Possible Wind River excursion

I've been kicking around an exploration of the Beartooth mountains for the summer of 2017, but some of my other routes are still in play.  I'm also extremely interested in the Wind Rivers; as the other GYE range that is made of a gigantic eroded pale, Sierra Nevada-like granite batholith, the two have similar features to recommend them.  The Wind Rivers are, if anything, perhaps a bit less likely to put you face to face with a grizzly (not that it's likely in either range, but the spread of grizz's in the Winds is still light, and mostly focused on the north of the range) and a bit more craggy and serrated in general.  I could happily do either of these routes this summer, and enjoy them probably equally.  In spite of my momentum towards the Beartooths as I've investigated them the last few weeks, I'm almost leaning more towards the Winds already at this point.  Here's how this route would look.  The camp sites are provisional, and may end up being moved; the two spurs in particular can be cut off if needed to shorten the drip by about a day.

Most good Wind River hikes start at one of three trailheads; Green River Lakes, Big Sandy or Elkhart.  This one makes it's debut in the middle of those; the Big Sandy trailhead, which looks something like this:  http://brettsimison.photoshelter.com/image/I00004sF5MvXB1yo

Going to the Wind Rivers, if you've never been there before, absolutely cannot miss seeing at least one of the two banner locations to visit: Cirque of the Towers or Titcomb Basin.  The former is to the south, and is the goal of the first day of backpacking on the route I've mapped up here.  My goal would be to arrive at the trailhead by nightfall after driving from out east for two days, and car camping the first night, giving me a great full day to do the first leg of the backpacking trip.  Over the course of just shy of nine miles, the route for this first day gains a gross almost 2,000 feet of elevation—a relatively modest gain, but big enough, especially for your first real day in the high country, that you'll want to be in at least halfway decent shape to do it.  The steepest portions of the trail are entering the mountains proper after Big Sandy Lake, and then going over the pass that takes you into the Cirque.  After this hike, you'll spend the night in the famous Cirque; hopefully without too much in the way of crowds.  We'll see.

The next day, assuming that I'm too anxious to keep moving to spend another day exploring the cirque, has me going over Texas Pass to Pyramid Lake.  Although not as famous for its grandeur as the cirque, pictures of the area are still stunningly beautiful... and it has another advantage; it's not a climber's Mecca like the cirque is.  And after going over the pass, the rest of the day is relatively flat, which is also nice.

After spending the night at Pyramid Lake, I go over Hailey Pass and head towards Baptiste Lake, where you can see the north face of Mt. Hooker.  How can you miss that?  It makes for a short Day 3, but with a big pass to climb, and being that it's the third day, I'd like to take it easy and have a little time to explore the Baptiste Basin a bit.  The next day, I backtrack back to the main trail and go by incredibly scenic Grave Lake before continuing on past Valentine Lake, the last little bit off trail to the South Fork Lakes.  The next day, the penultimate, has me summiting Washakie Pass before closing the loop portion of the lollipop and spending the night at Shadow Lake, just shy of Texas Pass again.  And the final day ends up being one of the longest in terms of miles (12) but much of it is downhill—although I do have to enter the Cirque again, and then cross another pass to get out of it.  If I decide to take it just a bit easier on the home-stretch, I could further explore the cirque, and head east a bit towards Lizard Head Meadows.

I have to be careful not to get too ambitious, however.  I've discovered about myself that in the comfort of my office planning these trips on my PC, that I often get really excited about rambling all over the countryside and seeing all kinds of things... only to discover that when my boots actually hit the ground that I have an effective limit of 4-5 nights before I'm kind of tired of eating trail food and sleeping on the ground.  So my trip is already on the upper limits of what I tend to like doing.  I've kept the days to 10-12 miles of hiking (or less) as much as possible, in an attempt to keep myself from getting too worn out, but I'm also seeing what I can do to get into better shape between now and the time I go, so maybe that won't be as much of an issue as it was in the Uintas (especially the elevation gain.)

