Caprock Canyons State Park

Well, this has been a long time coming – our first trip to Caprock Canyons State Park.

Just as Diesel prices began to peak in May of 2026, we headed out to Caprock Canyons State Park near Quitaque, Texas. 

This is roughly a six-hour drive from our home base. Now, if you were driving in a car without a dog, you could make it in about five hours.

However, before we get into that, first let’s talk about why this was an important trip for us.  We have really only had one shakedown trip since we purchased the Delta. We did have another trip planned but ran up against a number of weeks of unrelenting thunderstorms.  If you have ever had a dog that hates thunder, you know what that means.  Eva hates thunder, gunshots, and fireworks.

As a result, we ended up having to cancel that trip. Of course, canceling a trip is easy, but trying to get another one added is almost impossible in a short period of time.

The first thing we wanted to learn from this trip is whether we had any other trailer-related warranty issues. The second thing we were going to learn was how we liked camping at Caprock Canyons State Park.

We have another trip planned for the 4th of July which is an attempt to escape the local fireworks.  In addition, we will have my grandson Trent with us. This will be the first camping stop in our trek to Wisconsin to drop him off at home.  Then we will spend two weeks there and later travel to Dodge City.

If you remember, last year, the Dodge City trip got canceled, also due to weather (severe thunderstorms).

We left home a little after 9:00 AM knowing we would have that six-hour drive ahead of us.  Everything went smoothly until we left our fuel stop at the Wichita Falls, Texas, Loves.  Then the winds out of the southwest really picked up. So much so that I told Tammy that if they got any worse, we would need to pull off of the highway and wait it out. It was also apparent that the winds were also killing my gas mileage.  I had been getting a little over 11 miles per gallon until that point.  After Wichita Falls, it dropped to 8 miles per gallon.  Also, keep in mind I was driving somewhere between 55 and 60 most of the time, and sometimes slower in that wind.  So that is incredibly crappy mileage for those speeds.

The other thing to remember is that once we left Wichita Falls, the elevation began to change.  From our home to Wichita Falls, we are only looking at a change in upward elevation of 300 feet.  From Wichita Falls to Quitaque (Caprock Canyons), you will be climbing an additional 2,156 feet. That’s a bit of a climb.  Of course, you are making that climb over 160 miles, but there is still an impact to gas mileage for sure.

Quitaque is an old town, and there isn’t much there. There is a Valero for fuel, and they have some hot food (chicken nuggets and hamburgers, etc.) for sale.  I thought the diesel at Valero was priced very well for being in the middle of nowhere.

There is a pretty nice grocery store on their main street. It is quite small, but the produce looks great and you can get just about anything you need there.  It looks like they might have a couple small diners but nothing that appeared open when we were in town. 

Caprock Canyons State Park is maybe a whopping seven minutes from the city of Quitaque.  There is a big lot to park in next to the headquarters building. You need to walk behind the building to get to the office.  The office has a store, but it is really just a souvenir shop.  The folks there are very nice, and the process goes quickly.

One thing to note, though, is that the map to the Honey Flat Loop looks much, much closer to the office than it really is.  I was pretty sure we were going the wrong way because it took longer to get there than you would ever have guessed from looking at that map. I got that sick feeling in my gut that we were going the wrong way.  After driving a while I told Tammy that I was really worried we might need to figure out a way to turn around.  However, five minutes later we arrived at the camping loop.  A few minutes after that we were backed in and setting things up as Eva sat patiently in the truck.

The weather for the trip looked really nice, with the exception of the first full day after we arrived (Day 2).  The high temperature was 92 degrees, with winds gusting to 37 mph. The heat was not horrible, but we only had 30-amp service at the campsite.  There are 50-amp sites available in the Honey Flat loop, but we were unable to get one of those sites. 

Even so, we were able to run both air conditioners on 30-amp service.  That is one of the selling features of the Delta.  I did try this and it worked flawlessly. I must admit, I am very impressed with the main living area “Chill Cube” air conditioner by Furrion.  It does a very good job, so we didn’t let the bedroom unit run very long.

I’m not sure there is a bad site in the Honey Flat Loop, with the exception perhaps of site number 1.  If you don’t mind your neighbor (at site 3) being able to look directly into your site, then site 1 will be just fine.  Unfortunately, that is the site we had reserved for our July trip. That would be fine if Tammy and I were traveling alone.  However, with Eva, well, she wouldn’t like that at all.  As a result, Tammy and I moved our reservation to another more private site for the July trip.

