More from Palo Duro Canyon

Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States.

Here are some more views from our visit there on May 14th.

§ § §

You can learn more about Hamas’s horrific depredations on October 7th of last year from Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary “Screams Before Silence.”

Written by Steve Schwartzman

May 26, 2024 at 4:04 AM

Posted in nature photography

Tagged with geology, landscape, Palo Duro Canyon, rocks, Texas

12 Responses

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

Thank you, Steve, for the stunning photos of the canyon!

Joanna

gabychops

May 26, 2024 at 5:04 AM

Reply
- Sure thing. I’m happy to have visited twice in less than two years, and on opposite sides of the earth’s orbit around the sun. Last time we got some colorful fall foliage, and this time some wildflowers.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 26, 2024 at 6:25 AM
  
  Reply
To my way of thinking, Palo Duro is near the top of our state’s attractions. I haven’t actually visited there for more than a short time passing through, but it’s on the list. When I did a quick browse of the photos in my archives, I couldn’t help wondering if we’d passed the same way. Your second photo looks so much like one of mine they could have been taken from the same vantage point. Of course, there’s plenty of similar scenery in the area, so it’s impossible to say.

shoreacres

May 26, 2024 at 7:03 AM

Reply
- Definitely near the top of our attractions, both geographically (it’s up in the Panhandle) and scenically. In spite of that, I have the impression that lots of people, even in Texas, haven’t heard of it. Yesterday we were in a store in Austin and the clerk asked what we’d been doing recently. I mentioned our trip to Monahans and Palo Duro, neither of which places he’d heard of. I asked two other people adjacent to us, and they’d not heard of Palo Duro either.
  
  I took the second photo from the park road. It was easy to pull over there for a clear shot of the cliffs, so it would have been natural for you to have done the same thing.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 26, 2024 at 8:04 AM
  
  Reply
It looks beautiful. I looked up what Palo Duro means. It means Hard wood or Hard Stick. Interesting it was named for the Mesquite, and Juniper hard woods growing there. Native Americans used those woods to make their bows with. That’s an AI generated answer. Think it’s right?

circadianreflections

May 26, 2024 at 9:29 AM

Reply
- The name does mean ‘hard wood’ in Spanish, and I’ve seen the same explanation online that AI gave you (most likely drawing from those same sources). It’s a plausible explanation but I don’t have information to determine if it’s historically correct. In any case, Palo Duro Canyon is impressive—so much so that I headed back there after just a year and a half and took another slew of pictures.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 26, 2024 at 9:53 AM
  
  Reply
Thank you for more images of Palo Duro Canyon.

The diversity of natural beauty within the Lone Star State boggles the mind. Those who have not been to Texas cannot possibly grasp how vast the state is and most certainly don’t have a clue how much there is to experience for a lover of nature.

Wally Jones

May 26, 2024 at 1:06 PM

Reply
- I’ve sometimes pointed out that Texas is about the same size as France. In my reply to Linda’s comment I said: “Yesterday we were in a store in Austin and the clerk asked what we’d been doing recently. I mentioned our trip to Monahans and Palo Duro, neither of which places he’d heard of. I asked two other people adjacent to us, and they’d not heard of Palo Duro either.”
  
  On a local TX channel I caught the tail end of something (perhaps a campaign) encouraging people in Texas to visit a part of the state they’ve never been to. I’ve been to all the regions in Texas, but obviously not to every individual place of interest in each region. Even relatively close to home I occasionally discover something new.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 26, 2024 at 1:23 PM
  
  Reply
I’ve never been to either, though I’ve heard of both! I’ve loved these photos–thanks for taking us along!

Tina

May 26, 2024 at 4:03 PM

Reply
- More will be coming from those two sites and from Caprock Canyons and a couple of other places, but I still hope you’ll go in person and experience them for real, perhaps once the weather cools down in the fall, as we did in 2022.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 26, 2024 at 4:49 PM
  
  Reply
That looks spectacular! Plenty to keep a photographer occupied… 🙂

Ann Mackay

May 27, 2024 at 1:26 PM

Reply
- Plenty indeed. I was it at for a good six hours and took hundreds of pictures.
  
  Steve Schwartzman
  
  May 27, 2024 at 5:34 PM
  
  Reply