Canyon View
Caprock Canyons is such a beautiful place. This is one of our favourite Texas State Parks:
Day 33: March 14
We’ve been so lucky with campsites and no reservations, but March Break at Caprock Canyons looked bleak. So I called and got a three-day site based on a cancellation, the last available for that long, and we were happy!
We gassed up in Clovis, home of the Motel 6, “Motel 7” and Super 8 all in a row. Oh, and a very nasty billboard about God and Jesus and Allah and Sharia Law and Murder. For the record, this would be illegal as Hate Speech in Canada.
The route to Caprock along Highway 86 was interesting and included miles and miles of cotton fields, Cattle feedlots, milking stations, corn fields, probably Winter Wheat and Wind Turbines!
Oh, and a surprise view of Sandhill Cranes:
Everything is so industrialized that you try to imagine what happens to the family farm. As I was writing that, we passed a sign that said “Farmers Feed the World”, but it seems that farmers have sold their ranches to conglomerates who make money from feeding the world. Just my thought.
We got to Caprock about 1:00 and set up in Site 21 ($17 E/W). We ate lunch, rode our bikes (rode for 4 miles), saw our first Bison/Buffalo and beautiful red landscape:
Here’s the view from my chair:
Day 34: March 15
Another sunny, though chilly morning. We rode again once it warmed up and saw lots of Bison/Buffalo:
Then, we heard a siren and saw a State Park pickup, complete with a feeder, arrive and lead the animals on a merry chase. The Ranger assured me they were more interested in him than me and that he was leading them away from the Cattle Guard since, last week, a calf had been caught!
I bought a t-shirt for ME and enjoyed the rest of the 5-mile ride. While at the Park Store, one of the Rangers said that the day before, someone had come in and asked where he could hunt Buffalo/Bison. Seriously.
We enjoyed the beer and the lazy afternoon at the campsite! Oh, and the nearby Prairie Dogs that we can hear all day!
Day 35: March 16
The wind howled all night and there were 28 mph winds this morning. Yikes.
The minute the wind subsided, we headed out for another bicycle ride. The Buffalo were very close to the trail. I was saying, loudly, “Keep pedalling, keep pedalling” as I rode through sand and by the beasts, and David thought I was saying “Hail Mary, Hail Mary” (okay, I may have been thinking it).
On our return journey, we had to stop for more than 20 minutes as the herd occupied the bike path and surrounding area. I picked the bush I would jump into if they attacked, but they ate, voided, rubbed, snorted and finally moved away!
Another lazy, sunny afternoon reading (and recovering!) marked our last day here at Caprock.
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