eat about half of what was on our plates, and went home feeling very stuffed.  We had a wonderful, relaxing day and it turned out just as I had imagined.

 Thanks for stopping by!

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