.png)
Palo Duro Canyon was carved into the eastern Caprock escarpment of the High Plains during the past ninety million years by the headwaters of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River and by attendant weathering. Located in the heart of the Texas Panhandle is Palo Duro, Spanish for hard wood.) Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the country, well known for the picturesque lighthouse tower formation. the canyon is variable formations with thickness often described as having a "totem pole-shaped body" The first known inhabitants, who date from the period between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C. were big-game hunters of now-extinct giant bison and mammoths. Archeologists have found projectile points, stone tools, mortar holes, paintings, carvings, and other artifacts of these and later prehistoric people at numerous sites throughout the canyon.
It reaches depths of 800 feet from rim to floor (approximately 3,500 feet to 2,400 feet above sea level) and average widths of more than six miles. The steep sides of Palo Duro Canyon consist of bright, banded layers of orange, red, brown, yellow, grey, maroon, and white rocks that represent four different geologic periods and a time span of more than 240 million years. Fossils of long-extinct animals and plants have been found embedded in the rock layers. Adding to the canyon's scenic grandeur are numerous pinnacles, buttes, and mesas, each protected by a cap of erosion-resistant sandstone or other rock.
Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon system in the United States. The canyon is about 120 miles long and 20 miles wide. It extends from Canyon to Silverton. You can see the beautiful colors of the four geologic layers as you descend 500 feet to the floor of the canyon. Fossils of long-extinct animals and plants have been found embedded in the rock layers.
The first known inhabitants, who date from the period between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C. were big-game hunters of now-extinct giant bison and mammoths. Archeologists have found projectile points, stone tools, mortar holes, paintings, carvings, and other artifacts of these and later prehistoric people at numerous sites throughout the canyon.
Early Spanish explorers probably discovered the canyon, naming it Palo Duro, Spanish for “hard wood” for the junipers and mesquite trees. People have inhabited the area for around 12,000 years.
You might recognize it, as Indiana Jones and his father ride off into the sunset at the end, that final shot was filmed at Amarillo's Palo Duro Canyon, the Texas Panhandle Grand Canyon.
