Parts of this park are in Floyd, Briscoe, and Hall Counties. I have done Volksmarches in the main section of the Park which is in Briscoe County twice: Once in 1996 and again in 1999. I think it is time they hold a Volksmarch there again.

In Aug. 1996 my sister, Carol, and I headed up to walk the Year Round Event sponsored at the State Park. For a Year Round you just show up anytime, register, and complete the event by following the directions found in the start box. Just past Wichita Falls I realized I'd forgotten to pack my walking shoes. We stopped in what appeared to be a fairly large town, Childress, TX. They only had one shoe store and it only had three pair of walking shoes in my size. I choose the pair by Avia. Just a note: It is never a good idea to wear new shoes on a long walk. At the end of this weekend of walking I had multiple blisters.

The drive took us six hours to reach Quitaque, including the stop to buy shoes and eat lunch. We went to our Bed and Breakfast first to sign in. We then drove on to Caprock Canyon State Park for the 11K Volksmarch.

This was a very nice hike. I may have lost count, but I think we crossed the same creek 14-15 times. Most of the time the water crossings were okay; but we sometimes got our feet wet. I was wearing shorts, and Carol was wearing jeans. She was hot, but I was getting eaten up by the sand flies. After the walk, there was only one restaurant in town to eat at. We spent a comfortable night and got up at 6 am the next morning and headed to the trail head.

We had registered the day before at the Caprock Canyon State Park to do the Rails to Trails Year Round which was in Floyd County. We didn't want to wait until they opened to get started on our walk. We started walking a little after 6am. It was foggy and cool. This walk is an out and back on the old railroad track bed which is covered in crushed limestone. It was soon hot, and there is no shade. This was a 26K event (the longest I've ever walked). The walk took us thru Clarity Tunnel which is one of the last railroad tunnels in Texas. This tunnel is home to Mexican free-tailed bats. This railroad tunnel was the neatest thing about this volksmarch. The tunnel was dark and damp and it was inhabited by bats. There was just enough light that we could see them hanging from the ceiling. We got to the turnaround spot at about 10:45. We had carried in a picnic lunch and lots of water. We rested until 11:30 then headed back. We got back to the car at about 2:45. So it took us around 8 hours to complete this walk.

In Oct. 1999 my husband, Ed, Carol and I headed up to walk an event on the Rails to Trails section near Turkey, TX. For this event we stayed in a motel in Childress, which is quite a distance away. For this event, sponsored by the West Texas Trail Walkers, we drove to Turkey and registered. From there they shuttled us out to a trailhead 6 miles away and we walked back on the rails to trails to Turkey. Unlike the other section of the rails to trails, this section is completely flat. They had quite a good turnout and since this was a regular event we had checkpoints along the route. This section of the trail is in Hall County.

The next day they hosted another event in the main section of the State Park. It was pretty much the same trail we had walked back in 1996. Lots of creek crossings and lots of pretty scenery. If you'd like to see my photo album you can visit my page at http://1999.walktx.org/CaprockCanyon/index.html