Palo Duro Canyon to celebrate 100th anniversary with 'Back to the Future' theme
Palo Duro Canyon State Park is preparing for a busy three-day period starting Sept. 15–17, by using a theme from the title of a popular science fiction film from 1985. (Drew Powell/KVII)
CANYON, Texas (KVII) — One hundred years of Texas State Parks is taking place this year in 2023. All 89 state parks in Texas are hosting separate events to honor and pay tribute to the milestone.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park is preparing for a busy three-day period starting Sept. 15–17, by using a theme from the title of a popular science fiction film from 1985.
“This gives you a great opportunity to go back and see all the history, how you got here,” said Thomas Milone, assistant park superintendent.
The staff at Palo Duro Canyon State Park elected to go with “Back to the Future” as the theme to commemorate the 100th anniversary. Celebrating history but also looking forward to the future for the next 100 years.
“We’re going to spend the latter half of the weekend kind of looking forward to what the next 100 years look like,” said Joseph Allen, park superintendent. “We are highlighting some of our partnerships that we have and looking at some of the great things we have coming to the park.”
Allen tells ABC 7 News they’re in the design phase of a new and improved entry into Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Adding extra lanes to reduce wait times.
“We'll have additional entrance lanes, will have some more stacking capability and hopefully some additional workspaces to have the processing times greatly reduced,” said Allen. “Hopefully the long lines at Palo Duro Canyon will be a thing of the past.”
Visitation to the park in 2022, set a record with nearly half a million visitors. The centennial celebration combined with more people traveling post-pandemic means the staff is preparing for another high visitation year.
“We have a lot of people coming through these headquarters every single day,” said Milone. “It just brings into thought more preparation you want to make sure you go online get those passes in advance that way you speed up your process of getting you into the park.”
Admission to the park during the centennial celebration on Sept. 15-17 is free for all-day users. Caprock Canyon’s State Park is hosting their 100th-anniversary celebration on May 6. It’s called Experience Caprock.
