Just finished an awesome multi-night camping trip last month to Palo Duro Canyon S.P, near Amarillo, TX. DW booked the reservations months ago for the weekend before Christmas and we were psyched that meteorologists were calling for snow during our trip (we don’t get much snow in San Antonio). We’ve heard about Palo Duro for several years since moving to San Antonio, and finally having our 32BHDS inspired us to make the 500 mile, one way journey (a new camping record for us).
Definitely worth the effort and 20 hours of round-trip driving. Second largest canyon in the U.S. and nicknamed “the Grand Canyon of Texas.” I’ve read reviews of Palo Duro by “WestTXmed” on JOF, as well as reviews on other RV forums. We stayed in the Mesquite camping area of PD state park, the farthest (8 miles) into the park, which we think had the best “classic” southwestern landscape, (and don’t slap me, but it also has pretty strong cell signal versus the other camping areas that did not). Good standard TV antenna reception, too. All camping areas are on the canyon floor, so you have to navigate a 9% grade just past the park entrance to get to the bottom. The F250 6.4 handled our TT on this grade without any problems, (including the yahoos who parked their car in the middle of the two lane road half-way up the grade for an out-of-car photo op on the day we were climbing out).
We didn’t get snow (about 5 miles too far south from the snow band), but did receive about 24hrs of off-on rain, making for a bit of a red mud mess and transient closure of the 5 low water crossings one must traverse to get to the deepest Mesquite camping area. We dropped to about 26° and had 30-40mph winds on one night. Stayed nice and cozy INSIDE, opting not to use our outdoor kitchen, (don’t tell our yankee relatives that a decade in Texas has made us a little soft toward “cold” temperatures :hihi
. No internal plumbing issues thanks to the furnace and enclosed underbelly, but I might be investing in one of those water supply hoses with internalized heat tape to prevent supply line freezing, (I carry two 25’ fresh water hoses, so would simply exchange out the frozen line in the morning to regain water supply until temps rose by mid-day).
Great park; wonderful scenery; lots of wildlife; great hiking and mountain biking trails. Oh yeah, and it being Texas, there are horse riding trails and camping sites that accommodate horses. Well worth the drive or to keep in mind if you're using Interstate 40.