With my success at Palo Duro in May, I decided to explore another nearby Texas State Park, Caprock Canyons. It’s only about 85 miles southeast of Palo Duro, and though smaller has the same kind of wilderness look and feel. My hiking partner for this trip was long-time friend Margaret White.

We drove from her home in Moore, Oklahoma. The six-hour drive was mostly west on Interstate 40.

Our first stop was the Bug Ranch, a touristy knockoff of Amarillo’s Cadillac Ranch, at I-40 and State 207.

This trip was my first opportunity to use the Minolta DiMage 7i digital camera.

We struck out early, and had an easy drive in excellent weather. We arrived at the park at around 2 pm, hiked a few of the shorter trails, then made camp in the Honea Flat Campground.

The evening was cool, clear and still, and I made  some remarkable sunset images.

I slept well, but Margaret did not. In the morning, she stayed in camp while I hiked the Canyon Rim trail. After lunch the two of us took the Canyon Loop trail, which was very beautiful. All day we had the trails and the campground to ourselves.

At night we had a Duraflame log fire, and were visited by a very curious, tame skunk who came right up to us, a huge deer right at the back of our camp site, and an incredibly tiny field mouse. It was cold and cloudy.

Enduring rain came on our second night, so we broke camp this morning. Though it was a short trip, we had a great time.