I've also added an alternate short-cut loop that takes the Bears Ears Trail to the Lizard Head Trail and comes back to the Cirque of the Towers from the northeast.  The intent is that this would be taken at Valentine Lake rather than heading west southwest across Washakie Pass.  There are, of course, vaorus other methods of combining the legs of the loops into various potential short-cutted options.  No matter what you choose, unless you spend more time than I am likely to be willing to spend, plus some not insignificant back-tracking, you have to miss a part of the Winds that I'd really love to see.

Sigh.  Isn't that always the case?  I've also, just for the heckuvit, added a nearly 3 mile (one way) day hike exploration spur up the Bonneville Basin.  Given the very short day planned for Day 3 (which starts at the same place) this may not necessarily be an unreasonable side trip, depending on what kind of time I'm making in general on this trip.

Well, crap...

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=177739&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2208410

Cabela's to be bought by Bass Pro Shops.  Bass Pro Shops isn't a chump group, but they're no Cabela's.  I don't know if they're buying Cabela's for the market share, or for the brands.  I hope it's the latter, in which case, I can expect to see stuff continue as is (or at least similar to what it is) for some time.

I wear Cabela's jeans, Cabela's cargo pants, Cabela's socks, Cabela's jackets, Cabela's shoes for work, and Cabela's boots for hiking.  If in the future when I need to replace what I have, I can't get Cabela's, I'm probably going to have to go with some snooty, smug, self-righteous (and most especially) over-priced alternative.  Rail Riders for pants?  Patagonia? The North Face?  Am I going to have to buy them at REI?  Blegh.

Not happy today.

Beartooths Part Deux

Well, I got that caltopo made quicker than I thought.  Here's the skinny:


Part I: The "stick" of the lollipop for the Bear's Tooth hike is the easternmost red section.  At 5.07 miles and nearly 1,500 feet of elevation gain, this might be the better part of a day, depending on how early I can get to the trailhead.

Part II:  The purple loop is the exploration of Black Canyon Lake and the country all around Beartooth Mountain itself, including Spirit Mountain and Sky Pilot Mountain, numerous lakes, a lot of climbing (especially over that pass at Beartooth Mountain) and essentially no trail at all to speak of for most of the route.  At 13.78 miles, and with nearly 5,000 of elevation gain, this is either a very long, hard day, or better yet, I'll stop somewhere partly through it at one of those lakes.

All in all, I see this lollipop taking 2½-3 days.  The total mileage is Part I x 2 + Part II, or 23.92 miles.  Not a bad little loop.

Part III: Assuming that I'm starting this fairly late, after doing the loop above, this is the "stick" of the second lollipop.  It's 9.51 miles long, and gains over 3,000 feet of elevation gain itself, so it's not a picnic, exactly.  I would tend to see it as the better part of a day's hike by itself; if I can't start 'til late, I need to camp somewhere inside the trail; maybe at either Elk or Rainbow Lake.  If it's really late, I can always camp right there near the trailhead at Rosebud Lake somewhere.

Part IV:  At 18.73 miles, this is the real meat of the whole trip.  Continue on the "Beaten Path" trail to Fossil Lake at which point you break cross country to get to the Aero Lakes, go through the valley between Mount Villard and Cairn Mountain, have a good, up-close look at Granite Peak (the highest in Montana!) before heading back down to Big Park Lake and rejoining "the stick."

Part V:  This little spur is completely optional, but goes up the hanging valley to the wonderfully scenic Martin lake, Glissade Lake, etc.  The climb up to the hanging valley is supposed to be pretty brutal, but once you're there, it's not too bad.  At only 3.11 miles, this is just either a day trip, or a nice, secluded camp site if I start it in the afternoon.

