Palo Duro canyon info

[viffer07]

Bro in law, oldest son and myself will be going to Palo Duro canyon area for four days riding.
Would appreciate any and all advice on dirt,gravel or two track roads.
We three will be on DR650s so getting to and from such roads will not be a problem.
Thanks in advance.
Date is before the cataclysmic eclipse.

 

[Jeff S]

I love that place, and Caprock as well. But, I'm not aware of any dirt roads or trails in either park that are open for motorcycles. So, eager to hear if there is anything appropriate up that way...

 

[Valker]

The dirt roads and trails were open when I rode there in the 60s, but they have been closed since. There are good roads in and through the Palo Duro area, but not in the parks themselves.
Zoom in to the area inside these "circles" for some really good primitive type roads.

And the Canadian River ATV area is very good. North of Amarillo on US87.

ETA: the massive wildfires may have altered conditions and access to some of these areas.

 

[_RG_]

That area north of Caprock park looks like a bunch of the annual enduro we run out of Turkey. Very scenic stuff and darn good riding.

 

[KsTeveM]

If you've seen cool pics of Jeep Jamboree stuff, they were on private property in the canyon. I went on a couple rock crawling shindigs there. Really cool.....but typical for us, no motorcycles allowed. At least when I was hanging there. The Amarillo Jeep Exclusive group was the club that ran the access, I believe it was called Christian Ranch? So basically I'm no help, but I thought it worth clarifying that just cause jeeps did cool stuff there, doesn't mean we can . I had to find a couple pics....dang time flies, the two little girls in my back seat are 18 and 20 now.

 

[viffer07]

If you've seen cool pics of Jeep Jamboree stuff, they were on private property in the canyon. I went on a couple rock crawling shindigs there. Really cool.....but typical for us, no motorcycles allowed. At least when I was hanging there. The Amarillo Jeep Exclusive group was the club that ran the access, I believe it was called Christian Ranch? So basically I'm no help, but I thought it worth clarifying that just cause jeeps did cool stuff there, doesn't mean we can . I had to find a couple pics....dang time flies, the two little girls in my back seat are 18 and 20 now.

View attachment 377004

View attachment 377007

View attachment 377008

View attachment 377005

View attachment 377006

thank you for the pics and info!

 

[TNC]

I agree with Valker that there are decent backroads both paved and dirt in the general area around the "caprock" area of Texas being referred to here. One problem with the lack of numerous dirt county back roads is that the ranches in this area tend to be very large and therefore fenced off in huge sections...unlike the hill country. Still, there is good riding to be had, and it's usually very secluded as far as lack of traffic and people go compared to many other areas. It's also odd but neat country in that you can be droning along on flat almost featureless terrain, and all of a sudden you have canyons and other neat features that weren't apparent on the horizon. It's kind of a unique area. It's not for everyone, but it has its charm.

If I understand the fire locations that are up there, most all of it is north and east of Amarillo, so the caprock sections south of I-40 should be good. If I'm wrong, someone chime in.

 

[Sloth]

Check out the Texas Epic Adventure Trail route. There might be some sections of it that run near the Clarendon area.

 

[Palo Duro Pete]

Google and standalone GPS devices are often wrong on public vs. private roads, and you can run into some angry ranchers. Use the Texas DOT map (https://gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/txdot-roadways/explore) to plan your excursions instead. Avoid crossing gates, even if open (cattle guards are OK). You can't beat the views along highway 207 across the canyon, but it's paved. There is some good backroad riding east of Turkey. CR29 is a dirt road in Briscoe county that runs along the east side of Caprock Canyons state park and is a good ride and definitely public. There is also some good riding on either side of the Canadian River canyon at various points east of Lake Meredith all the way to the Oklahoma border, but that area was burned out by recent wildfires. Gray county is crisscrossed with a lot of public dirt roads, and I don't believe the fires made it that far south.

Edited to add: If you like to camp, there are a number of dirt roads in the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, particularly the McBride Canyon and Plum Creek areas, and I believe camping is still free. There are AirBnB accommodations and restaurants in the Fritch area, and you could use that as your base of operations. However, Fritch was one of the areas hit by wildfire this year, so you might want to pass on that until next year.