Palo Duro Canyon

A week or so ago we went on a little outing to Palo Duro Canyon with some of our family who are in the area now. We had only been there once before with the kids over a year ago, so it was fun to go back. It is such a pretty canyon and so unique in that everywhere around it is as flat as can be until you come upon this gorgeous canyon.

We went with Brian's sister Jana and her family, as well as our nephew Matt and our niece Ashley and her family (plus Ashley's brother-in-law). We had a little picnic dinner first. The kids had fun exploring and playing in the dirt.

Then we decided to find a trail for a short hike that everybody could do together. McKay and Brandon studied the park map.

We went to a place where Brandon thought he had seen a sign for a 1/2-mile nature hike, but instead we found a trail marker for a 1 1/2-mile hike. We decided to give it a try!

Turns out this trail went up, and up, and up. (Many of the trails just wind around the bottom of the canyon.) But it wasn't super difficult and the kids were great troopers. In fact, our girls led the hike the whole way up!

Here's Ashley and Jana (with baby Zoey) along the way.

The views were beautiful! We could see the big ampitheatre down below where they were rehearsing for the big musical production they do every summer.

Lots of little wildflowers among the rocks.

I took this picture of McKay as I was standing above him on the trail and told him to look up.

Finally, the summit!

The girls thought these rocks at the top were pretty cool.

McKay the Conqueror!

Then it was time to head back down. (This is when Courtney decided she absolutely couldn't go another step, even though she was the one begging all along for a "hard" hike.)

We need to go back sometime and explore some of the other trails!