In total, this second lollipop is 43.97 miles (37.75 if I forego the optional hanging valley spur) which is still a good 4½-5 days.  Both hikes together are, at a minimum, 6½ days, more likely 7½ or 8.  That's a long time in the wilderness (I tend to find that after 4-5 days, I sometimes have had enough and am ready to come back) but after missing 2016, and assuming that I've been successful in getting in better shape before starting this year, it'll be doable.  Plus, that means that I won't need to worry too much about coming back this way anytime soon, and I can see something else in 2018's summer.

The Beartooths

It looks like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is on my radar again.  Now I've got two contacts that aren't too far away, and one in particular that looks promising as a "staging area"—so rather than taking my summer 2017 trip in the Uintas again, which I've blogged about here probably ad nauseum, I'm thinking of a GYE hike.  I'm really spoiled for choice in the GYE, but I've kind of focused on four areas as "highest priority" for the area that would trump all other potential options; at least until their done:

• The Teton Crest Trail
• The Wind Rivers, including Titcomb and Indian basins, and Cirque of the Towers.
• An exploration of the Gros Ventre; the least ambitious option is only a night or two in a tent; the most ambitious is a good week and a half
• The Beartooths

I'm thinking of applying for Teton Crest Trail permits in my window and if I get it, then doing that (a probably 3-5 night outing, so I could do a minimalist Gros Ventre hike maybe as part of that trip) but if I don't—and I think that's the most likely, then I need to have a Plan B (which in many ways is actually the Plan A.)  And for this, I find myself leaning towards the Beartooths.

I long ago came up with a caltopo map that shows a bunch of stuff in the area, and with the exception of marking the Sphinx and Helmet Trailheads, it's all right there in the Beartooths.  However, I don't think these routes would work for me without a bit of modification.  For the most part, they're point to point hikes (Lake Fork Trailhead to Rosebud Trailhead and Rosebud Trailhead to Cooke City/Colter Pass—which is the so-called "Beaten Path" route.)  In addition to the point to point hikes, I've added a few options, but all of them require some kind of car shuttling.  While it's not impossible that I could have access to easy car shuttling, I'd much rather be able to do all this independently on my own, which requires making loops out of these hikes.  I'll need to spend some work and time on figuring out what the "greatest hits" of the Beartooths are, in that case.  

From the attached/linked map, you can see that the purple route can rather easily be converted into a lollipop by simply ignoring the second half where you go over Sundance Pass, up West Fork Rock Creek and up onto Rosebud Plateau to get to Rosebud Trailhead, and heading back to the Lake Fork Trailhead from Keyser Brown Lake.  It's a bit of a bummer, but it's really Black Canyon lake, the actual Bears' Tooth, and then while I'm at it, since I'm so close, Sky Pilot Mountain that I want to see on that hike.  The second half was more about linking the two routes than because anything on the second half was really a "must see."

The "Beaten Path" (the Red Route) can be converted into a lollipop easily as well; if I follow it as far as Fossil Lake, which is almost all of the dramatic portion of the scenery, I can then hop on the light blue route (all of which is actually off trail, although I'm given to understand that use trails make up some of the route) I can rejoin the "stick" of my lollipop near Big Park Lake.  I could even do the green option at this point if I'm not exhausted from all of this hiking and all of these days in the mountains at this point, although I've been told that the pass between Snowbank Mountain and Point 11,848 (that connects Bergschrund and Summit Lakes) is not a fun one; I might do either of those hanging valleys as spurs and not try to link them; assuming I do either of them at all.)

Later when I have more time, I might whip up a caltopo of those two proposed routes and see how many miles it really is.  But for now, it's reasonably easy to see what I'm talking about based on the map above.

