Our plan for today was to go into Palo Duro Canyon State Park and hike the Lighthouse Trail for our first hike of the year. Unfortunately, we forgot that due to COVID-19, you have to have a reservation to get into a park due to occupancy restrictions. We pulled up to the park gate and could see a sign saying they were sold out before we remembered our experience with trying to visit Lost Maples State Park last fall. The ranger informed us they were sold out and they were sold out for Sunday as well. But he said the private ranch next door had trails that we might be able to hike. So we had to turn around and exit the park. We decided to check out the ranch next door. They do jeep and horseback tours into the canyon. So we stopped in to learn we could hike their jeep trail (about 2 hours round trip) for $20 per person. Since we did not know what we would be able to see, combined with having to share the trails with jeeps and horses, we opted out. Instead we drove into the small town of Canyon and walked around the town square and explore the shops on the square. On the way out of town we noticed signs for a vineyard. A vineyard in the Texas panhandle? Intrigued, we pulled into Creek House Honey Farm. First stop was the gift shop where Leslie picked up so local honey. Then we went to the tasting room. We learned they don’t sell their own wines, but are a Mead brewing house. We learned that Mead is fermented honey. They sold a variety of flavors, which are added in the final stages of the fermentation process. So we got a flight of four flavors. One of the flavors was straight Mead (Queens Revenge), next was a mixture with Merlot wine, the third was a blackberry flavor and last was a lemon flavor. Neither one of us could remember ever trying Mead before. We did not enjoy the straight Mead but really liked the other three. So we we relaxed and enjoyed our Mead before heading for home.
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| Canyon Town Square |
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