There's every shade of red in Palo Duro Canyon, the dirt the furthest from the rock being the lightest, and the color mostly growing as it climbs up the canyon walls. The transition from light to dark is inspirational, a type of color that seems like the canyon's blood, deepest in its vein and lightest as it drains away.
We started on the GSL--the Givens, Spicer, Lowry--Trail, which wanders in and out of arroyos and low hills along the canyon wall. We cut off on the Little Fox Loop into a side canyon along a dry arroyo, an area one could almost see the bison tearing up the long grass as they rumbled along; before joining onto the Lighthouse Trail.
It was a cold morning--we started in the 20s with a gusting wind--and the little ravines and abrupt short ridges blocked some of the gusts and the sun came and went and we just wandered, mesmerized by the colors and shapes, the stray hoodoos and mushroom formations and the trail sometimes cut deep into the landscape. Snow from two nights before hung in the shady areas and we tracked first tracks in some of the trail, the snow untouched from people. It's why we like to take the long way: most people jump on the Lighthouse Trail for the 5 miles round trip, and have too much on their agendas to just wander trails like GSL and LFL, and we were almost completely alone.
We passed through the Lighthouse parking lot to Paseo del Rio, and walked another mile or so back to the car, on another trail we saw three people and two porcupines, not at the same time or place; the people were on the trail, and the porcs were up in a couple of cottonwoods eating whatever it is they eat while 25 feet up in a tree.
The trail less traveled in a well traveled canyon, was 10 miles of quiet.