Palo Duro State Park

Day 23

I wake up at about 4 AM when the wind starts blowing hard. I manage to get back to sleep, but at dawn, the wind is still blowing, the sky is gray, and the temperature is about 60°. We bust out the jackets for the first time in three weeks. Because of the wind we grab breakfast out and then head south for Palo Duro Canyon. The canyon is pretty amazing, especially because you can't see it until you're there. On our short hike we find centipedes all up and down the trail. After a couple of hours of checking out the canyon it's time to saddle up and hit the road for Santa Fe.

Today turns out to be a long travel day and I'm getting sick of interstate 40 so when we get close to Santa Fe I head north on highway 3 to follow the Pecos River. Highway 3 is a pretty sweet motorcycle road until we come around a sharp corner and find a truck stopped in the middle of the narrow road. Unfortunately the reason the truck is stopped because the dog they have chained in the back fell out and got dragged. The dog doesn't look too bad but he's crying like crazy and the old man can barely lift him back into the truck. Shortly thereafter there's another truck coming at us in our lane. I brake and pull to the right and the driver finally figures it out and moves back into his lane. I'm starting to hear banjos playing here. We roll in to the campsite pretty late, grab some dinner, and then catch showers and crash. It's finally cool and there are no bugs except the stinkbugs which Gwen hates.Read more