Lighthouse Trail

We drove the length of the Palo Duro Canyon State Park (The Grand Canyon of Texas) from the visitors center at the upper rim to the far south end of the park which is about 10 miles, checking other campgrounds, trailheads and points of interest. The entire canyon is 120 miles long and 600-800 feet deep.

Texas wanted the Indians moved out of their land so that cattle could be brought in. During the Red River War in 1874-75 the US Calvary attacked the first five encampments of the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne Indians and drove them down the canyon. They then returned to the encampments and burned them down.  They captured and killed 1100 of the Indian’s horses.  Facing a long winter without food or shelter, the Indians returned and were taken to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Charles Goodnight and John Adair moved in with their cattle, killing the bison to make room for the steers. It seems a very bad way to move civilization into this part of Texas.

The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp.) came in 1933 and built roads, buildings, shelters, bridges and trails. The park opened in 1934 and the CCC completed its work in 1937.

This is the view behind where we are standing in the previous picture.

This park’s iconic rock structure is The Lighthouse, a 312 foot tall formation created by wind and rain erosion. We hiked up a 2.8 mile long canyon to reach the base of the Lighthouse and then climbed up to the foundation for a closer view.  It was a fairly easy hike until we climbed the base. I slid on my bottom to get back down. We walked over 15,000 steps today!