About 30 miles from Amarillo is Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park opened in 1934 and contains almost 30,000 acres of the northern most portion of the canyon.
It is the second largest canyon in the United States.
The canyon is 120 miles long, 20 miles wide in some places and over 800 feet deep.
Unlike the Grand Canyon in Arizona at Palo Duro Canyon you can drive to the bottom.
The drive down is so scenic. There is a wonderful view around every curve.
There are many interesting formations.
There are caves for exploring.
This incredible canyon has been formed by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of The Red River. It runs red too.
The iron-rust orange hills seem to glow.
I see an Indian with a headband sitting and contemplating his view of the mountain.
There are three RV campgrounds in the park. They have electric and water hook-ups and amazing views.
We were favored with such a beautiful day with warm air and the clearest chrome blue skies.
We stopped to have a picnic lunch in an empty camp site and it was alive with so many birds. There were cardinals and woodpeckers darting here and there so fast it was impossible to get a decent photo. We had entertainment with our lunch.
In 1916 Georgia O'Keeffe was teaching at what is now West Texas A&M University in nearby Canyon and was just starting to express her artistic talents. She loved the color and light in Palo Duro Canyon and soon she was painting vivid landscapes slashed with Palo Duro red.
On the rim we saw what appeared to be a lone tree. Walt checked it out in the binoculars and it indeed was a lone tree but it's companion was a wind mill pumping away. The tree had water and flourished.
This rock chimney is all that remains of the Civilian Conservation Corp recreation hall. The CCC was instrumental in putting people to work during the Great Depression and so much of their work was in our National and State Parks. As we have traveled I have been very impressed with the structures that they built and how they are still in use today. The CCC built the original infrastructure of Palo Duro Canyon State Park working for 5 years to create the roads, the lodge (now used as the visitor center), cabins and trails.
The visitor center had a nice display about the CCC and they really were paid $1 a day. Their housing, clothing, food and medical care was also provided. Times were hard and most of them sent the money they earned back home. They learned job skills and the quality of the work they did still stands today.
A rich and colorful day in another park in this great country of ours.
There is still more in Amarillo coming up.