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Underappreciated and often dismissed, the Texas Panhandle requires a little patience and a sense of adventure to reap its rewards. The land’s beauty doesn’t come out and smack you in the face like the Guadalupe Mountains or Hill Country. No, in the Panhandle, you have to look for such beauty. But with a keen eye, you’ll notice it’s all around.
On a map, the Panhandle stands as one of Texas’ most distinct features — a thin monolith shooting out of the western side of the state. But some may argue that, topographically and culturally, it’s sparse and pretty darn ho-hum. Well, one couldn’t be more mistaken. While the area is technically engulfed by the Great Plains, the Panhandle is also home to picturesque rolling hills and one of the most stunningly beautiful state parks north of Big Bend, Palo Duro Canyon. And Amarillo, a bedrock of cowboy culture and big steaks (you gotta check out The Big Texas Steak Ranch), is more than a serviceable cultural capital.
Our guess as to why such prejudice exists toward this beautiful part of the state: It’s just so dang far away. Unless you’re driving to Colorado, doing business in Amarillo, or itching to see where they filmed the final scene in “Cast Away” (yeah, it was in the Panhandle), there’s not a whole lot that’ll take you to the far northern reaches of the state. Unfortunately, where the Texas Panhandle exists makes it isolated and easy to ignore. It might as well be a dirt-covered Greenland.
So, naturally, I made this elusive area the first stop during my expedition of the state.
From Fort Worth, the route you should take to avoid any lanes of more than two goes through Jacksboro, Seymour, and Quanah via a bevy of state highways and U.S. routes. As will be the case throughout the trip, long stretches of nothing — aside from trees, cows, and the occasional horse — exists between these communities of no more than a few thousand. A distinct smell of barbecue is normally the tipoff that you’re approaching a town — and to slow the heck down. Smoked meats in this part of the country equates to the smell of civilization.
You don’t technically reach the Panhandle until you cross Childress, a town that serves as the Panhandle’s eastern gateway. Canyon, my first stop, is two hours west of Childress and a mere 20 miles south of Amarillo. My digs for the night are the El Capitan Boxcar Casita, a repurposed boxcar that sits on a horse ranch. According to the owner, Becky Meyring, she purchased the charmingly distressed car on Facebook Marketplace and had it delivered by freight.
The following morning, despite temperatures barely eking above freezing, Palo Duro Canyon, which is conveniently next door to the town of Canyon, was an obvious stop. Dubbed the “Grand Canyon of Texas,” Palo Duro’s multicolored layers, distinct rock formations, and steep mesas aren’t duplicated anywhere else in the state — or even the country, for that matter. The road that leads to the state park, State Highway 217, which eventually works its way into the canyon and loops around, is one of the state’s must-do drives.
Following this loop, I was off to Miles.
Day 1 and 2 map of texas
Things to See and Do
1. Fort Richardson State Park The remnants of an old Army installation in Jacksboro
2. Palo Duro Canyon State Park The second largest canyon in the country
3. Cadillac Ranch Art installation of half-buried Cadillacs in Amarillo
4. Buddy Holly Center Museum dedicated to the music icon in Lubbock
5. American Windmill Museum Twenty-eight acres of over 160 windmills on display in Lubbock
Where to Eat
1. Dairy Land Drive Inn Barbecue, tacos, burgers in Jacksboro
2. The Medicine Mound Depot Restaurant Good ol’-fashioned American fare in Quanah
3. The Big Texan Steak Ranch Home of the 72-ounce steak in Amarillo
4. Dirk’s Chicken Deep fried with plenty of sauces in downtown Lubbock
5. Holly’s Drive-In Old-fashioned burgers and chicken drive-in in Post
Where We Stayed
Canyon: El Capitan Boxcar Casita, a repurposed boxcar on a horse ranch
