Last weekend I left Dallas headed to the West Texas panhandle for a mini-vacation. It was 1,092 miles of pure relaxation and adventure. We stopped to take pictures of 17 county courthouses. I won't share them here as they are a topic all their own. These pictures will be scenery and other interesting highlights of the trek.
In addition to the 17 courthouses, I was able to add 6 more hat pins to the collection on my camera gear bag.
This first picture was a row of wind towers in a field of growing cotton. These electricity-generating towers are numerous in the flat plains of West Texas. They are very majestic in my opinion. They do little in the way of marring the scenery and turn so gracefully. Of course, each blade on the propeller can be as long as 60 feet, so even moving fast they still appear to move slowly!
By early evening we were at our overnight destination of Turkey, Texas. It is known for little more than the birthplace of Bob Wills and the annual Bob Wills Festival in his honor each April. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are a big thing in these parts. They defined western swing in the early days.
Surprisingly, the new rage seems to be restoring old gas stations. Before arriving in Turkey where this Phillips 66 is located, we'd already seen 2 H.C. Sinclair station restorations in other cities.
This is the entrance to the Turkey Hotel. We were the only guests the night we stayed. It is the headquarters for the surviving members of the Texas Playboys when they come to town for the annual festival. Each room has a different theme.... cowboy, sweet rabbits, railroad, Gone with the Wind, etc. George and Laura Bush supposedly have stayed in the Gone with the Wind suite.
To make this even more of an adventure, we went to the drive-in outside of Turkey. We were the oldest patrons. Gone are the days of pulling the speaker box into the car and hooking it on the window. Now you tune your car radio to a specific frequency to get the movie audio. Clever!!
After leaving Turkey the next morning, we entered Caprock Canyons State Park - home of the state bison herd which are direct descendants of the Goodnight herd. (Goodnight of Goodnight-Loving trail fame). His family ranched much of the area in the canyon on his J A Ranch.
More of the exquisite rock formations.
This formation is the "signature" rock of the Caprock Canyons Park. Caprock Canyons State Park is at the south end of the Palo Duro Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon State Park is at the north end. The canyon itself is over 120 miles long and is considered the second largest canyon in the United States - the Grand Canyon of Arizona of course being the largest.
As we were leaving the park we noticed 2 roadrunners by the entrance sign. One immediately ran into the brush, but this one posed for the camera. If you click on the picture it might enlarge so you can see the roadrunner more easily.
We drove along the rim of the canyon, which is called the Escarpment, from one end to the other. Coming around a bend we found this beautiful lake... Lake Mackenzie.
As we drove this vantage point was beyond description. I literally stopped the car in the middle of the highway to take a picture. (No worries.... sometimes we drove miles before passing or even seeing another vehicle.)
We made it to Palo Duro Canyon State Park and checked into the office. We spent the night in a stone cabin on the rim of the canyon. As we took our luggage from the car to the cabin this six-striped lizard greeted us on the portico outside the front door.
This was the view from the front portico.
Sunset lengthening the shadows across the canyon.
The next morning we went to Elkins Ranch for a chuckwagon breakfast. Jeeps drove us down to the cowboy camp and I couldn't resist the urge to keep shooting pictures. It felt like we were going straight down. You can barely make out the Jeep on the trail in front of us.
After we had our fill of cowboy grub ...literally.... biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, fruit, ham, coffee..... we were entertained by Ed Montana (he has a YouTube video) and Hodie "Longbow" Porterfield. We had a very diversified group. There were quite a few visitors from Europe. Some spoke little or no English. There was even a family who are parishioners at my church! Small world.
The view from the picnic table as we listened to the entertainment.
The entire time we were at the campsite they kept reminding us not to stray from underneath the awning because of all the unfriendly critters. As we were leaving to board the Jeeps to get back "up top" as they call it, all of the sudden 2 of the cowboys pulled their REAL pistols and each took a shot. Seems a western diamondback rattlesnake was trying to join the party. After shooting the snake... which was still wiggling... one of the cowboys picks up a shovel and cuts off the head, and then tosses the remains(?) carcass (?) in the trash. Some of the people thought it was part of the show, but we were assured it was not... that rattlers are taken very seriously in these parts and their danger would never be trivialized by adding them to a show. This picture below was the entrance to the Elkins Ranch for breakfast. It is a working ranch... meaning they still have cattle and the like on the property.
One last drive around the rim of the canyon before we headed back home. This gorgeous home is inside a gated community on one part of the escarpment. Oh to live in that house! The view must be breath-taking!
My favorite picture of the entire trip..... we had seen several dead snakes on the road as we drove to our destination, but this time I stopped to look. Yup... a dead rattler. I should have cut off the rattle for a keepsake, but I chickened out.
We saw a great deal of wildlife. We were driving along and found 3 bucks standing on the side of the road. We saw does, jackrabbits, bison, longhorns, roadrunners, snakes, hawks, dead boars on the side of the road, and more. All in all the trip was WONDERFUL and I'd do it all over again if given the opportunity. It was really sad to head back to Dallas. [Addendum: I forgot to mention the mother and young wild turkeys I nearly hit with the car as they crossed the road. I assumed they would fly away as I approached. they didn't.... ]
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