During our road trip out through west Texas to the Palo Duro Canyon, our family camped one night at Copper Breaks State Park outside of Quanah, Texas. While the swimming area was closed due to the drought, we enjoyed the Dark Sky Viewing Area!
We camped during a night in September, and since we weren’t able to swim we drove around the town of Quanah to keep cool during the day before heading back to our campsite. The campsites were a little close together, but in nice walking distance to the restrooms. We also did some coloring at a station inside the park headquarters–as they had A/C!
In the late afternoon, the kids were up for a short walk. We heard they had horny toads in the state park, so the kids were determined to find one. While we didn’t see any horned lizards, we did see some other lizards as well as many roadrunners!
Copper Breaks State Park is listed as a Dark Sky Park with a rating of 2 on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale (the darkest skies on Earth are listed with a rating of 1). We enjoyed laying down a blanket at their Dark Sky Viewing Area and doing some stargazing! We were so thankful for the clear skies, as a storm rolled in and we actually ended up sleeping in our vehicle due to the severe lightning.
We would definitely come back here on another clear night to do more stargazing, and perhaps when it’s cooler so we can enjoy the trails!
Lauren Ducommun 
Leave a comment