Panhandle & Plains
Palo Duro Canyon
The second-largest canyon in the country opens with no warning out of flat Panhandle wheat: 800 feet deep, 120 miles long, banded in red and white.
You drive across the Panhandle believing the world is flat, and then the road tips over the rim and drops 800 feet. It is one of the few genuine surprises left in American geography.
The Lighthouse Trail is the signature walk — six miles round trip, mostly level until a short scramble at the end delivers you under a 300-foot sandstone column.
Go early. The canyon floor runs ten degrees hotter than the rim, and shade is a rumor.
Don't miss
- The Lighthouse Trail to the sandstone hoodoo
- Aoudad sheep on the rim at dusk
- Outdoor musical drama in the amphitheater each summer
- Star parties on the canyon floor
Nearby reading