GuideHoney Flat Camping Area — Caprock Canyons State Park
Lovely park and cool bison. Bad water and perhaps unreliable power. Steep grade prevents deep access.
This park is run at the usual high standards of the Texas State Park system. It features a lovely visitors center with a panoramic glass view of the canyon, and the promised bison do indeed roam freely, right up against the cars and RVs.
The dark sky aspect is amazing, even if you're not into astrophotography. Just looking out your own windows at night you can see stars at the treeline. You don't even have to go outside or look way up. With the amount of satellites and airplanes out today, the night sky is very busy and an app like Stellarium really helps out here to see what you're seeing.
Prairie Dog Town is well named as they run the roost in that area, on guard for cars and standing up with cute expressions before popping down into one of their many holes and tunnels, just like in the cartoons. Roadrunners run, too.
The park's water is gross, a nonfat milk blue color. Like all Texas water, I recommend your own purification or bring bottled.
Finally, to cap a lovely second evening, a lightning strike in town many miles away took out power throughout the park and I'm writing this on generator, despite the approaching quiet hours. It's terribly hot still.
While the power issue is not the park's fault, it is a reminder to come here with a full tank of gas (I was at 78%) and a full lithium battery if you have one. Texas State Parks are remote and don't have the urban water and power we might always expect.
Finally, most of the inner park loop lies beyond a 16% grade that isn't well explained until you're handed a park map. This makes key canyon viewing areas off limits to trailers longer than 15 ft, and I decided not to try it with my 27' motorhome. This meant less canyon viewing than I hoped for.
With planning, this can be great visit! Canyon enthusiasts should visit Palo Duro instead, the true gem of the Texas park system.
