The lighthouse trail is the best known palo duro trail, but there are lots of other good ones.

Make sure you take plenty of water while hiking. Even in the spring, you'll need to be sure to hydrate.

If you enjoy craft beer, check out Long Wooden Spoon. It's in a business park, but the beer is really good, and the whole experience is fun.

Rock Garden to Fortress Rim is a great hiking trail and has been a solid escape from the crowds for me in the past. Lighthouse is awesome but that's why it's also incredibly popular.

If you make it over to Caprock you should do the South Fork to Haynes Ridge loop with a detour down to the fern cave.

we used to rent horses down in the canyon...
then they moved them up to the rim...
Are horse rentals not still available??

Should be a pretty time, and Dove's Rest are some great cabins. Which one? My daughter and SIL have stayed in "Fortress", and it was fantastic. You will likely see Aoudad moving into out of the canyon around dawn and dusk.

Keep in mind it's about a three mile drive from Dove's Rest to the Park entrance, and a couple of more from there to the canyon floor. On a pretty weekend, the line into the park will be very, very long.

Should be pretty, we have had some good rains, and stuff is greening up.

Set aside at least a couple of hours to tour the Panhandle Plains Museum on the WTAMU campus. It's world class.

Do a search of TexAgs, there have been a ton of threads about both places. This one on PD has some good links to other threads

https://texags.com/forums/39/topics/2125220

Here's my thread on Caprock Canyons

https://texags.com/forums/39/topics/2964937/replies/53101822

Another bunch of PD Canyon links

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2502406

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2730533

One thing I've heard about Caprock Canyons is that the Bison herd has a bunch of expectant mommas. Don't know when they'll start dropping, but should be pretty cool when they do. And the mommas will be protective, so treat them like the large, aggressive, wild animals they are.

You won't need a pickup to drive anywhere, I assume you want one to carry bikes. I don't know of anyone who rents bikes in the area. I've not done a lot of business with the bike shops, but I have bought from Hills. I think Sun Adventure has the biggest inventory, followed by Hills, then Outdoor element. I have had good visits at all. So give them a call.

I've done a little hiking on the Givins-Lowery trail. It's probably a moderate trail for bikes, but one of my favorite to hike. And you'll see on my Caprock Canyons thread that I biked to the Clarity Tunnel.

Canyon Restaurants:

Sayakormarns for Asian
Pepitos for Mexican
Green Chile Willy's for Chicken Fried Steak (north of town)
Fat Boys for BBQ
Imperial Taproom for upscale
Feldman's for "American food"

Stop by Burrowing Owl Bookstore next to Sayaks

If you add Amarillo, Tacos Garcia, Tylers for BBQ (worth the trip) and Blue Sky for burgers, but only if Coyote Bluff is full.

Will reinforce the suggestion to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

Aggie1, no more horse stables or Sad Monkey RR in the canyon, though the Sad Monkey engine is in a park just south of the Canyon square. There is a private horse stable outside the park boundaries. I don't have any opinion on them, for or against.

Very near Fortress Cabin





And a Facebook video link, hope it works

https://www.facebook.com/576047767/videos/10156168747737768/

I don't mind sharing my contact info with fellow Ags. If you have any questions, or especially if you have any trouble while in the area, my cell is.............................Let me know when you have it, I'll take it down then.

Sorry for the drive, but very cool you made it. You picked a week of fantastic weather.

We drove out to Buffalo Lake NWR this afternoon, spotted only the second bobcat we'd ever seen in the wild around here. Will get some pics up on the Buffalo Lake thread later.

If you're from Houston, make sure to star gaze this evening. It looks like a clear night, you won't believe the number of stars.

CanyonAg77 covered most of it. I'll add a couple of comments:

The Lighthouse trail is indeed the most popular. It is a fairly long (6 miles round trip) but mostly very easy trail. The trail itself is mostly flat with mild up and down here and there. At the end of the trial, to actually see the lighthouse and get up on the base, you do have to hike up and that part of the trail, a few hundred yards, is a little more challenging, but nothing the average, able bodied person can't do.

For dining, I'd add to the list Barrell and Pie, a wood fired pizza place also on the square in Canyon. And I personally prefer Joe Taco's for Mexican to Pepito's, but both are solid choice. Bottom line is make it to Canyon's square, and you have several really good choices right in one city block.

Edited for "doh" too late!

It's all about personal taste, but Joe Taco is a chain, and I think it shows. But I'll admit that I'm prejudiced because the owners of Pepitos are neighbors and really nice people.

By the same token, the one time we ate at Barrel and Pie, we found it adequate, at premium prices. Maybe if we'd been into any of the hundreds of whiskies they had available, we might have felt differently.

You guys hit some of the most beautiful weather we've had in months, and now, some of the worst. People always ask what weather to expect when they visit, and I always say....it depends. We hit the high 80s with little wind for a few days, the wind today is horrible, and there's a chance of snow this weekend.

Welcome to the Panhandle.

Glad you're having fun, I really came back to this thread to link an article from the April Texas Highways.

https://texashighways.com/things-to-do/getaways/a-palo-duro-canyon-community-offers-more-than-meets-the-eye/

Very relevant to your stay...

Quote:

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or years, visitors wanting to wake up to views of Palo Duro Canyon were limited to tent camping or one of the rustic old cabins managed by the state park. Then Jeff Means arrived after decades in the hospitality world. He moved into Palo Duro Canyon Estates, a small residential development overlooking the canyon south of State Highway 217. On a whim, Means listed his new two-bedroom house on VRBO. "It was like someone opened the gate," he says. The home booked up, week after week. Seeing the response, the home's builder, Mike Standefer, began renting his own home.

The duo saw a business opportunity. Today, Doves Rest Cabins offers nine luxury homes on the rim, the only private vacation rental accommodations overlooking the park. In 2016, one of these cabins, the Sky House was the most popular vacation rental on Homeaway.com. No matter the season, guests from as far as Austin or San Antonio decamp here for the scenery and solitude. Reserve your cabin early. Then settle in, step onto the porch, and take in the fresh air and the canyon panorama and keep an eye out for the aoudad sheep that roam nearby.

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Quote:

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For dining, I'd add to the list Barrell and Pie, a wood fired pizza place also on the square in Canyon.

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Out of business.

Pretty good Italian place (Mickey's) is now in that space.

Had eaten there a few times but they didn't understand customer service. Would only serve pizza certain times.