Quitaque, Texas
We had drove three days from central Florida to western Texas, electively skipping Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana before reaching our destination. We stayed a whole week at Caprock Canyons State Park which is in the Texas panhandle just 6 miles north of Quitaque.
The Honey Flat campground is the only developed site for RVs and is near the main entrance. It is equipped with 30/50 amp and water only. The dump station is conveniently across the campsite. These sites are well spacious with privacy provided by the juniper trees. There is a shower house and playground area as well. There are also several primitive and tent sites towards the backend of the park. This of course, is where most of the beauty and rock formations are.
One thing unique about this park is that it has 100+ free-roaming Southern Plains Buffalos roaming the park. That means you will likely see them walking right through your campsite too. So be sure to keep Fido inside the RV or on a leash if you’re walking around the area. Besides the buffalos, there is a prairie dog town at the Honey Flat campground. We did see a couple roadrunners and a coyote nearby.
We were and still are pleasantly surprised by the beauty and uniqueness of this park. It is a hidden gem in our book. The Caprock Escarpment contains red coloration of shale, sandstones, siltstones and mudstones. Literally everything is red here. Even our socks and hiking boots were stained in red.
Speaking of hiking, we hiked over 24 miles across 5 days. We strategically started with the easiest and shortest hike with our dogs, and gradually increased it at each hike. The temperature varied from low 40s at night to upper 70s during the day in late April. Even with ideal temp, the sun was brutally hot. So, we focused our hike around our dogs for early morning, and then took extended hikes for ourselves later in the day or at another time. We hiked the Eagle Point trail which takes you through some spectacular gullies full of gypsum veins. This hike is about 4.4-mile roundtrip. If you want to take the high point, then you should do the Haynes Ridge Overlook and Upper Canyon Trail which is a 6-mile loop. This is a great view and the 400-foot elevation climb is well worth climbing up to. We left our dogs behind in the air-conditioned RV for their safety. And we’re glad we did too. But on another day, we did a sunrise hike with our dogs on the Lower Canyon Trail. This was a 6.1-mile hike and mostly in the canyon, crossing over several small streams. We also hiked our dogs right from the Honey Flat campground. The Canyon Rim Trail is a flat hike around the eastern side of the canyon. It is about 3-mile loop.
When we weren’t hiking, we simply enjoyed the solitude at our campground. The shelter grove provided nice shades during those hot, sunny days. It was one of the most peaceful camping experiences we had in a long time.
We are considering coming back to this park for winter camping, or simply as we pass through.
Even if you only have a day or two, it is well worth a side-step to your destination.