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Palo Duro Canyon....BOO!

Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,250
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Location
Big sky country; Ronan, MT
First Name
Bruce
Last Name
Taylor
I am not a happy camper.Left Austin at 1030 trying to get as far down the road as we could. As planned we arrived at sunset ready for showers and a great nights snooze. Gates are locked and Mr. Ranger is standing guard. :eek2: He points off to the right to what is basically a parking lot with no tables, benches, showers, pretty much nothing. Lucky us there is a bathroom about 300 yards away. Never had this in State Parks before. Always got to come on in and pay in the morning if the office was closed on arrival. Ranger says new policy. BOO for this new policy.
 
Closed at Sunset? This is a new policy. I have been camping in Palo Duro Canyon for 40 years. The Park gates have always closed at 10:00 PM with no entrance after that.
Probably a funds cutting thing.......
 
He was wrong. This is NOT a new policy. I have been camping in Palo Duro Canyon for 40 years. The Park gates have always closed at 10:00 PM with no entrance after that.

We arrived at 7:40 pm.today. I respond from my tent. We got here at sunset. Not late during quiet hours. Still Boo!
 
Good to know!!

Having a camper now for our monthly trips to Mom's, the Missus dreams of weekends in the State Parks. Problem is, arrival would always be late in the day............BOO 2!!
 
Office hours are 8-6 S-Th, 8-8 F-S. So for today after 6 pm you are late. No entry. Off to late arrival parking lot.
 
Palo Duro staff warned us of that policy a couple of years ago when we headed there for a weekend camping trip. Seems that they are zealous in locking the gate at closing time. Other state parks leave the gate open and have self pay envelopes for late arrivals. A few weeks ago when our grasslands plan went sour we pulled into Fort Richardson after hours with no problem.

I wonder why this varies from one state park to another.
 
Dumb question maybe, but is there a gate code for paid campers? I don't know about others, but I don't like my own cooking, & am prone to driving into Daingerfield/Canyon/Cleburne (pick your park) for a late dinner at the local DQ. Can't remember when I've ever been locked out of a park. At Blanco last week, I simply had to drive around the orange cone when I came home around 8pm.
 
Dumb question maybe, but is there a gate code for paid campers? I don't know about others, but I don't like my own cooking, & am prone to driving into Daingerfield/Canyon/Cleburne (pick your park) for a late dinner at the local DQ. Can't remember when I've ever been locked out of a park. At Blanco last week, I simply had to drive around the orange cone when I came home around 8pm.

The exit gate was open, complete with severe tire damage device for trying to enter through ithat gate. Saw no other way in.
 
Some folks have this rule thing, if it is a rule then there is no gray area, thats the "rule". You have been greeted by a lemming. They must follow.:doh:
 
Imagine if you got that at a PRIVATE park. A few years ago, we rolled into a campground in Amarillo around 6:30pm. The manager was just coming out the door & locking up. I tried to check in. He refused, told me I could find a spot for myself, but he wouldn't be back until 8:30 the next morning. Heck, we're usually on the road by 7am. He didn't actually tell me I owed him anything. Lucky for him, I value honesty more than he valued customer service. I left a $20 in an envelope on the office door. Hope it was still there when he showed up for work.
 
IN

boo-yah.jpg
 
Wow! This is complete and UTTER BS! Another round of scalding letters to state reps and Gov. Good hair is coming from me because the STATE PARKS belong to US! Seriously, what are they afraid of? Campers stealing the rocks and trees?? A park should never close even if you can't have personnel on site. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.
 
Our state park system has gone downhill dramatically in the last 10 years. The headquarters in Austin is totally top heavy and is sucking the treasury dry while the actual parks and field staff suffers. The resulting crap like this deters many people from going..They are killing our parks!
 
Good to know. The actual rules for camp site check-in are arrive before 5pm and late arrivals with prepaid reservations must call to make arrangements. Have you contacted the Palo Duro Park headquarters to ask why you were turned away? Not bending the rules may be a new policy related to budget cuts, or the guy was being a jerk, or both.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/park_reservations/#alert

I'm usually in and out of state parks a couple times a month. With the exception of Mother Neff, which is open to traffic all night long, and Garner, which is popular with the dregs much of the year, there has never been a problem at any park, especially with reservations.
 
If you have reservation, call ahead before 5:00PM. They are more than happy to give you gate code if you have a reservation even if it was made same day at the park. Always call ahead to the park.

11 years in TPWD park system and never had a problem with arrivals as late as 2:00 AM. Always got the gate code.
 
Palo Duro simply does not follow that gate code policy. We were warned to show up before 6:00PM or be locked out. Contrast that with Eisenhower SP where we camped a couple of weekends ago. There the gate stays open and there is a kiosk with a self pay station for late arrivals. Both parks are operated by TPWD albeit under completely different policies.

Palo Duro is a beautiful park. Somebody that runs it has taken latitude with gate policy way too far in my humble opinion. Are they afraid that latecomers will rip them off?
 
I don't have a comment on why Palo Duro has the hours they do, but I do suggest you visit the park. It is one of the best in Texas, with great mountain bike trails.

Since I was just there Sat, and arrived at 7:40 pm Friday night in my motorhome, getting a spot with no issues, I though I would at least get the current information in this thread accurate.

The gates are open until 8 PM on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the days they are open until 6 PM. These are the hours as of now, I have no idea if they change seasonally or not.

Edit: Summer gate hours are until 10 PM daily...

From last Saturday--My son and I rode our mountain bikes to the end of the Lighthouse Trail then hiked the rest of the way. Not too easy in bicycle shoes either!

PDCanyon.jpg
 
We went up on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving and enjoyed a quiet and cold holiday weekend with the tent area practically to ourselves.

The beef here as I see it is that every other state park I have visited has access for after hours entrance. Either a self pay kiosk, or simple signage to come to the office in the morning to sign in and pay.

Once we are set up there are times when our area activities outside of parks might lead to having dinner in town. At every other park we can get back to camp. At Palo Duro we would be locked out of our camp for the night. On our visit there we were instructed to just be sure and get back before the gate got locked.

It is just their policy and the park director allows no flexibility to accommodate his guests. the park is beautiful, the nearby town of Canyon is charming and has a pretty good museum. Several small towns around there have superb cafes and everyone we met was friendly. We didn't meet the park director. His staff was friendly and apologetic in discussing the policy.

[ame="http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/edhegarty/Paloduro/?action=view&current=PaloDurowater.mp4"]Paloduro :: PaloDurowater.mp4 video by edhegarty - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid222.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd52%2Fedhegarty%2FPaloduro%2FPaloDurowater.mp4@@AMEPARAM@@file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid222.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fdd52%2Fedhegarty%2FPaloduro%2FPaloDurowater.mp4[/ame]
 
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^ I watched in my rear view as a riding buddy came REAL close to dumping his Star in that crossing. He grabbed a little too much throttle coming out as he was in the slime. :eek2:
 
^ I watched in my rear view as a riding buddy came REAL close to dumping his Star in that crossing. He grabbed a little too much throttle coming out as he was in the slime. :eek2:

No worries right now. That water is barely trickling UNDER the road. There is a burn ban everywhere in the park. No charcoal, no nuthin'.
 
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