If you’re exploring north west Texas, you might want to know about some of the things to do in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. There’s a list. A long list. I’ve been to a dozen state parks in Texas so far. Palo Duro is at the top of the list for the best place to visit and spend a few days.

Whether you’re a hiker, camper, glamper, beer nerd, adventure junkie, or just someone who enjoys the views from their car… there are things here for everyone.

Palo Duro is the nations second biggest canyon. It isn’t quite as grand as number one (haha see what I did there?), but it does have it’s own beauty on a slightly smaller scale.

ABOUT THE PARK

Palo Duro sits just outside the small town of Canyon, Texas. It’s only 20 or so miles from Amarillo, so if you want an excuse to come here… you can do all the other Amarillo touristy things like visit Cadillac Ranch or eat your weight in steak at the Big Texan.

800+ feet deep and over 100 miles long, this canyon exists due to an ancient river cutting through the landscape. The landscape is multicolored with layers and stripes of different colors, showing the age of the land around it.

Palo Duro has seen human activity for at least 12,000 years. The Clovis, Folsom, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, and more. Canyons like this made it easier to hunt bison and before that… mammoth! Those that lived here left behind artifacts like mortars and artwork.

On the darker side of history, in the 1870s the Red River war lead to most of the Native Americans being forced out of the area and back onto reservations. After this, the space was mostly used for ranching until it was transformed into a 28,000 acre park.

As you explore, you might come across an endangered species or two, like the horned lizard or Palo Duro Mouse. In addition to those, expect to see birds of all kinds, and deer. If you get lucky you may spot a coyote (or hear them if you camp) or bobcat!

HIKING PALO DURO CANYON

This park is filled to the brim with every type of hiking you can imagine.

You can pick something short and family friendly like the 1.2 mile Sunflower trail or the Pioneer nature trail… or go extreme the other way with something long that will take a few hours like one of the longer 3-4mile (each way) Comanche trails.
Some, like the Lighthouse are the most iconic in the park.

Hikes like the Rock Garden or CCC bring you from the base up to the canyon ridge, the Rojo Grande keeps you at the bottom of the canyon, or the Rylander keeps you at the top! (ok, that’s a bit of a lie… you can only access the Rylander from the Rock Garden so I guess you would need to start at the bottom for that one).

There are even hidden trails not shown on the map at all like the caves which get little traffic.

In the two days I spend in Palo Duro I was able to hike the Lighthouse, Rock Garden, and Caves trails. You can read all the details of that over here. I go over where they are, what types of things you’ll pass, and how to prepare for them. Pro tip: WATER. Lots of it. Like, a lot a lot of water.

DRIVING PALO DURO CANYON

Things to do in Palo Duro Canyon if you aren’t up for hiking? They still exist!

The road that goes through the park is a scenic 16 or so mile drive. There are plenty of stops all along the way where you can pull over and look around without getting too far away from where you are parked.

The road goes from the rim at the top, all the way to the bottom of the canyon. The first thing you’ll notice when you come in might be part of the official Texas Longhorn herd that hang out near the entrance.

Shortly after, you’ll come to the visitor center and lodge, tucked away on the west side of the road a bit. This is the best place to stop and use the bathroom before if you need to, while getting to learn a bit about the park. Even if you don’t want to do any of those things, stop here because the view from this area down into the canyon is fantastic.

Make sure you pick up a map on your way in so you can stop at almost a dozen points of interest that are indicated on it. Without a hike, you can still easily get to a few of them, like the wildlife viewing blind (mostly just birds, it seems), or an old fireplace leftover from one of the CCC camps.

Can’t hike out to the cave trail? The “big cave” on the west side at the bottom of the drive can be seen from the road!

You might pass a few horses as you come through because equestrian riding is really popular in this park.
Right around the bird blind ‘point of interest’ is a store that has a ton of merch and cold drinks available for sale.

You can also camp in this park!

STAYING AT PALO DURO

There are plenty of lodging options in the area, both inside and outside the park.
There are “cow camp cabins” you can rent if you like rustic. Built by the CCC in the 1930s, these stone cabins have had a few updates to them like heating and cooling, while retaining charm.
If you’re looking for something more modern, there are also some luxury cabins available through Dove Rest Cabins.

The camping areas accommodate both RV’s and Tents, with showers available.

