Caprock Canyons State Park

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

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

The first thing we want to learn from this trip is whether we have any other trailer related issues. The second thing we are going to learn is the dynamics of Caprock Canyons State Park. We have another trip planned for the 4th of July which is an attempt to escape fireworks (Eva hates those too). 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 spend three weeks there, and later travel to Dodge City.

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

We left home a little after 9:00 AM knowing we would have about a six-hour drive ahead of us. Everything went fantastic until we left our Wichita Falls, Texas, fuel stop. 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 killing my gas mileage. I was getting a little over 11 miles per gallon until that point. Then it dropped to 8. 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 once we left Wichita Falls, the elevation began to change. From our home to Wichita Falls, we are only looking at a change in elevation of 300 feet. From Wichita Falls to Quitaque (Caprock Canyons), you will be climbing an additional 2156 feet. That’s a bit of a climb. Of course you are making that climb over 160 miles, but there still is an impact to gas milage 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. There is a pretty nice grocery store on their main street. It’s 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. I thought the diesel at Valero was priced very well for being in the middle of nowhere.

Caprock Canyons State Park is maybe a whopping seven minutes from 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 folks there are very nice, and the process goes quickly.

One thing to note though, the map to the Honey Flat Loop looks much, much, closer to the office on the map 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 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 patiently sat 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 90 degrees, with winds gusting to 37 mph. The heat was not horrible, but we only have a 30-amp service at the campsite. There is 50amp services available in the Honey Flat loop, but we were unable to get one of those sites. Even so, were able to run both AC’s on 30 AMP service according to Delta. I did try this and it worked flawlessly. However, I have to say, I am very impressed with the main living area “Chill Cube” AC unit 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.

Our site was very level side to side. the drawback here is the drop from the paved pad to the ground. As you can see, I had to use blocks as another step. 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 Star Link satellite. Star link was great to have on this trip because there is basically no cell service in that location. Star Link allows you to make cell phone calls using your Wi-Fi connection – sweet.

Caprock Canyons will now probably be one of, if not my favorite campground. I highly recommend it over Palo Duro State Park. I think it is a much, much nicer campground, and I think it is more striking from a visual standpoint. There are miles and miles of trails at Caprock Canyons. This is a big plus for Eva.

The sites are all created on a very powdery orange sandy 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 would 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 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 day three 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 this picture and a short 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. We had to wait about thirty minutes for him to continue on his way before we could access the 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 park system. So, this means you can’t get the 10% discount with your state park pass. Not a big deal but 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. They apparently come off the plant easily HOWEVER that are very hard to pull out of a snout. 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 towards 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 it than into it.

Now, as far as issues with the trailer, 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. It may be a set-up problem, I’m not sure. The only reason I realized this is that the power went out at the campground for a couple 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, a very uneventful trip from a trailer quality perspective.

We are looking forward to our July trip. I highly recommend this park.