Uintas "Alpine" Traverse

I've been tinkering a bit in Caltopo with what I call the "Alpine Traverse" of the Uintas.  For those who may not have read any of my earlier posts, here's the High Concept of this hike: the Uintas, if you look at the entire range in satellite view, look like a rugged green tadpole with a kink in the tail.  The Uintas are an interesting range, and I often divide them into three sections that have three very distinct characters (summitpost.org divides it into four, but two of them are more distinguished by land use differences rather than by actual physical characteristics per se); I've described my divisions in this post.  It's worth pointing out, however, that even my section C can be pretty fairly divided in half, at the Green River Canyon.  Looking at the satellite image, on the east of the canyon the mountains are very desert-like in nature, while west of the canyon, up until we get to my section B, they are semi-desert, gradually starting to change into the more alpine forested High Bollies or Flaming Gorge section.  Section C between the section B boundary and the Green River canyon is therefore a hybrid between the more overt desert and the more overt mountain forest.

What does all of that mean?  Well,  relative to my own potential hiking plans, it means a few things.  First, the season in which to hike the alpine section of the Uintas does not coincide well with the season to hike the desert section of the Uintas.  What is great for the alpine section is terrible for the desert section because it's too hot and dry in the desert, whereas what is great for the desert section is terrible for the alpine section, because it'll be when snow is heavy on the ground in the alpine area.  Therefore a traverse of the entire range becomes somewhat impractical, or at the very least, undesirable.  I would much rather stick with the alpine section and leave the desert off.  As it happens, it's easy to jump on at the Green River canyon, at the so-called Gates of Lodore Ranger station (to be technical, right across the river from it) and hike my transition section into the High Bollies, and then all the way across the alpine High Uintas area.

So, I've been twiddling around with what I call the "Alpine Traverse" of the Uinta Range, leaving off only the most dry little tadpole tail rump of the eastern desert mountains untouched (as well as a foot traverse of the Green River canyon itself, which I'm not 100% sure is doable.)  This is still a pretty epic hike; it nearly doubles the official complete length of the actual Highline Trail, which is 96 miles—but how close to doubling depends on a number of potential options, scenic detours, and other potential diverges.  The longest the route could possibly be is 196 miles.  But it could also be as short as 161 miles and still be considered "complete."  What are the various options?  I've divided the route up in Caltopo into various segments, numbered 1-8 (going from east to west, although it could also be reasonably hiked the other way too, I suppose) with other labels for some of the other spurs, detours and alternate routes.  Let's have a look, shall we?



Segment 1:  This is the starting point at Gates of Lodore, and requires a fair bit of bushwhacking through the scrubby semi-desert until you get to Allen Draw.  Allen Draw is the terminus of this section, and Allen Draw is actually (relatively) easily reached by the road that goes through Crouse Canyon, so it represents a kind of alternative starting point.  But if you want to catch the Gates of Lodore experience, this segment will add nearly 16 miles—probably a good two days given the bushwhacking, although maybe it can be done in less time—of more of the transition between the Dinosaur National Monument terrain to the Flaming Gorge/High Bollies terrain.  Because it walks to the alternate eastern terminus, it becomes completely optional, and the hike can be easily done without it.  Except for a fairly steep initial climb, it's relatively flat, once you get up on Diamond Mountain.

Segment 2:  This segment, on the other hand, is part and parcel of the entire concept of the expanded hike; that is, to add a bunch of the Flaming Gorge alpine and semi-alpine miles to the total.  Whether you drive through Crouse Canyon to Allen Draw, or hike from the Gates of Lodore, either way, this is just over 27 miles that can't be missed without abandoning the high concept of the hike altogether.  Combined with Segment 1, this adds over 43 miles to the Highline Trail.  Admittedly, a fair bit of this segment is on rinky-dink dirt roads rather than trails, which may not appeal to many.  On the other hand, this is a very little used area of the range, and it also has a not insignificant number of miles of bushwhacking.

