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Palo Duro Canyon, Texas


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In the midst of the mind-numbing expansive  flatness of the Llano Estacado, the Southern High Plains of the Texas Panhandle, the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River drops off the surface of the prairie and into Palo Duro Canyon. Over the span of geologic time the river waters closely followed by the wind have eroded the second largest canyon in the United States.: roughly 120 miles long reaching a width of 20 miles at places. Its depth is around 800 feet. It is a prominent geologic feature of the Caprock Escarpment.

The Prairie Dog Town Fork cuts through the Caprock, descending in geologic time the Ogallala Formation of sand, silt clay and limestone is incised. The sand stone and coarse gravel of the Trujillo Formation appears. Next the Tecovas Formation can be seen with its yellow, gray and lavender mudstone. Located at the bottom, the oldest exposed rock layer in the canyon belongs to the Quartermaster Formation: bright red claystone and white gypsum.

Palo Duro is Spanish for hard wood: notably the Pinion and Juniper trees found on the wide canyon bottomland. Back in the day, after Col Mackenzie and the US Cavalry unceremoniously routed the Native Americans from the canyon during the Red River Wars, the canyon supported a huge ranching operation of over 100, 000 head of cattle.

The canyon forming Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River with Capital Peak in the background.

Note the different colors and rock striations of the different geologic formations.

My apologies for the ubiquitous red Rans V2 recumbent. The photographs only really worked with something prominent in the foreground. The Grand Canyon itself is next on the slate of photo ops. So I need to figure out the landscape perspective piece. Stay tuned.

It was great fun to ride the bike on the floor of Palo Duro Canyon: a geographic and geologic gem in the midst of the Texas Panhandle.

Who knew?

Categories: Uncategorized
Posted by bigdawg on December 8, 2012

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