From the surface of the Staked Plains, the canyon is nearly invisible until you are standing at its edge.

The surrounding terrain is flat, dry grassland — in the 1870s, as now, it offered few landmarks and little shelter.

Travelers and armies moving across the Staked Plains could pass within a mile of the canyon rim without knowing it was there, particularly in an era before aerial reconnaissance.

The canyon walls are dramatic: layers of red, orange, and yellow rock exposed by millions of years of erosion, streaked with gypsum and marked by the specific formations that give the canyon its name — palo duro means “hard wood” in Spanish, a reference to the juniper trees that grow in the canyon bottom.

The floor of the canyon holds a permanent water source, shelter from the winds that scour the Panhandle above, and enough grass and browse to support substantial horse herds.