Segment 3:  2 ends at the official eastern terminus of the Highline Trail (albeit, that far eastern leg is rarely done—even after a big effort at trail clean-up and maintenance from the nearby town of Vernal.  This is also a potential spot for a food drop, as is the western portion of this section, Chepeta Lake—the last road before you really dive straight into the High Uintas Wilderness.  Chepeta Lake is also the most westerly "eastern terminus" that you can hike and really credibly claim to have hiked the Highline Trail; although many people consider themselves as having hiked it if they do the Hacking Lake TH midway through this section.  This is almost 37 miles long; nearly as long as the entire two sections before it, and it gradually transitions from the Flaming Gorge character of its eastern edge to the High Uintas true alpine nature at the western edge.  By Chepeta Lake you will have hiked, if you do all three segments, 80 miles, and you're close enough to the midway point to count it as a potential celebration.  If you hike fairly quick, you can probably make this your only food drop (or if you carry an awful lot of food).  If you average somewhere between 10-12 miles a day, you will have taken a complete week to get this far.  You'll also have eased yourself somewhat into the higher elevations, above tree-line alpine tundra that you'll face for much of the next section, and will have gone over a few good passes.

Segment 4:  From Chepeta Lake, this goes to the Smith's Fork Junction deep in the High Uintas wilderness.  It also will have taken you over Anderson Pass, less than a mile from the summit of King's Peak, the state high point in Utah.  Few consider that a natural place to end a segment, except that at the junction, you need to make a decision; to stick with the official Highline Trail (a shortcut) or take a scenic detour to see the Red Castle area while you're at it.  This crosses two big passes, North Pole pass in the east and then after crossing Painter Basin, Anderson Pass.  There's pretty big elevation gain to summit these passes, but otherwise, you spend a great deal of time in Painter Basin (and then Yellowstone Basin) enjoying relatively flat and scenic views of unobstructed alpine tundra, with forest only in the very lowest portions of the river valleys.  At 29 miles, this is a good two and a half or even closer to three day section, probably—especially when you consider the summit spur option below.

King's Peak Summit Spur:  This is optional, but hardly anyone who hikes the Highline opts not to summit King's Peak while they're right there.  It's just an up and back, 1.5 miles round trip.  The summit is just under 1,000 higher than the Anderson Pass summit, and there's reportedly an easy to follow social trail to the top.

Segment 5:  My default route includes this and the official Highline as an unofficial shortcut, but of course, most people hiking the Highline would consider it the opposite.  This is 11.5 miles where you turn off of the Highline in Yellowstone basin and summit Smith's Fork pass instead into the Smith's Fork basin.  Keeping going north and then west to round the horn of the Red Castle massif, probably spending a night at Lower Red Castle Lake, which is one of the scenic highpoints of the entire range.  Going back south (and up again) over the pass behind Upper Red Castle Lake (which isn't labeled on my map or on Caltopo, but which I've often heard called Wilson Pass because of nearby Wilson Peak) you can get back on the Highline nearly right away in the "Oweep Basin."  There isn't a marked trail over this pass, but scuttlebutt is that much of the route is actually a social trail, with relatively little route-finding/scree-whacking required.  Although there is some.

Alternate shortcut:  On the other hand, if you just stay on the Highline and ignore the allures of the Red Castle area, you knock nearly 6 miles off of your route—at least half a day, maybe more if you spend some time actually enjoying the Red Castle scenery.  You cross Porcupine Pass from the upper western Yellowstone Basin into the upper Eastern Lake Fork Basin (this spur is often called "Oweep Basin" because Oweep Creek runs through it.)  This is a super scenic pass in its own right, although you get similar views from "Wilson Pass".  If you do the Red Castle option, you will have hiked 122 miles by the end of this section, and if you hike this shortcut instead, you're still at 116 or so miles.

Segment 6:  This 16 and half mile section mostly follows the Highline up and over Red Knob Pass and to Dead Horse Lake, where there's again a choice to be made.  It does include a very small detour from the main route to see Crater Lake, though—the deepest lake in the Uintas and one to which no trail (and therefore extremely few hikers) goes to.  The top of Red Knob Pass looking into the West Fork Blacks Fork (Dead Horse) Basin is one of the most scenic views in the entire range.

