This marks the fourth year in a row that we have hiked with
the West Texas Trail Walkers on their annual Columbus Day weekend hikes. The first year was in Palo
Duro Canyon
State Park, then Guadalupe
Mountains National
Park and last year in Fort Davis State Park. Next year is in Big Bend National Park
and we have already made our hotel reservations. This year the three-day hikes were in Caprock Canyons
State Park and it was the first time
for us to visit this scenic area on the Llano Estacado or Staked Plains of West Texas.
Our friend from Saudi Arabia days, Jo Ann Stewart,
has joined us on all these hikes and she joined us once again this year in our
annual tradition. Jo Ann drove up from Houston and spent the night
at our house on Wednesday, October 3.
Thursday morning we woke early to get a good start on the long
drive. We stopped for breakfast at the
Old German Bakery in Fredericksburg
and then we drove in a northwest direction on some highways I hadn’t driven on
previously.
In Brady, where we have been before, we headed north on
highway 283 through Santa Anna, Coleman and Baird which were mundane as was the
countryside. We took Interstate 20 a
short distance to Abilene
where we headed northwest to Anson, east to Roby, then northwest to Rotan and
Clairemont. In the wide spot called
Clairemont we saw two bright rust-red buildings made out of local clay blocks
with no signs or historical markers to explain their pasts. A Google search found that this town is
officially listed as a ghost town. At
one time it was the county seat of Kent
County but the railroad bypassed it
and the water dried up so the courthouse was moved to the town of Jayton in 1954. One of the buildings was what remained of the
courthouse after a fire destroyed the original and the other building was a
jail that still stands with its iron cells intact.
After a brief stop for photos of the jail we were hungry and
looking for food. Unfortunately we were
in the wrong area to find much. Internet
searches didn’t turn up much and most of those were found as closed up
businesses. So in the town of Spur we found a Dairy
Queen where we shared a small plate of tacos and had drinks to wash them
down. We continued north to Dickens,
west to Ralls, north to Floydada, and then on into Plainview and the hotel where we had
reservations. On a recommendation we had
dinner at the Dixie Tavern (not really a tavern – no wine or beer) and had
so-so steaks. The staff was friendly and
the food satisfied us so we couldn’t complain too much. After dinner we drove around downtown Plainview, which like
most of the small towns we passed through today, was drying up. At least Plainview has a small college and an
Interstate passing through it so the whole area isn’t dying like the small
towns.
Friday was the first of our hikes but it didn’t start until
noon so we had time for a leisurely breakfast at our hotel. The day was cool but very nice as there were
no clouds in the sky. We left Plainview about 10:30 am to drive to the Pole Canyon Ranch
which is actually inside the Caprock
Canyons State
Park boundary.
Rita’s back was acting up so I hiked the short 5K (3 miles) hike with
her while Jo Ann went on and hiked the 11K (6.5 miles) hike. The hike took us down a mostly dried up river
bed then up some banks with nice views of the red dirt hills in the near
distance. Rita did fine and we finished
in time to take our sandwiches, made from the breakfast buffet, to the porch
with rocking chairs for a pleasant lunch.
Jo Ann finished about 1:30 pm and after getting our hiking books stamped
we headed in the car to the town of Quitaque
(pronounced Kitty Quay) which is on the edge of the state park. From there we drove east to the town of Turkey, the home of Bob
Wills, and had a look around. Finally we
drove back to Plainview
where we had dinner at a chain restaurant called the Cotton Patch. A bit tired, we turned in early for an early
start the next morning.
Saturday morning we set our alarms for 5:30 am, gobbled down
a quick breakfast and were away in the dark about 6:45 am for an early hike
start in the center of Caprock Canyons park.
A cold front had blown through in the night and the day was cold, cloudy
and windy but dry. On entering the park
we saw bison from the official Texas State Bison Herd grazing near the park
headquarters. Jo Ann hiked the 11K hike
which had some steep climbs while Rita and I hiked the 5K hike called the Lower
Canyon Trail. We crossed the same muddy
creek about six times to the check point then retraced the trail back to the
start area. However, we had great views
of red cliffs with white crystal rock veins which stood out boldly. After our small lunch we headed back to Plainview through
Silverton and Tulia. We decided to check
out the next day and drive back to Wimberley rather than stay to Monday as
originally planned. Dinner tonight was
at the West Texas Wood Fire Grill which was the best steaks on this trip and
since the restaurant did not have a liquor license, they gave us complimentary
glasses of wine with our meals.
Sunday was another early morning hike so we checked out of
the hotel after a quick breakfast and headed to the park for our last
hike. We saw mule deer on our drive to
the park and more bison close up as we entered the park entrance. Rita did not feel like hiking today so I
hiked with Jo Ann on the 11K hike called the Canyon Rim Trail. We had good views overlooking the canyon and
finished about 11:00 am. We said our
good byes to the hikers we’ve come to know over the past four years and headed
home.
We were hungry and in the town of Matador found that all the cafes there were
closed for Sunday. We headed east to Paducah and found a café
named Double GG open. It sounded like a
cattle brand. It was 1:00 pm and they
closed at 2:00 pm so we considered ourselves lucky to find a place to eat. Then we had some of the best chili cheese
hamburgers with “real” fried potatoes that tasted delicious. Now we considered ourselves double
lucky. The staff was very friendly as
were the other customers in the café.
From there we headed south to Guthrie, Aspermont, Stamford, Avoca and then stopped in Albany, a pretty town with an imposing
courthouse. We stretched our legs
walking around the town square and reading the many historical markers. Finally we headed south to Cisco, Rising
Star, and Brownwood
where we stopped for a small dinner as it was getting dark. We continued through San Saba and Llano,
arriving home about 9:30 pm after another long day’s drive. Jo Ann spent the night at our house and after
we all had a great night’s sleep we had a late breakfast Monday morning before
Jo Ann headed back to her home in Houston.
It was a very nice weekend of hiking and we look forward to
next year in Big Bend.
