A Little Time in Oklahoma and Texas

We want to get to Santa Fe before Labor Day and so we just made a few stops of two or three nights each. Plus the weather is in the high 90's and 100's and we really want to get to some little cooler weather which Santa Fe will be. We had a long drive to Oklahoma which turned out longer than we thought. We were going to stay at Red Canyon State Park near Oklahoma City. However, when we got there the office had just closed and there was a sign saying only motor homes under 40 feet can go down the steep road to the campground. We decided not to try it and I quickly looked for another place to stay. We headed west to Fort Cobb State Park. Gracie, our GPS, directed us to the far side of the lake on some narrow country roads. We ended up at a dead end at a boat launch but luckily there was room to turn around and we figured out how to get there. Our GPS has mostly been great but we do have problems it seems with some of the state parks. We got to the park and it turned out to be a very nice spot where we were right on the water.

We just stayed two days and just relaxed at our site, mostly in the MH with the air conditioner going. We had s thunder storm while there. In fact, we had just gotten out of the motorhome to go to the office to register and there was a loud crack of thunder. There wasn't a lot of rain but thunder for hours and some lightning in the distance.



Our next stop was Palo Duro Canyon State Park, near Amarillo, TX.  We stayed here a number of years ago and it was very nice though we did have a big thunderstorm while we were there.

Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the US behind the Grand Canyon of course. It is 120 miles long and 20 miles wide at points. It has a depth of 800 feet. The office is at a high point and you then drive down a steep windy road to get to the campground. Last time we stayed at the far campground. However we couldn't stay at the area this time. There are a number of areas on the road that flood when it rains. In fact, when we were here before that was the case the day after the big storm. They are in the midst of building bridges over the low spots. Unfortunately they made a small area and the road is about 2 inches too short for large motorhomes to get through. Oops :(  I guess they will be fixing that problem eventaully. So we stayed at the first campsite loop which was also very nice. We have 50 amp electric again and so can still use the air conditioner as it is still very very hot. We drove around one day to take some pictures. There are a lot of nice hiking trails but just too hot to even think about.

Below is the road work they are doing. This  would be flooded if there had been a lot of rain and some of the dips are much deeper than the one below.

We just spend a few days here and our next stop is Santa Fe and weather than should be around 20 degrees cooler. Still warm but not nearly so hot as it has been this last little while.