Segment 7: 22 mile segment 7 is closer to the official Highline Route.  However, even it has a few detours, including the "north trails" detour that most hikers use in the Rock Creek Basin to see all of the lakes along the edge of the basin, like Helen, Lightning, Gladys, and Rosalie Lakes.  I have a little off-trail detour to see several lakes in a very small sub basin in the upper northeast portion of Rock Creek; Boot Lake, Jodie Lake, Doug Lake, Reconnaissance Lake, and Triangle Lake.  Once you get back on the Highline, you cross Rocky Sea Pass and continue on to the official western terminus of the Highline Trail... but of course, the concept of this hike is that that's not the end.

Alternate Northside Route:  This alternate is actually shorter than Segment 7 by about 4 miles, but is probably much more difficult, given that instead of crossing two passes, you're going over twice as many... all without trails.  I know that it's doable; I've seen trip reports of hikers who have hiked all of these sections (although not strung together like this).  Although it misses Dead Horse Pass and the scenic Rock Creek Basin, at the same time, the North Slope basins here are almost uniformly considered among the most scenic in the entire range; Allsop, Priord/Norice, Amethyst and Middle Basins.  The western edge gets relatively more traffic, because they're closer to the Mirror Lake Highway, and relatively easy to reach, but that's still relative.  I'm a little unsure about this; it depends on my confidence and condition while hiking a putative through-hike of this route, if I take this or opt for the more standard route of Segment 7.

Packard Lake Spur:  This small spur; just a mile and a quarter one way (which has to be hiked back again (would be a desirable camp site if doing Segment 7 that's off the beaten path a bit, and gives a great view of the very scenic East Fork Canyon; a small spur canyon that joins the Duchesne River canyon.  You can get great views of the latter too if you go off trail from Packard Lake and pole around the edge of the canyon rim near the eastern edges of Wyman and Wilder Lake spurs.  If I do Segment 7 instead of the Alternate Northside Route, I'll absolutely stop here.  I'm actually more likely to stick with the official route of Segment 7 rather than my more ambitious Alternate, but either one that I pick, I'll be disappointed in missing the other.

Segment 8: 25 mile Segment 8 is linking trails with a few minor spots of bushwhacking to see the western end of the Uintas beyond the Highline Trail.  There's a lot more usage of this area, because it's closer to the Mirror Lake Highway and easy to get to; in fact, you will actually have to walk along the MLH for a small distance (three quarters of a mile.)  While its usually considered less dramatic than the actual wilderness area to the east, there's a lot of really beautiful spots here, and this route is designed to try and see some of the most important of them.  At the end of the segment, you have to decide which finishing spur you'll use.  The one that goes to the Yellow Pines trailhead is probably what I'll do, as it's easier both to hike and to leave a car.

Terminus Spur:  At just shy of 4 miles, this is just the last afternoon of hiking to get from Yellow Pines lakes to your car.  You won't see anything really dramatic here (I don't think) except for trees.  But it has to be done to get to your car.  On the other hand, the other option was a little bit of ridge-walking left, and takes you all the way to the literal very edge of the mountain range, as you walk out Hoyt Canyon literally onto the streets of Marion, a small town that's in the big valley between the Wasatch and Uintas mountains.

Alternate Western Terminus: As described above, this is one last gasp of scenery before you're done, although after what you've already seen, it's no doubt going to be understated and less impressive.  Walking out Hoyt Canyon on a 4-wheel drive road may be less impressive, but I've seen great views from Hoyt Peak, which you'll be very near.  In fact, it might be worth a small jaunt up to this final summit for a last look at the mountains before you come back out.  This route is 11 miles, and probably adds another day to the route.  With the right vehicle as your ride, you could cut part of that off and drive out Hoyt Canyon instead of walk out.

