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Friday, August 13, 2021

Palo Duro Canyon SP

In northwest Texas, there is a state park containing a canyon.  Called the “Grand Canyon” of Texas, it's not really comparable to the National Park, but its still a welcome break from the vast desert plains spotted with oil derricks.   We stopped for the day, and spent a number of hours walking the margin between the arid canyon uplands, and the lush riparian areas surrounding the Red River.

 

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Salt and gypsum crystal deposits.

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A number of shady characters used the canyon as a hideout in 19th century.

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The windblown sediments which makeup much of the rock contained a fair amount of water-soluble minerals.  As water percolated down through the sediment, these minerals concentrated into bands of white and crystalline structures.  Further out west, this process produces veins of zinc, copper, silver, uranium, and lead, often in the fault boundaries between rock layers.  In Texas these younger sediments lack these valuable metals, but are still quite pleasing to look at. 

 

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They were pretty proud of a few fun rock formations, Lighthouse rock shown below.  While they pale in comparison to the south of Utah, its impressive for Texas.

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