This past winter I celebrated my birthday with a trip to Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo, Texas. I spent five days camping in a tent and hiking most of the trails. The weather was great for early November – warm during the day but not too hot. The nights did get a little cold, though. I remember one morning the temperature dropped below freezing. It was a little hard to get going that day, but nothing like winters in the Rocky Mountains, though.
I had read about Palo Duro and had seen photos before going there. I knew it was the second longest canyon in the US and was once a favorite spot for the Comanche to camp. However nothing really prepared me for my first trip there. The scale of it really is only topped by the Grand Canyon itself. Such a unique ecosystem in the middle of the West Texas desert. In a way it reminded me of how the Black Hills are like an island in the middle of the South Dakota plains. Except instead of mountains rising into the air, these canyon mountains are sunk into the ground. The first experience driving into the park is one long drive down to the canyon floor.
This huge canyon is filled with wide, sweeping views that spread out on a massive scale. Even the rock formations here seem to be larger than life. From the 310-foot-tall Lighthouse Rock to the sheer rock walls and other towering hoodoos nature carved out of stone, it’s almost like walking through an outdoor sculpture garden created by giants.
As beautiful as the red and green colors of Palo Duro are, I still had to edit some photos in black and white. With all the various textures and the play of shadows across the canyon in the harsh afternoon light, seeing the canyon in monochrome seems to add a bit of magic and mystery to it. There’s a reason black and white photography is still meaningful even today.
You might have noticed by now that a lot of my “landscape” photos are shot vertical. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had an affinity for vertical compositions. That’s one reason I like photographing mountain regions so much – or mountains that are sunk into the ground. I just like the way the scene flows in a vertical image. I think we naturally see the world as a horizontal composition, so creating a vertical image changes our perspective to see things in a slightly different way. This is also one of the reasons I like black and white.
For me, this trip was mostly about hiking, enjoying the solitude of nature, and soaking in the surrounding landscapes. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife while I was at Palo Duro. A variety of birds, a couple lizards, a few deer. The only wildlife photos I liked were of this roadrunner I watched for a while at one of the picnic areas.
One of the coolest things about the entire trip was that the moon was full the week I was there. And on my second night I was able to watch the moon rise from behind the ridge that was directly across from my campsite. Looking back, I wish I had tried to take a video of the moonrise, but I was too caught up in the moment enjoying the show. At least I managed to snap a photo.
All in all, it was such a fun trip and a great way to celebrate another trip around the sun. I definitely plan on going back for another visit someday. Although from what I hear I will probably avoid ever going in the summer. Just a little too hot for me!