Although obviously this comes with options and spurs and detours and diversions, some of which could be cut out to shrink the total, as measured by my desired route, this is almost a two hundred mile hike—and even shortened it's well over 150 miles.  To really do proof of concept, maybe I should start at Cross Mountain even further to the east, but as I said, it's got problems.  Averaging 10-12 miles a day, and giving some slack for potential bad weather or just the need for some down time (or days that are short for other reasons; like we arrive at a highly desirable camping spot early and don't want to go on because we're already at where we wanted to be) it's still three weeks in the wilderness.  With at least one food drop (and potentially three) this really works best if well planned in advance, and with a friendly local who can help you move your cars around and stuff.

It's very, very ambitious.  But one of these days, I'd like to do it...

Missing gear

I'm not quite sure how this happened; but my two younger sons borrowing some of my gear is no doubt at least partially to blame.  But I find myself having to replace a few items of my backpacking gear that have somehow gone missing.  Sigh.

1. Lost my waistpack.  I'm considering ditching it entirely, though, and not replacing it.  I'll have to be a little bit more judicious with how I pack my stuff, but I think I can pull it off.
2. Lost my SteriPEN.  I actually really liked that, so that bums me out.  I'll have to replace it, I think, although I could go with iodine tablets or a filter for less money.
3. Lost (both of my) pack rain covers.  I think I'm going to ditch these too, though, and just line the inside of my pack with a plastic bag from now on.

I'm also thinking of not bringing my tarp anymore.  When I camp in more xeric climates, like most of the west, I don't really need to worry about water getting in the tent anyway.  When I camp in rainier climates, like here in Michigan, I've actually had water pool up on the tarp and soak into the tent; I don't think it actually helps keep my tent drier at all.  It does protect the bottom of the tent from the ground on which it stands, but honestly, I'm not worried about getting rips in the bottom of my tent anyway.  If I truly do ditch the waistpack, that means I really only need about $50 to get back into backpacking, replacing the gear that mysteriously went missing.

Sadly; there is no urgency around this; I won't be able to make time in my vacation schedule for a backpacking trip this year.

Palo Duro canyon

About a week ago, I got to hike in Texas' Palo Duro Canyon State Park, not far from Amarillo.  It's a beautiful place; maybe a bit understated compared to some of the Colorado Plateau badlands like the Grand Canyon or Canyonlands or Zions or Arches, but comparable in many ways.  The Llano Estacado is a large flat plateau that makes up most of the Texas panhandle as well as eastern New Mexico and some of the area just north as well; it is the southernmost portion of the High Plains and the largest mesa area in the North American continent, of over 37,000 square miles.  It's edges on both the west and the east are marked by rather abrupt north-south running escarpments.  Although there is a very slight slope to the entire Llano Estacado rising from east to west, both ends are still marked by drop-offs of a few hundred feet, and at this edge, erosion has given us some fascinating terrains, including Palo Duro canyon and the nearby Caprock Canyon area.

I also made a number of mistakes on this hike.  My initial intention was to take Palo Duro fairly easily, doing a number of small hikes; I ended up hiking a loop of about 8-miles instead.  I originally intended to go early in the morning; I ended up leaving Lubbock, where I was staying at 8:30, so by the time my boots hit the trail, it was 11:00 or 11:30.  And I had plenty of water, but only two small bottles that were portable in my little day-pack.

In terms of weather, a cold front was just ending, which lured me into thinking that early May was a good time to hike.  It ended up not being.  Had I been able to go 3-4 days earlier, I could have faced highs in the 60s; as it was, I faced highs in the 90s.  Combined with not a single cloud in the sky, hardly any shade at all on the trail, insufficient water for the miles I had staked out, and the fact that I'm not exactly in the best shape, I ended up limping back to the car dehydrated, over-heated and very uncomfortable.  Had I brought my water bladder I probably would have been OK; had a brought my bladder and started two hours earlier, I certainly would have been.

