Pizza, Adventures and Mike!: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Tx An adventure with my sister Marciella!

This is called the the landmark formation at Palo Duro, The Lighthouse. This canyon is the second largest canyon in the U.S. It is located 12 miles east of Canyon, Tx. on hwy. 217

Our trip here started off with a lot of excitement and disappointment at the same time, thanks to my sister. We stopped at the first pull off to get out and take pictures. I got out first and walked around the car to wait for my sister to get out.

She was on the passenger side and we were close to the grass edge.

As she stepped out of the car, I noticed a rattler in the coiled position just eyeballing her luscious calf muscle. As she started to back up towards the grass to shut the door, I had to pull her away. That was the excitement part.

The disappointment part was the snakey snake, turned and went in the high grass and disappeared before I could get a pic. Well, that ruined my day. The rest of the day I was thinking...man if I had let her back up and it struck her leg...what a great shot that would have been. oh well, my loss! Love you Marciella!

It was in July and well over 100 degrees! Two stage four cancer patients, and what do we decide to do! That's right, take a six hour hike battling the heat and the blaring sun beating relentlessly down upon us. And being adults you would think we went prepared for it too. Our preparation was 2 bottles of water each. Oh yea, that worked out good, lol! Our goal was to get to the Lighthouse so I could get some pics. To me it would be worth all we had to endure, hum!

Meep, Meep, there is the Roadrunner, now where is Wylie?

My sister tired out first and was going to wait for us, (we also had her Grandson, Andru with us). Hi Andru!!

Then a little while later, Andy dropped out of the race too, leaving me to endure the brutal conditions on my own. Oh yea...and my sister has all the water in her backpack. hum, should of thought about that sooner!

But as they say (who they are, I am not sure), you must move forward, there is no turning back now!

So I struggled on, trying to overcome the perils of the desert and the blistering hot sun that was beating down on my wretched body! And I come to this sign.

HaHa, yea right, I didn't reach the lighthouse yet. I surveyed the area and saw two trails.

so I picked one. It wasn't traveled very much because the grass, or weeds really, were thin and unworn.

And wouldn't you know, it became very steep and winding. It seemed to go on forever.

Then, finally I came out to the rocky bottom leading up to the lighthouse. No water for what seemed like hours and worn from the sun beating on me all day, I took a deep breath and said to myself, you can do it, slow and steady. It was a pretty challenging climb, but I finally made it to the lighthouse. Now to get up onto the plateau.

I made it to the plateau, I look up to the top of the lighthouse, thinking man what an accomplishment, that's awesome, then what do I see?

Yea, you are seeing that right. Some dude up there doing handstands. Suddenly I don't feel so accomplished, Lol! So the only adult thing I could say to myself was, what a showoff!

I snapped a few pics and selfies and started my way down. I went the other way going down. It was really steep and sandy from the weathered sandstone which made for a very slippery decent. I had to hang along the rocks and edges, so as not to slip and slide. I had to be careful...wouldn't want anyone to see this old man Rockin and Rollin, Lol!

As I reached the bottom of the Lighthouse I see a picnic table, and to my surprise, my sister was sitting there waiting for me. Realizing she had the water, she struggled on making it to the bottom of the lighthouse. Her Grandson had gone back to the car to wait for us. I was totally surprised she had made it that far. Now to get back to the car hours away, in the peak of the afternoon heat and sun! My sister was starting to look like a walking heat stroke about to happen. I took off my shirt, leaving me shirtless, and put it on her head to protect her from the blistering sun, leaving my back and shoulder exposed to the extreme elements! I had to pour water over the shirt on her head to try to keep her cooled down. We finally came to a small shaded shelter, stopping for her to rest. She did not look good, but there was no choice we had to get back to the car one way or another.

yea, that's me looking all cool and stuff!

We rested a little while then trudged on. I felt so bad, she was so exhausted from the heat, but we pushed on. We finally came to the final shelter and of course we stopped. Marciella was so exhausted she layed out on the wooden seat and at times had almost fallen asleep several times, not a good sign. I knew we had to keep going to get out of there though, my sister also realized it too, so off we went from the last shelter. I felt bad because she kept saying I can't keep going, and I had to respond, you have to, otherwise we die here. finally got to the sign that said parking lot and pointed to that direction. As we were heading in that direction we met up with Andy, who was just about frantic, thinking the worst had happened to us. Finally making it to the car, we spent the first few minutes dying a slow death, so it seemed. I think it took Marciella many hours to recoup from that hike. But the important thing was, I got my pictures! Well, okay the important thing is we are still here to laugh, or cry, about the adventure. No less, I thoroughly enjoyed the hike even though it took a toll on both of us for days!