The coolest camping area we saw were luxury GLAMPING tents. Huge tents that are closer to the size of a small house! Fully furnished with AC, a partial kitchen, games, a covered porch, and apparently even come with a smores kit.

I was so sad we didn’t get to do this. We somehow managed to schedule our trip during a 3 day span where it rained off and on during the day, and ALL night long. Instead of taking a chance on camping, we ended up using another lodging option outside the park.

Hotels. The town of Canyon is really close by, with hotels like the Best Western. That’s where we stayed. It was clean enough, and a very quick drive to the canyon.

OTHER BITS AND THINGS AT PALO DURO

There are some popular things here that I either don’t partake in, or didn’t get to do.

Palo Duro is super equestrian friendly. You can bring your own horse into the park, and there are even specific horse friendly campsites. Not only that, but you can do a guided tour on horseback… where THEY provide the horse! The Old West Stables do guided tours, as does Palo Duro Creek Ranch. There are equestrian specific trails, and you can ride on trails like the Lighthouse as well.

You can ALSO do jeep tours! There are multiple to choose from, and they are pretty darn cheap.

Bring your mountain bike, because the Capitol Peak trail is 3.5 miles of not only being bike friendly… it’s a bike ONLY trail. (note that is does share the entrance to the lighthouse trail, where you can ALSO ride horses, so if you’re hiking, biking, or on horseback… a few spots can get a bit dicey if anyone isn’t paying attention).

There is an amphitheater where in the summer, they do a family friendly musical a few days a week.

Of course like any other state park, there is a ranger program as well.

Not a portion of the park itself, you can go to Palo Duro Zip and zipline the canyon! It’s cheap, and isn’t long or anything… but for $30 (last time I looked), you can do a quarter mile long zipline with great park views.

THINGS TO DO OUTSIDE THE CANYON

As mentioned, just outside Palo Duro is the town of Canyon. It sits just south of Amarillo. I really wasn’t expecting a whole lot, but it was a pretty big town!! It probably helps that West Texas A&M is there, making this a college town.

If you have cadillac ranch on your list of places to visit… and you’re already in Canyon (don’t go out of your way for it), it just makes sense to also visit Combine City. Yep, combines. In the ground. Just like the cadillacs. Have I mentioned that I love roadside attractions yet, no matter how lame they might be?

The Panhandle Plains History museum is probably worth a stop.
Bar Z winery has signs everywhere.
It looked like there was a water park for the summer months, if you have kiddos that want to cool off after a day in the canyon.

Food wise, since we went on a Sun/Mon we weren’t able to get the full experience of being able to choose. It was more of a “well, what’s open”. That said, we still ended up with some good food!

For a good breakfast, we stopped at The Ranch House Cafe. You always know somewhere has a decent breakfast if the parking lot is loaded with pickup trucks and the inside is full of old men in cowboy hats. The menu is more country rustic, with lots of meat and grain. Good fuel for the day.

At dinner time, we stopped at Joe Taco. A sit down Mexican/tex mex style restaurant with plenty of enchiladas, tacos, and more.
The service was great, the food was good, and there was some super cool taco artwork up on the walls.

Now onto the beer.
You know I always have to find a brewery anywhere I go, and this was no exception.
Amarillo seems far away, but it’s really only about 10-15 miles from where we had dinner at Joe Taco, to drive STRAIGHT north (really, never needing to leave that one road, which makes it easy lol) to Pondaseta Brewing.

I will mention this was technically still ‘pandemic’ time, since we went in January of 21, and at the time Texas had some very strange laws.
You couldn’t just be open if you sold beer unless more of your sales came from non-alcohol than alcohol.
Most places added food to their menus to do this.
Pondaseta, did merch. The only way you could buy a beer, was if you ALSO bought stickers, or glasses, or something else. Each and every round… merch.

On a good note, they have a really likable logo. The staff was great, and it was a good atmosphere too.
Beer wise I tried the Apricot sour (amazing), a black IPA (fantastic), an amber, hazy ipa, red velvet cake stout, lemon berliner, and what was my favorite… and peach and lemon vanilla milkshake IPA.

What thing to do at Palo Duro Canyon are you most looking forward to during your next stop in the panhandle?

Part 2: Hiking Palo Duro