Better yet, had I gone in early April, or even mid March, I probably would have been fine even without worrying about either of those.  As it was, it was a challenging hike; not because the hike itself was difficult, but because it's hot, it's dry, there's no shade and no water.

I started the hike at the big P listed above, which is the trailhead for the Givens, Spicer, Lowry trail (clearly marked with trail markers every tenth of a mile as the GSL.  This wanders in a remote part of the park, and I saw only a handful of other users on it for a little over three miles along the edge of the canyon bottom.  Had I started earlier (and had more water) I would have also taken the Fox Canyon Trail lollipop, but I could tell even then that I needed to move on and get back to the car before it got too hot and I ran out of water, so I skipped it.  That's OK; for various reasons, I'd love to come back and see more of the canyon anyway, so I'll have a shot at it later.  When the GSL joins the Lighthouse Trail, continue on to the formation known as the Lighthouse, the most iconic element within the canyon (which sadly I didn't get a great picture of up close.  But I think the best pictures are from the more northerly canyon rim trails, which I didn't even attempt anyway.)  Go to the end of the trail, take the left-hand branch to avoid too much scrambling, and climb up to the base of the formation.  Then take the Lighthouse Trail back to the road.  At this point, you can take the short Paseo del Rio (PDR) trail back to where you started.  I had expected the PDR to be shady and cooler; in fact, it wasn't much shadier than the Lighthouse or GSL had been, although the trees managed to block the breeze, making it actually hotter.  I did have to stop under a big cottonwood tree in the shade and cool off before finishing, which was a shame because I was pretty close to the car.  This completes the 8-mile (or so) loop.  Like I said, in spring or fall, with lower temps and a full water bladder, this would be a lovely hike, and anyone who can walk 8 miles can do it; the terrain is not difficult and the trail is very well graded and groomed.

Although I was warned about rattlesnakes, I suspect that you only see them on the trail in the early morning as they come out to catch some rays.  By the time I hit the trail, they were back in the shade to avoid overheating.  I did see a number of lizards of various types, including a horny toad, lots of birds, including a flock of wild turkeys, and very briefly, a coyote popped around the corner right on the trail about 50 feet in front of me.  As soon as he saw me, he disappeared into the brush, and I didn't see hide nor hair of him again.

The trailhead is also kind of confusing.  There are two readily apparent trails at the trailhead, but only one on the map.  As you can see, the PDR doesn't actually come all the way to the trailhead on the map, but in reality it does.  If you take the left-hand trail, you'll end up in short order on the PDR, even though it technically has a different trailhead (although it's only a couple hundred or so yards away.)  Take the right hand trail that goes slightly uphill to end up on the GSL.  Because all of the trails are so well marked with markers every 10th of a mile, you can hardly get lost unless you really try.

One of many strange eroded hoodoos on the GSL trail.

Another GSL hoodoo.

If you look closely, you can see the Lighthouse in the distance.  From the GSL.

Hoodoos and the canyon wall.  You can also see the spring bloom of the mesquite and Texas juniper, which gave the canyon a greener than normal appearance.  In reality, it had hardly had any rain all year and was in a serious drought.

Very dry grass and distant cliffs from the canyon bottom.

Swinging wide towards this hoodoo on the GSL.

Typical Palo Duro scenery, including dry grasses, mesquite, cedar and prickly pear.

A bone dry creek bed that I crossed on the Lighthouse trail.

You can see the high quality of the trail here.  This was also one of the very few spots where you can catch some shade if you need to cool off a bit.  I did.

More hoodoos and badlands terrain.

Getting much closer to the Lighthouse, which looks like a double formation from this angle.  The one on the right is the Lighthouse proper.  The left one is actually a fin viewed front on; up close, and from other angles you can see that it is not actually a spire like the Lighthouse is.

Another hoodoo near the Lighthouse trailhead.  Some poor guys I passed thought this was the Lighthouse.  They were only a half mile in and had two and a half to go.

Another bone dry creek bed.