Palo Duro

Today we hiked the Lighthouse trail in Palo Duro. It's close to a 6 mile round trip  out and back trail. Most of the trail is smooth and an easy walk. The last part to get up to the lighthouse is a little tougher, but my 67 year old dad, 10 year old daughter, and my mom all made it to the top.

The views from the top were gorgeous in every direction! I'm so glad we all decided to climb the last bit to get to the top. While we were up there we did see someone else who got to the tippy-top and flew the flag.  I'm not sure how he got up there; I think it would have required mountain climbing gear.

The round trip took us about 3 hours. Our typical walking speed is about 3 miles per hour, so the terrain slowed us down some. I had a 24 oz sports bottle of water, but finished that by the time I got to the base of the lighthouse and still had a 3 mile hike back to the car to go. I'm glad my dad carried some extra bottles for us. We started the trail at about 9:30, and it never got overly hot. For the first weekend in June I was surprised how nice the weather was. We always had a nice breeze and that with the dry air kept the weather from interfering with our hike.

We stopped for yummy hamburgers and ice cream at the Trading Post when we're done. They were pretty good too, of course when you're hungry anything is good!