Three laps of the canyon loop from the Mack Dick Pavilion, with an extra 3.5 miles on the first lap between Capital Peak and Rock Garden. In an east year the loop runs counter clockwise, and 2026 is an east year. You pass an aid station five times a lap and come back through the start and finish twice, where your crew and your drop bag are. One pacer may join you for the third lap.
Rock Garden Trail and the Comanche trails are the most technical part of the loop: short steep ascents and descents, loose rock, and drop offs close to the trail. The Hackberry Spur and parts of Paseo del Rio are very sandy, and most of the rest is hard packed singletrack. Mid October in the canyon can be freezing at the start and over 100 degrees in the afternoon, and the canyon itself can run 10 degrees hotter. Trekking poles are allowed.
The Palo Duro Trail Run is run on the floor of Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the Texas Panhandle, the second largest canyon in the United States. It is a loop course from the Mack Dick Pavilion: 50 miles is three laps, the 50K is two and a 25K is one, so you come back past your crew every lap and see other runners most of the day. Underfoot it runs from rolling singletrack to sand and rock, with short steep technical climbs and descents. Mid October in the canyon can be freezing at the start and over 100 degrees by the afternoon.
The race was started by Red Spicer as a road race and became a trail run. By 2003 it was in its 18th year, with a 20K, a 50K and a 50 mile on a 12.5 mile loop and nearly 200 runners on the line before dawn. The distances now are 25K, 50K and 50 miles on a 15.5 mile loop. From 2024 the direction alternates, east in even years and west in odd, and west is the way the course has historically been run. The 2025 running was the race's 40th year.
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | Mack Dick Pavilion | ? | ● | ● | ? | ? | 1.90 |
| 1.90 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1.60 |
| 3.50 | Lighthouse | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.30 |
| 6.80 | Capital Peak | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 5.70 |
| 12.50 | Rock Garden | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.80 |
| 16.30 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2.70 |
| 19.00 | Mack Dick Pavilion | 2:30pm | ● | ● | ? | ? | 1.90 |
| 20.90 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1.60 |
| 22.50 | Lighthouse | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.30 |
| 25.80 | Capital Peak | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2.20 |
| 28.00 | Rock Garden | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.80 |
| 31.80 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2.70 |
| 34.50 | Mack Dick Pavilion | 2:30pm | ● | ● | ● | ? | 1.90 |
| 36.40 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1.60 |
| 38.00 | Lighthouse | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.30 |
| 41.30 | Capital Peak | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2.20 |
| 43.50 | Rock Garden | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.80 |
| 47.30 | Hackberry | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2.70 |
| 50.00 | Mack Dick Pavilion | 7:00pm | ● | ● | ? | ? | ? |
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
Parking. The start, the finish and the crew area are all the Mack Dick Pavilion parking lot. Tents and canopies go in the marked area there and nowhere else on the course.
9 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.
+ 1 more.
These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account. More of them: every race we hold, on film.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.
We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.
We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
No account, and nothing to cancel.
What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.
I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
NavRun builds your pacing from your own training, then turns it into a plan your crew can follow: when to leave and where to park.
Start free
