The trail’s description proudly proclaims that the only way to access the Rylanders Fortress Cliff Trail is via the Rock Garden Trail, which is a somewhat steep jaunt up some canyon cliff sides. Being the masochistic solitude seeker that I am, I instantly wanted to hike Rylanders Fortress Cliff Trail in the hope of finding myself alone with nature.
It would be remote. It would be challenging to even access. It would be only for the brave-hearted! Of course I was sold.
Recommend Supplies
- 4L water minimum if doing the entire trail
- Sunhat
- Rain jacket
- Sunscreen
- 500-900 calories of food/snacks (minimum)
- Park map
- GPS navigation app with gpx file downloaded – I recommend Gaia
- Sunglasses
- Trekking poles (optional)
The Details
Rylander Fortress Cliff is 3.7 miles from end to end. This does not include the miles up Rock Garden Trail, which is 2.4 miles one way. You’re looking at about 12-16 miles of hiking depending on what spurs you take if you start from the Rock Garden trailhead and do the whole of Rylander Fortress Cliff linked with the Rim Trail. Take a gander at the map below and it will make more sense.
The circled area is the non existent Scrub Oak Spur.
Hiking Rylanders Fortress Cliff Trail: 12+ miles round trip
This trail damn near eluded me because finding it proved to be much more difficult than I anticipated.
Accessing Rylanders Fortress Cliff Trail
So I hauled my braveheart up the cliffs of Rock Garden. The map shows that almost as soon as you come to the top of Rock Garden, you should basically run into Rylander Fortress Cliff. Any neophyte should be able to find the trail from the looks of the park map.
Instead of running into said trail, I stumbled across an unmarked trail along the cliff edge and I did something I rarely do. I took an unplanned trail (gasp!).
View from The Rim Trail
According to Gaia GPS, the trail I ended up on is the Rim Trail but it is not on the official park trail map. It is a fantastic trail because it offers sweeping canyon views and you should definitely loop it with Rylander Fortress Cliff as shown in the map above.
Exploring the mysterious Rim Trail
Running into an unmarked trail is exactly why I recommend carrying at least two forms of navigation – a paper (park) map and a navigation app. When the park map failed to have this tall, dark, handsome trail labeled, Gaia GPS came through for me. Using Gaia, I was able to piece together a new route that incorporated this unexpected find.
Confused but delighted by the sweeping views of the canyon, I walked the Rim Trail until I got to where the Scrub Oak Spur (a spur off of Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail, if the map could be believed) should be. Based on the fairly flat, open grassland I thought I should be able to connect this spur up to Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail in the real world. If I just turned right and walked straight, I should easily get where I’m going.
Right? Right!
When I was right across from where the spur trail was purported to be, I pulled out my phone, turned on Gaia GPS, turned right, and said a prayer. There was no path to follow through the tall wavy grass (can I count this as off trail navigation?). I just followed the track on Gaia and hoped I would T-bone into Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail.
A quick google search when I got home revealed that the general hiking public shares my difficulties in finding the route to Rylander.
After about .15 of a mile on this nonexistent spur (aka wandering out into the grass and trusting my GPS), I stepped out of the waist high waving grass onto a double track grassy trail that appears to be maintained by mowing it. Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail, at last!
The Real Rylanders Fortress Cliff Trail
At this point, I was far enough away from the cliff edge that I couldn’t see into Palo Duro Canyon. Apparently that is what the Rim Trail is for. There were no wide, sweeping views but I felt like I was up high thanks to the open blue sky and utter aloneness.
Being unable to see into the canyon, there were no roads, cars or other signs of civilization and after the hub-bub of Palo Duro’s interior, that felt wonderful.
I ambled along Rylander Fortress until the Fortress Rim Spur appeared on my map. Again, there was no real-world spur to be seen. Apparently the trail didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to have a spur to take you down to enjoy canyon views.
All of Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail that I experienced was flat, grassy, open and surrounded by a mix of cedar and tall grasses. It was an easy hike over chunky grass tufts with very little elevation change. It may not ave been super fun to mountain bike.
The thing that I loved was that it wasn’t very windy (a welcome fucking change from most of the rest of the park), which created a lovely silence up there. And there wasn’t a damn soul to be seen anywhere once I got onto Rylander Fortress Cliff Trail. It was all mine.
At the junction of Rylander and Fortress Rim Spur (again, this intersection didn’t exist except on the map), I tossed my backpack aside, flopped down on the ground and drank in the nature. I think I even dozed for a few minutes.
I decided not to take the trail any further toward Fractures in the Rock Spur, figuring I’d seen about all it had to offer (did I mention it was flat, open and grassy yet?). In hindsight, it may have been worthwhile to trek out to that spur to get a different view of the canyon. Oops.
Instead of proceeding further, I turned around, took Rylander back past the also non-existent Scrub Oak Spur, all the way to where the trail intersects with Rock Garden. I headed back down from there.
Too long: Didn’t Read;
So this trail isn’t thrilling by any means (unless potentially getting lost is how you get your kicks) and a lot of people would probably call it downright boring. A lot of people might also call it poorly mapped, dangerously difficult to locate, or altogether confusing to navigate.
But I’m not a lot of people.
Because it was remote and far away from it all, this trail held a certain charm that appealed to me and therefore, it gets a “would recommend”.
That said, I cannot recommend hiking this trail without having both a paper map and a fully charged GPS device, as well as plenty of water and snacks. Obviously, being fit enough to hike 12 or more miles is also a must-have.
But if you feel confident checking those boxes, then I feel confident saying that this trail provides a uniquely enjoyable experience that stands out among Palo Duro trails.
References
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7043114/rylander-fortress-cliff-trail