Day 10: Halfway There on Route 66, TX…
At first light we loaded the Jeep and left Palo Duro, which remained as beautiful in the early morning, as it was in the night. The vivid colors blended into a natural collage framed by the windshield as we drove up and out of the spectacular canyon. We returned to Route 66 in Amarillo, heading [...]
Portfolio: Palo Duro Canyon, Texas
Palo Duro Canyon, just outside Amarillo, is a magnificent natural wonder. With awe-inspiring red cliffs, and bright banded layers of colors representing four different geologic periods spanning over 240 million years, its buttes and mesas define a rugged skyline. Exploring the trails nestled in between gullies and brush, we discover a surprising variety of plants [...]
Day 9: Palo Duro Up Close…
The air smelled good. We woke early, anxious to make the most of our “pause” in this spectacular canyon. We wanted to explore it’s vastness up close and we actually had the time, as today was a “rest” day — it was the first day we weren’t driving since we set out on Route 66 [...]
Goodnight
The man most associated with Palo Duro canyon, Charles Goodnight, is a legendary figure in the Texas panhandle. Born in 1836, in Macoupin County, Illinois, Goodnight moved to Texas with his mother and stepfather when he was only ten years old. By age 20 he was working as a cowboy on the northwest Texas frontier, [...]
Destination: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX
Located about an hour’s drive from Amarillo, Palo Duro Canyon is the most spectacular scenic landscape feature in the Panhandle of Texas. The canyon appears almost without warning, a jolting razor cut through the flat grasslands of the Llano Estacado or “Staked Plains.” Early Spanish Explorers are believed to have discovered the area and dubbed [...]
Review: Texas (the musical), Palo Duro Canyon
“TEXAS, the outdoor musical drama” is a broadway-quality production put on outdoors in the middle of the spectacular Palo Duro Canyon.
The show begins on a grand scale with the lone horseman on top of a 600 foot cliff in the distance, waving the Texas state flag, a burst of fireworks, the music starts and the [...]
Day 8: Welcome to Texas Route 66…
A simple sign marked the Texas border. A cowboy in a little convertible drove past, giving us a slightly surreal welcome to another world. We followed him into the town of Shamrock.
Even without the cowboy’s help, following the old road is easier in Texas, because it rarely strays far from the interstate. 150 of the [...]
Reservations or Not?
To make or not to make reservations… that is the question. But seriously, planning a trip of this length, we really DID have to make some decisions about advance reservations versus the spontanaeity of the road.
Like most travellers who chose to take Route 66, we wanted room for spontaneity and time to discover things as [...]
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