January 27, 2011--Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon

We have been busy and had long days so I am 2 days behind on my blog. I am writing this page on Saturday January 29. I will try to remember all the details.

Our first stop on Thursday was Canyon, Texas, just about 10 miles south of Amarillo. It is a nice town with the West Texas A&M State University situated in the town.

We stopped at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum for a short visit but we eventually spent a few hours at the museum. The exhibits covered oil rigs, windmills, geology, automobiles, paleontology and art galleries by famous artists depicting life of the cowboys and Texas settlements. Walt really enjoyed the windmill exhibit because it had a windmill designed by John and Gerhard Albers. They even had exhibits on a  boardwalk of a life-size 1880's frontier town. I immediately thought of Max, our grandson who loves animals, when I saw the  replicas of dinosaurs in one room.

When we left the museum we asked about a "mom and pop" restaurant we could find for lunch. Well, we did find the cafe which they recommended and it was home cooking. They really do us chillies in their food, but it was okay for me. There were many locals in the cafe and it was very interesting listening to the accent and the way they talked about family and friends.

Our next stop was a visit to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The canyon stretches 120 miles, running southeast across the panhandle from Canyon to Silverton and is the second largest canyon in the United States.  The park is constantly made larger as more land is purchased from ranchers by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. They have 29 thousand acres in the park. They have trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding which go throughout the park.

We left the flat lands of the plains and we drove into the park to cliffs that were more than a thousand feet deep down into the ground. The cliffs were multi colored with bands of dark pink, white and a dull red. I an only imagine how the cliffs would change colors with the setting sun. I remember how the rock formations in the Bad Lands changed when the sun began to set.

After we left the park it was late afternoon so we pointed our truck for home. It was the end of a good day.

I FINALLY TOOK TIME TO LEARN HOW TO PUT PICTURES ON MY BLOG. ENJOY. I AM AMAZED AT HOW MUCH TECHNOLOGY I CAN LEARN AT MY TIME IN LIFE. THE YOUNG SEEM TO DO IT WITH EASE BUT IT TAKES MORE TIME FOR AN OLDER PERSON WHO IS NOT TOTALLY EDUCATED IN THE SIMPLE OPERATIONS OF THE SOFTWARE.

THE PICTURE DOES NOT SHOW THE REAL BEAUTY OF THE LAND

A VIEW OF THE COUNTRY SIDE WITH CATTLE GRAZING ON THE PROTEIN RICH PANHANDLE GRASSES.