Our site for this trip was very level side to side.  The only drawback was the drop from the paved pad to the ground.  As you can see, I had to use my red leveling blocks as another step. Frankly, the three-step MORryde unit, just doesn’t work in terrain like this.  Since then, I have ordered an add-a-step for occasions like this in the future.  I would really prefer to go back to the Torklift GlowSteps, but I can’t find them on sale, and I would not spend $800.00 on steps.  I also cannot get anyone from Torklift to return a phone call or email.  That’s very disappointing.

Once we got everything with the trailer set up, I did the peripheral things.  I put out the Dish Antenna and the Starlink satellite.  Starlink was great to have on this trip because there is basically no cell service in that location.  Starlink allows you to make cell phone calls using your Wi-Fi connection. I highly recommend Starlink for this, as you never know when a horrible emergency might take place.

Caprock Canyons will now probably be one of, if not my favorite campgrounds. I highly recommend it over Palo Duro State Park.  I think it is a much, much nicer and quieter campground.  It is also more striking from a visual standpoint.  There are miles and miles of trails at Caprock Canyons, which is a big plus for Eva.  When Eva and I hiked the trails, we never saw another person, so it is pretty secluded.

The sites are all created on a very powdery orange, almost chalky, base.  So, if you visit, you will want to make sure you have a decent mat outside your door.  Even so, that powdery base will make its way into your trailer.  Just as an example, I washed the floor before we left for home and it was disgusting.  When we got home, I washed it again.  It was just as disgusting.  I believe with the winds up there, you probably won’t be able to keep the trailer free of this dust.

This is a very quiet campground, and at night it may be the darkest we have stayed at.  My advice is to take a decent flashlight if you are up before sunrise. Keep in mind that buffalo are most active just before dawn and dusk.

Another thing you will notice from the start is all the buffalo poo.  It is everywhere.  I don’t think you can walk 10 feet without seeing it.  You might think with that much scat that you would see buffalo roaming everywhere.  That’s just not the case.  The first few days we were camping, we never saw a single buffalo, even though Eva and I walked the trails constantly.

Oddly, with all that scat, you would think the flies would be busy enough to stay away from you.  Nope, they still will make a pest of themselves on and around you.  It’s not horrible, though.

My first experience with buffalo was on a very early morning walk with Eva when it was pitch black outside.  I saw two sets of eyes up ahead illuminated by my iPhone flashlight.  That really spooked me.  Eva and I immediately found a new route away from them.

The next encounter was on the afternoon of the third day, when Eva and I sat outside the trailer. Eva let out a very low growl at one point.  I thought someone must be walking a dog because she will do that.  Then I noticed she was looking behind us.  I turned around and a buffalo was walking through the rear of our campsite.

The windows were open on the travel trailer, and I called to Tammy, but she didn’t hear me.  I did manage to get a not-so-great picture but a pretty decent video.

That wouldn’t be the last buffalo to visit our site.  A few days later, we went for a drive and returned to find a buffalo at the entrance of our campsite.

If there were any negatives to this park, only two would come to mind.  The first is that the state park store is what they referred to as a “third-party store.” The business is physically located on park property (“on premises”), but it’s owned and operated by a separate company under a contract with the state park system.  So, this means you can’t get the 10% discount with your Texas state park pass.  Not a big deal, but I think it is worth mentioning.

The second issue is really just a heads-up.  There are many cactus plants along the hiking trail.  If you have a dog, keep them away from those.  Eva ended up with about four or five quills in her nose.

When we came home from our walk, Tammy asked, “What is on her nose?”  I hadn’t even noticed until she mentioned it.  “OMG, she has cactus needles in her snout!” They apparently come off the plant easily; HOWEVER, they are very hard to pull out of a snout.  I just didn’t see her get that close.  Poor puppy… bad Daddy!

Here are just a few pictures from the canyon rim trail that we hiked daily.

We were at the park six days but had reservations for one more day when we left.  We decided to leave early due to a storm system that was moving toward the Dallas area on our original departure day.  I did not want to risk driving into a severe thunderstorm, so we left a day early.  I always say, better to run from a storm than into one.

Now, as far as issues with the trailer, there really were not any issues with the exception of the solar panel.  We just need to figure out why the solar panel isn’t generating power.  A solar panel isn’t something that we were looking for, but if you have it, well, it ought to work.  Honestly, it could be user error, I’m not sure.

The only reason I realized the issue is that the power went out at the campground for a couple of hours (apparently a planned outage with no notice from the office).  When the power went out, I decided to use the solar panel, but that did not work as planned.  Other than that, it was a very uneventful trip from a trailer quality perspective.

I would highly recommend adding this to your camping list as a ‘must-see’ destination.