Wheel You Come With Me Across the US?!?: Day Off in Amarillo

Days off are a glorious treat in the Bike and Build world where there is no inking and no building involved. After hearing from several people about the canyon in Canyon, TX a group of us decided that we couldn't turn up the opportunity to visit the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the United States. Several people suggested that we get there early because the temperature quickly soars above 110* easily.

After weeks of waking up before the crack of dawn I sadly was not able to sleep in and after laying on my Thermarest made the jump to get out of bed and go out for some coffee. By 6:30 we are usually on the road with breakfast in our stomachs so I woke up starving. Two hours later fifteen of us were crammed into the van and heading down the road to Palo Duro. We were able to DM a reduced park entrance fee and I definitely felt like I got my $3 worth.

After surveying the map we headed to the visitors center to snag some postcards, something which is pretty hard considering the majority of our riding is through small towns. From there it was off to do some hiking. We decided to pick a fairly easy trail because of the warm temperatures and the fact that this was supposed to be our day off from nothing too strenuous.

The drive to our trail head was beautiful and we were all super impressed with the expansive vistas. It is strange that for miles and miles around all they have are flat prairie lands and then out of no where comes the canyon.

The rest of the afternoon was spent writing postcards, patching tubes and basically vegging out which was super nice. A lot of people got caught up with blogs and posting pictures - I am sure that some of you may have noticed my mug was tagged several times.

For dinner tonight we were hosted by the parents of a SUS rider from last year. After we had wrapped up, we headed over to Cadillac Ranch which is made up of several cars planted into the ground in the middle of a large field. The cool thing is that everyone is encouraged to bring spray paint and they can tag anything they want on the cars. Our route had a lot of fun and got some great pictures as the sun was setting over the field - very Bike and Build.