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| Hiking | 10.59 Miles |
963 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.59 Miles | 5 Hrs 59 Mns | | 1.91 mph |
| 963 ft AEG | 27 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | On day 3 we headed back to Palo Duro Canyon which was open today. Ginny and I had hiked the lighthouse trail a couple of time before, in fact we got married there 3 and a half years ago. We decided to revisit the scene of the crime but add a little extra to the hike this time. On this hike we will hike further up Little Sunday Creek as far as it is feasible. The hike to the lighthouse is about 3.5 miles along a really easy trail, the last .5 miles being a steep climb to the lighthouse. Great views from the lighthouse but on this trip it was quite windy, luckily it wasn’t too cold (temps around 60). Saw a couple of people on the trail but overall it was pretty light.
From the lighthouse we continued on up Little Sunday Creek. Surprisingly fairly easy to walk along the creek as the sand was packed. Lots of animal track along the creek, Deer, wild boar, Barbary sheep, Fox, Bob Cat and the ever present coyote. Further up canyon there was water pooling and in places a light flow, explains why all the animal tracks. Continued on up until there was no going any further because of a 30 foot water fall. These sudden drops in the canyons is quite common in this park and makes hiking from the rim to the canyon bottom iffy. Much like Grand Canyon but on a much smaller scale, but a 20 foot drop is just as impassable as a 100 foot drop, the only difference is the 100 foot one will kill you, the 20 foot one just leaves you wishing you were dead. From Google Earth these drops don’t show up and topo maps really don’t show them. I thought this canyon was extremely interesting, the rocks and formations along the creek kept my interest peeked. On our return trip we saw about a dozen big horn sheep or so I thought but later found out they were Barbary Sheep. Neat canyon and if you are in the lighthouse area I highly recommend this 2 mile round trip excursion. |
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