Caprock Canyons State Park, Texas

May 16, 2026

We don't run our air conditioner much. When it's a warm 80+ degree day, we are happy to open up all the windows and enjoy the outdoors. Our time at Caprock Canyons was a different story. With most days topping 100 degrees during our stay, we had the AC running non-stop from mid-morning until well past sunset.

The drive brought to mind the old Glen Campbell song "Wichita Lineman"

Feels like we were just here

After getting set up at our campsite, we immediately turned on the air conditioner. Looking at the weather forecast, our one window to do any hiking was early the next morning before it got too hot. So that is what we planned on. There was a loop trail of about 6+ miles we thought of tackling, but we ultimately decided to do an out and back on the Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail for about 4 miles so we could finish comfortably before it got too hot.

We arrived at the trailhead around 8:30 am, and while the air temperature was only about 70, the sun was pretty hot already. By the time we finished the hike mid-morning, we were glad to be headed back to air conditioning.

Driving to the trailhead

Up we go

Julie was startled by this creature. It initially looked like some weird spiny turtle or frog.

Turns out, it was a Texas horned lizard. After a few minutes, it started to "deflate".

That evening, we took a walk to the end of the campground loop to a prairie dog town. This was probably the most active town we have ever visited. Lots of rodent chatter and comings and goings.

From there, we walked to the nearby amphitheater for the sunset. It doesn't appear that the amphitheater is used anymore, but the sunset was a good show.

Fortunately, we have yet to encounter any rattlesnakes!

From there, the temperatures only got hotter. The rest of the days soared into the triple digits from early afternoon until sunset. Storms came through one of the evenings, but they didn't do much to tamp the temperatures.

Storms often produce dramatic sunsets!

We got a bit of reprieve one morning where there were some clouds (temporarily) to block some of the sun's rays. We took the opportunity to walk a short trail off of our campground before it got too hot.

Prairie dog scouting out the road

We decided to veer off the path a bit to give this guy a wide berth.

Some may find this photo to be in poor taste, but how often do you see a gaggle of dung beetles?

Bison at the bottom of the canyon

Most of the rest of the time was spent hiding in the air conditioned camper. We even closed up the deck and put our foil Reflectix squares (normally are used for the deck roof) over the windows to keep the sun out so that the AC could keep up. We were grateful to have electric service at this stop!

The bison seem to own the place here!

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