We loaded up the weekend before Thanksgiving for a four day adventure to Caprock Canyons State Park. Kevin was able to get both our cargo hitch and bike hitch attached and loaded up for all the stuff we were bringing along!
When we entered the park, we saw 8 bison, including a few babies.
I'm not sure what this pose was, but the kids just imitated Kevin :)
Brooke was like a little puppy with her head out the window.
We took a quick picture outside the Visitor's Center...
We reserved the same campsite as last year because I'm convinced that it's the best one in the whole park. The backdrop was just as amazing as I remembered!
We have trained these kids well because they are the best helpers when it comes to getting camp set up. Honestly, they make the whole process so much simpler.
After setting up camp, we went to get water for our primitive campsite. We saw a few deer along the way and witnessed the most beautiful sunset. It was pretty windy, but we managed to make steak tacos for dinner, s'mores for dessert, and according to Brooke, saw the most amazing stars of her life. Can't beat family time with the crackling fire.
Brooke looked so cozy and peaceful the next morning...
When she woke up, she had a little curl peeking out from the front of her beanie. I teased her that it reminded me of the nursery rhyme, "There once was a girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was naughty."
It was freezing that morning, hence Brooke's eskimo look.
After the 15-20 mph winds during the night, Kevin added some more stabilizing ropes to our tent.
Our water station set-up...
We knew it was going to eventually warm up to nearly 80 degrees, so we dressed appropriately and headed off on a hiking adventure. We gained over 1,000 feet in elevation and I was blown away by the beauty around me! Last year we biked this part of the park and I definitely appreciated it more from a hiker's perspective.
It was pretty windy at the top, but the view was stunning...
More adventuring...
I couldn't get over the red rocks! Definitely didn't feel like Texas.
That night we made THE yummiest meal and I'm still salivating over the chimichurri sauce. Kevin likes to get fancy when we're camping and the sauce was definitely worth all the chopping and preparation. SO many kinds of onions in one dish, haha, not to mention the ones in the scalloped potatoes as well.
The kids were skeptical of both the sauce and the scalloped potatoes, but ended up loving both! We may have found ourselves a new favorite camp meal.
The Dutch oven cookies were slightly overcooked on the bottom, but they sure looked good.
We slept like rocks that night! Maybe a combination of exerting ourselves on the big hike and overstuffing ourselves on our big meal?
The next morning was even colder than the day before, so we were VERY bundled during breakfast!
After breakfast, we made the trek to the other side of the canyon to ride the trails over at Palo Duro State Park.
The view from the Visitor's Center is my favorite...
As soon as we unloaded our bikes and spent 30 minutes fixing Brooke's seat, we made our way to the trailhead...only to find out that the trail was closed. We called the office and found out that only 4 trails were open! They hadn't mentioned that when we entered the park, which seems like vital information to omit. So we reloaded the bikes and headed to a new trailhead where a nice man and his teenage son offered to show us their favorite trails that actually spurred off the main trail. We rode faster than we typically do since we were following more experience riders, but we kept up.
We lucked out with a beautiful day for our 7 mile ride!!
It was pretty chilly that night, but our new heater (Buddy) served us well! I woke up once in the night and was surprisingly warm, but when I poked my head out of my sleeping bag to check on the kids, I saw Kevin standing over me with the heater. He had woken up cold, then decided to warm the air around us. He kept passing the heater over us to keep us warm. Love that man so much!!
We had frost all over the table, so you know it was chilly.
We were all a little sad that we had to pack up and go home, but we made the most of our last morning together.
I don't usually take selfies, but I wanted to post a video on Tik Tok to see if that boosted my Amazon sales. Spoiler Alert: it didn't help anything, haha.
There are multiple signs in the restrooms about not removing anything from the park, so Colby wanted me to take a picture of his rock collection so he could leave it behind.
The kids were motivated to quickly take down and load up so that we could go on one more quick ride in the park.
Our last ride in Caprock Canyons...
Colby fell off his bike and wanted to pose near the rock that dismounted him, haha.
It ended up being a pretty steep ride and Colby wanted to give up, but he powered through and demonstrated some amazing will power.
I told him to look back and see how far he had come. Some of the greatest life lessons we have had with the kids have been on their biking adventures, so although they aren't always easy, they have been invaluable.
We made SO many wonderful memories on this trip and I am immensely grateful for the shared experiences we have to look back on. Can't wait for next year!!
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