11450 State Hwy. Park Rd. 5, Canyon, TX 79015

(806) 488-2227

The second largest canyon in the country lies in the heart of the Texas Panhandle. Visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park; experience the canyon's rugged beauty, and enjoy its colorful history.

Things to Do:

Explore the canyon by foot, mountain bike, horse or car. We have more than 30 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails. Camp, geocache, study nature or bird watch. During the summer, enjoy a performance of TEXAS Outdoor Musical.

Choose from campsites with water and electricity, tent sites, equestrian sites, or backpack camping areas. Stay in one of three cabins on the canyon’s rim or four Cow Camp cabins on the canyon floor. Rent one of our pavilions for a wedding, reunion or meeting.

New to Palo Duro Canyon: glamping (luxury camping)! Each glamping site is fully furnished with air conditioning, luxury rustic furnishings, refrigerators, microwaves, coffee makers, games, bicycles, gas grills and gas fire pits, covered porches with rockers, porch swings, and much more.

2401 Fourth Ave., Canyon, TX 79015

806-651-2244

Located on the campus of West Texas A&M University, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is the largest history museum in Texas, with more than 285,000 square feet — and over two million artifacts — dedicated to preserving this area’s past. PPHM offers visitors a chance to step into panhandle history with special exhibits, a permanent collection, Pioneer Town, educational tours and special events.

This museum houses beautiful collections of artwork from renowned artists. There is even a Georgia O’Keefe section that showcases her work at the university in the early 1900s as a teacher. A 24-year-old Georgia O’Keefe came to Amarillo Texas School District because a friend of hers from Laredo, TX, Alice Beretta, wrote to her saying they needed an art teacher, and Georgia needed a job. She became the sole art teacher for the whole system, which consisted of 2,300 students. She taught for two years and then left to enroll in art classes at Columbia University. She returned in 1916 to Canyon to teach at West Texas Teachers Normal College. Georgia O’Keefe was quoted in 1919: “I lived on the plains of North Texas for four years; it is the only place I have ever felt that I really belonged – that I really felt at home. That it was my country, with its terrible winds and wonderful emptiness.”

9999 High Meadow Rd., Buffalo Springs, TX 79404

(806) 747-3353

This lakeside park area is on the outskirts of Lubbock and is a body of water, which in West Texas is hard to come by. Buffalo Springs is incorporated as a township, so therefore has its own police staff. The park has admission gates with a fee  to enter per individual and also has permits to purchase for a boat or an ATV. They have stated opening times and closing times for the park, which vary. There are campsites, ATV trails, beaches and fishing available. Since 1982, Llano Estacado Audubon Society’s Buffalo Spring Lake nature trails have provided 55 acres of magnificent natural elegance. There are several pavilion sites that you can rent for the day. During the week it is a quiet area where there are some campers and homeowners on the road that circles the area, but the weekend is a different scenario. It is, after all, West Texas, with a body of water that provides lots of outdoor activities for both families and individuals.

Lake Alan Henry is a reservoir situated in the upper Brazos River Basin in the United States. Created by the construction of the John T. Montford Dam in 1993, it is operated and used as a future tertiary water supply by the city of Lubbock, Texas, and serves as a recreational spot for the region of West Texas.