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Story by Marcia Cromley
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Palo Duro Canyon
Jeep Jamboree
When we drove onto the private ranch (owned by Thomas Christian), we paused the Jeep caravan for a moment to let a herd of draft horses through. Having been here last year, we knew to look for the magnificent Shire horses that Tom keeps. These are the largest horses in the world (yes, even bigger than the Budweiser Clydesdales) and they are a sight to behold. They are used to pull wagons of people around the ranch. After the Cowboy Breakfast at the rim of the canyon and the drivers meeting, we descended into the canyon. The red sandstone contrasted beautifully with the greenery. Amongst the juniper were several longhorn cattle. We compared brushguards and decided they definitely had a better model.
We rode for two days in a group with several other SAJE members (our local club). All the groups supposedly went over the same trails except for one group of extreme-ers. (But they had to get up really early!). I don't recall any major mishaps in our group but there was evidence of other stories when we got back to camp. There were a couple of Grand Cherokees from Florida that were going to be taking back personal bruises from Palo Duro rock as souveneirs.
Back at camp, there was always great food (best biscuits and peach cobbler ever!) cooked by the ranch staff. The staff cooks everything ranch-style in huge pans over open pits. Lots of folks brought their own portable showers, to find themselves again underneath all the dust at the end of the day. Saturday night was the raffle. Val Minozevski from SAJE won the winch! And a couple from our group won new tires for their Cherokee. Thomas Christian spoke to the crowd about the history of the ranch with the softly lit canyon walls as his backdrop curtain. Someone from Jeep Exclusive led a sing-along and folks gathered around campfires to reminisce about other Jeep adventures and more to come. |