A 3-day self-drive loop out of Amarillo: a roadside art installation of ten Cadillacs sunk hood-first into a wheat field, a free 72-ounce steak if you can finish it in an hour, a hike below the “Grand Canyon of Texas,” a night in a cabin on the canyon floor, and a morning with the official Texas State Bison Herd grazing the red-rock range at Caprock Canyons.
Day 1Amarillo — Cadillac Ranch & the Big Texan
Fly into Amarillo, pick up a rental car, and spend the afternoon on the two roadside attractions that put the Texas Panhandle on the map.
✈️ Airport Arrival — Rick Husband Amarillo International
~15 min to downtown Amarillo
A small, easy-to-navigate airport on the city’s east side with all the major rental-car counters inside the terminal — pick up the car here for the whole loop.
🚗 Cadillac Ranch
~30 min · free, open 24 hours
Ten Cadillacs, model years 1949–1963, buried nose-down in a wheat field just off I-40 — a 1974 public-art installation that’s been repainted by visitors’ spray cans so many times the cars have a thick, lumpy shell of old paint. Bring your own can; the field is open to walk right up to them.
Cadillac Ranch
🥩 Dinner — Big Texan Steak Ranch
~1.5–2 hours · 72 oz. steak dinner free if finished in 1 hour
A Route 66 institution since 1960: order the 72-ounce steak dinner (it comes with shrimp, a salad, a baked potato and a roll) and it’s free if you clear the plate within an hour — otherwise it’s a very large, very good steak dinner. A free limo runs nightly from 5pm to pick guests up from Amarillo hotels.
Big Texan Steak Ranch · +18063727000 · www.bigtexan.com
🏨 Overnight — Big Texan Motel
From $90–110 USD / night, for 2 people
A Western-saloon-themed motel attached to the steak ranch, with a Route 66 western storefront facade — about as on-theme a first night as the Panhandle offers.
Big Texan Motel · +18063727000 · www.bigtexan.com
Day 2Palo Duro Canyon — the Grand Canyon of Texas
A short drive south to America’s second-largest canyon: a hike to its most famous rock spire, then a night sleeping on the canyon floor itself.
🚗 Self-Drive — Amarillo to Palo Duro Canyon State Park
~30 min / 25 miles
A quick, well-signed drive south on Highway 217 to the park entrance at Fritch, with the canyon rim appearing almost without warning out of the flat Panhandle tableland.
🏛️ Park Entrance — Palo Duro Canyon State Park
$8 USD per adult / day · children 12 & under free
At up to 800 feet deep and 120 miles long, Palo Duro is the second-largest canyon in the United States — carved by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River through bands of red, orange and white rock.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park · +18064882227 · tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon
🥾 Hike — The Lighthouse Trail
~5.75 miles round trip · moderate · go early to beat the heat
The park’s signature hike, a mostly flat out-and-back along the canyon floor to the base of the Lighthouse, a 310-foot hoodoo of banded red rock that’s the most-photographed formation in the park.
🍽️ Dinner — Tyler’s Barbeque
~45 min · closed Sun–Mon · goes until they sell out
A Texas Monthly Top-50 smokehouse on the way back toward the canyon, known for brisket cooked low and slow — arrive early, since they close the doors whenever the day’s meat runs out.
Tyler’s Barbeque · +18063312271
🏡 Overnight — Cow Camp Cabin, Canyon Floor
$60 USD / night + park entrance fee, for 2 people
A simple A/C-and-heat cabin right on the canyon floor — one full bed, a mini-fridge and microwave, shared bathhouse nearby — booked through the state park reservation line. Bring your own towels and linens.
Texas State Parks Reservation Center · +15123898900 · tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon
Day 3Caprock Canyons — the Texas State Bison Herd
A last Panhandle morning with the bison that Charles Goodnight rescued from near-extinction, before the drive back to the airport.
🚗 Self-Drive — Palo Duro Canyon to Caprock Canyons, Quitaque
~1.5 hours / 75 miles
A rural two-lane drive east across the caprock escarpment to the small town of Quitaque, gateway to the state park.
🦬 Texas State Bison Herd
~1–2 hours · best spotted at dawn or dusk near the park road
The official state bison herd, descended from the small group rancher Charles Goodnight preserved on his JA Ranch in the 1870s when the Southern Plains herds were nearly wiped out — now free-ranging across the park’s red-rock grassland.
Caprock Canyons State Park · +15123898900 · tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/caprock-canyons
🥾 Hike — Caprock Canyons Trailway
~1 hour · flat, converted rail trail
A former railroad grade turned multi-use trail that cuts straight through Quitaque Canyon and the old Clarity Tunnel — an easy, flat stretch-your-legs hike before the drive home.
✈️ Drive Back — Quitaque to Amarillo Airport
~2 hours / 95 miles
The return drive northwest back across the Panhandle tableland to Rick Husband Amarillo International for the flight home.
Download your itinerary here
