A WORD FOR TODAY, May 26, 2023
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, May 26, 2023
“The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it. For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.” Psalm 24:1-2, WEB
We did more on our vacation than just visit the kitschy tourist landmarks along Route 66. We visited a state park and a national wildlife refuge. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative, but we managed to spend hours in both without getting our feet wet.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park is just a few miles south of Amarillo, Texas, so we had planned to visit while we were staying there. Unfortunately, the weather reports didn’t look good for hiking during those days, so we changed our plan, drove farther a few days earlier, and visited from our hotel in Shamrock, Texas. The weather that day was perfect: not too hot, sunny, lovely. We didn’t plan to do a lot of hiking, but there were a few trails we wanted to follow. Unfortunately, we were informed when we arrived that they had closed the trails due to rain that had fallen a few days before. We were disappointed, but still spent five hours in the park. I was impressed that with every turn of the road we saw something different than the last and we stopped often to photograph and gawk at the incredible scenery around us.
Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in America created by the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River meandering over the Llano Estacado and the Caprock Escarpment. The canyon and its geological features like caves and hoodoos were created by water erosion over the millennia. The park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps which was created as an unemployment relief measure with the Emergency Conservation Act in 1933.
There was a young couple who visited the park for a very specific purpose: they wanted to hike a particular trail. One of the best-known and the major signature feature of the canyon is the Lighthouse Rock, and the trail is one of the most popular. I would have liked to try it, though some of it was of moderate difficulty, but it would have taken many hours. We decided that we wanted to enjoy more of the park. The young couple was upset by the closure, and they didn’t understand it.
The ground didn't seem very wet, at least on the rim of the canyon, but we saw evidence of the rain as we were driving the loop. There were puddles and layers of silt that had washed over parking lots. We often think that closures are meant to protect the people hiking, and there might be some truth to that, but the park people answered the confusion about closing the trails by reminding us that their job is to protect the park. Walking on even moderately moist trails can cause damage to the ecology. We saw one area of the park that had to be closed because too many visitors left the trail and destroyed too much of the plant life. When the plants are gone, the insects lose their habitat, which leads to difficulties for the birds and other creatures that live in the park. We are blessed to have these parks to experience, but we have to remember that we have been given to responsibility to care for God’s creation. It is an act of discipleship to do what we can to keep the world as beautiful as God made it to be. After all, it is all His and He has made us His stewards.
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