Palo Duro Canyon State Park is near the city of Amarillo about 8 hours from San Antonio and considered the “Grand Canyon” of Texas. The Lighthouse Trail is the most famous one at that park to a rock formation that looks like, well, a lighthouse. After months of working 2 jobs, it was time to take some time off to enjoy the outdoors again.

After passing lots of wind turbines (my favorites):

You come to the entrance. There’s zip lines and horse rides outside the gates to try out while you’re there as well.

My first stop was the welcome center, where there’s areas to learn about the history of the canyon and books, souvenirs, and jewelry.

I found my campsite in the Sagebrush section. It’s got water and electric hookup, and restrooms and showers.

Now it’s time to explore the canyon. The drive on the main road is winding and descends into the land. The views are beautiful.

I decide to scope out the trail head for the lighthouse hike and speak to some rangers who were working there. They agreed my plan to start as soon as dawn breaks the next morning. The thermometer at the start of the trail states its 100 degrees. As this warning sign shows:

I drive around to look for a river to dip my toes in but the water is pretty much dried up everywhere due to the drought. But I do find good parking spots with spectacular views and decide to come back for sunset views later.

The drive was long and I’m starving. So I stop at the Trading Post next to the campsite and grab their homemade burger and fries and nice cold coke before relaxing and catching up on a book I’ve been reading on my Kindle app. I also get a chance to sketch the landscape I can view from the back of my car camp setup.

Here I decide to sleep inside my car because outside are these mini little grasshopper type insects that make this clicking sound and hop around in the grass. And flies are everywhere. Better than mosquitoes, though.

I catch some great pictures at sunset. I talk to a couple who ended their hike where I was photographing. They asked if I had seen any rattlesnakes, and thankfully, I hadn’t. I also get a nice pic of myself, which is rare.

I hope that the temp will get cooler when the sun goes down. In the meantime, I get to read until I fall asleep, and knock out so hard that I forget to set up my camera for star shots.

0645 hrs.

The sun is just starting to peek over the rocks and I arrive at the Lighthouse trail head. It’s only in the lower 80s and I’m the first one there. My stomach rumbles a tiny bit from being nervous at being all alone.

I use the app AllTrails to keep track of where I am. I found out that if you record your walk, you can see on the map where you are and if you are staying on the marked trail. It also tells you how many miles you walked, how long it took you, and your elevation and pace. It helps quell the nerves in me. That and my snack of Julianne style cut red and yellow peppers.

You can see the striped colors in the rocks as you make your way. And the lighthouse rocks look like they’re mere inches in the distance.

A deer runs across the trail:

And man there’s so-many-flies! my bandana is now a swat towel for them as they flutter near my face. A millipede slow crawls on the path (this is why I look down). The trail is rusty red and dry; you can see where the water used to run through. A black tarantula, albeit on the small side, scuttles across. It took a lot to not let those peppers come up, because I can’t stand those guys. I suddenly think, can tarantulas climb?? The thought of that being a possibility makes me pick up the pace.

The last part of the path is an unexpected scramble. The path isn’t well marked here at all and I’m hugging the rock half bent over, grateful for my light pack on my back.

And the Lighthouse formation emerges right in front of me. It’s larger than I expected and looks glorious. Since I’m the first one here, I hoist myself up onto the ledge in between both formations and set up my tripod for these wonderful shots.

I sit in solitude for a short time until I hear voices. The couple I ran into are down below to my left. A family of four show up at the edge of the ledge. I finish my water sipping and I get down from the ledge to begin going down.

I somehow take a different way down than the way I came up and practically have to slide down on my rear down the rock into the crevices, but at least I wasn’t hugging that ledge again overlooking the tops of the trees.

I encounter beautiful tri-colored birds, a chirpy cardinal, and a man running on the trail heading on up. I’m thinking I coulda ran this trail too, hmmm. I also see a family with several kids. One is wearing dusty flip flops and I’m thinking nope, you’re not gonna like your feet at the end of this. I’d face plant a rock if I wore those.

I finished the hike just before 10 am. I head back to my campsite, boil some water, and stuff my face with re-hydrated bag mac and cheese. I follow the wild bunnies to the showers and revel in the hot waters. Cleaning the red dirt off of me and watching it go down the drain, along with any more doubts in my mind for now.