Leaving AZ, crossing NM, happy in TX

After a great tour in Petrified Forest NP we pulled the rig up through that park and into Painted Desert NP making our way to I-40 so we could head east.

This 0ld Studebaker sits at the site where famous Rout 66  crosses the park road.

Painted Desert National Park is a separate park, but both it and Petrified Forest are on the same park road which has it's own dedicated exit from I-40 with no other access.  Not too mane pictures of Painted Desert here, because we spent more time and took more pictures there on our trip last June.

Once we exited the park and got on I-40 it was a straight shot to Amarillo, TX and Palo Duro State Park interrupted only by an overnight stop in Albuquerque, NM.  

The day we drove from Albuquerque to Amarillo, it snowed all across NM.  Darlene never saw it because she was so wiped out with her fibro from the winds and weather changes, that she slept the whole way in bed in the trailer.  

She woke up to find us already in the campsite and set up.  She was zonked out!

The site next to us was never occupied.

According to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park web site, the park opened on July 4, 1934 and contains 29,182 acres of the scenic, northern most portion of the Palo Duro Canyon. The Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's constructed most of the buildings and roads still in use by park staff and visitors.

The Canyon is 120 miles long, as much as 20 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of more than 800 feet. Its elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. It is often claimed that Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep.

Palo Duro Canyon was formed by water erosion from the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. The water deepens the canyon by moving sediment downstream. Wind and water erosion gradually widen the canyon.

Early Spanish Explorers are believed to have discovered the area and dubbed the canyon "Palo Duro" which is Spanish for "hard wood" in reference to the abundant mesquite and juniper trees. 

Humans have resided in the canyon for approximately 12,000 years. Early settlers were nomadic tribes that hunted mammoth, giant bison, and other large game animals. Later, Apache Indians lived in the canyon, but were soon replaced by Comanche and Kiowa tribes who resided in the area until 1874. At that time, Col. Ranald Mackenzie was sent into the area to transport the Native Americans to Oklahoma.

The park is a meca for off-road bikers, hikers and trail runners.  The weekend was busy, but the weekdays were quiet and relaxing.

A nearby campsite to ours contained this beautiful Tepee.  I stopped and chatted with the couple camping there and found that the woman was the great-grand-daughter of Quanah Parker.  He is mentioned in the park brochure we got when we arrived, so I asked if we could chat and I could take a few pictures.

Wikipedia says that Quanah Parker (Comanche kwana "smell, odor") (c. 1845 or 1852 – February 23, 1911) was a Comanche/English-American from the Comanche band Quahadi ("Antelope-eaters").  Quanah was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory. He was the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an English-American, who had been kidnapped at the age of about nine and assimilated into the tribe. Quanah Parker also led his people on the reservation, where he became a wealthy rancher and influential in Comanche and European American society.

The woman is wearing a typical Indian dress.  Behind her is a decorated shirt used for more fancy occasions, made by her husband (also Indian) from deer hides he tanned using deer brains.

The buffalo hide covering their bed is from a buffalo they raise on their place.  

The man is holding a bow and arrow he made from Osage Orange wood, just as Darlene's dad used to do.  His quiver and other decorations hanging on the tripod are from Otter hides.

The Tepee is manufactured by a company in Colorado, but the Lodge-pole Pine poles and Osage Orange tent pegs are authentic and home made.

















Wildlife was also abundant in the park.  Deer, turkeys, and road runners were every day visitors to our campsite.

From Palo Duro park, our route would take us up to Kansas and to our next scheduled attraction, Cousin Jim's Farm Themed RV Park.  See you then.