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| Hiking | 3.90 Miles |
471 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.90 Miles | 2 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.67 mph |
| 471 ft AEG | 3 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | There are not a lot of places to hike around Lubbock so we took a couple of days to hike around Amarillo. About two hours from Lubbock is Caprock Canyon and this was to be our first day of hiking. On the far east side is a dirt road that takes you into the park. This is kind of the back door into the park. At the little Red River crossing we parked and started our hike up Holmes Canyon. I had hiked the rim trail which overlooks Holmes Canyon a few years back and this canyon looked interesting from above. Our plan was to hike up the canyon toward Lake Theo. I do not have maps on my Garmin for Texas so this hike was from what I could remember from Google Earth and the not so detailed park map. Walking up the creek was pretty easy but it wasn’t long before I took the wrong branch and headed along a more southwesterly canyon, the one that headed more east was the actual canyon. As a result of this blunder we ended up on the ridge and we followed the rim trail. My new plan was to hike up the Rim Trail to the head of Holmes Creek and hike down the creek.
Second oh crap moment was when we encountered a deer hunter along the trail, He informed us the park was closed for deer hunting and that we shouldn’t be here. We told him of our plan and we went on our way as planned. While walking along the Rim loop trail we saw a park ranger driving along the rim Road, figured we should probably drop down into the canyon where we would not be so visible. Third oh crap; there was no easy way down into the canyon due to a 20 to 50 foot cliff. We walked along the cliff face for a bit looking for a break but along this section there were none. Decided to head back up and that’s when we meet with the ranger. Nice enough guy he informed us the park was closed and offered (no insisted) that he drive us back to our start point. There were no signs along the back road to the park saying it was closed only at the main entrance.
We will have to do this hike another day when the park is open. Holmes Canyon from what I saw looks very interesting and doesn’t look hard to navigate. Tall cliffs and interesting Rock formations all along the way. On our excursion along the cliff face we came upon an old grave stone, no markings but definitely hand tooled to the shape of a marker. Asked the ranger whose it was and he was unfamiliar with it. Gave him the location, it is not in a location that too many people would find it.
The weather was about 30 degrees in the morning with a slight breeze, no water in the lower canyon or in the Little Red River but recent rains left places muddy. Didn’t see any deer but did see tracks. Also tracks of feral pigs. No buffalo sighting on this trip. The buffalo are part of the Goodnight herd that were preserved by Charles Goodnight in 1878 and are now maintained by the state of Texas. |
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