Texas Finale

May 14....We finished our time at Palo Duro Canyon State Park and Texas with another beautiful walk on a trail in the park. Wildflowers were profuse as you can see below.

Gaillardia

We were also treated to another sighting of the group of turkeys that live in the area where we were camping and who, we learned from others, were quite tame and used to a campground of people, campers, tents, vehicles and dogs. They came around every day we were there and this day there were 2 jakes (young males) who were challenging the old tom (on the right below) for his harem. Here we see them talking turkey and later we saw the 2 jakes running around by themselves and presumed the old tom won.

Here you see us ready to go on May 15 and surrounded by mud, mud, mud. We had gone to dinner with friends the night before (had a wonderful time) and come home in the rain. To get to our campground in the park we had to cross the river that runs through the park 5 times. The road is paved at these crossings and we were of course aware that the rivers can swell with rain and so we were pleased to make it home without a problem. The next morning of our departure was another issue, however. Bill went down to look at the first crossing and the river was too high to cross, by almost 3 feet. We had plenty of work getting ready to leave, just washing the red mud off everything and trying to keep it out of the camper, and by the time we completed loading up the river had subsided and we were able ford all 5 crossings. It only took 3 hours for the river to subside!

Here you see us dealing with the next hurdle, trying to get up the 1 mile long, 10% grade out of the park. The truck overheated so we stopped half way up the hill and waited for help. A really nice park ranger helped us out and eventually he called a tow truck for us. The tow truck driver hauled us out, camper and all.

Though we were hours late leaving Palo Duro we still made it to the campground in Raton, N.M. that we had planned to stay at on our way to Colorado....which is what the next post is about! Cheers, Karen