The Panhandle Places

Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon State Park

More than 13,000 residents occupy the trim, tidy town of Canyon. Built on bulls, blood, sweat, and agriculture, Canyon was founded in 1889 by businessman Lincoln Guy Conner. The coming of a railway about a decade later established it as a cattle and cotton shipping hub, while the opening of a university in 1910 helped tame, educate, and grow the town. Today Canyon's revitalized downtown has lovely rose-colored paving stones and a very strange but eye-catching historic courthouse. There's also a serene wildlife refuge set squarely in the migration flyway, providing an awesome vantage point for bird-viewing.

But the area's main draw is Palo Duro Canyon, located 15 mi east of town on Highway 217. The canyon's name comes from the copious mesquites growing throughout its ridges and pinnacles—Palo Duro means "hard wood" in Spanish. The canyon reaches into two counties, and the state park that contains it covers 16,402 acres. If that sounds like a lot, it is, but get this: the canyon was once in private hands!

Visitors to Palo Duro Canyon come from across the state, across the nation, and across the world to take in the "TEXAS!" musical, explore via Jeep and horse-drawn wagons, take ranch tours, and pitch tents in the bottom of the canyon (RVs are welcome in some spots, too). The long, winding drive down into the canyon affords some beautiful, beautiful—did we mention beautiful?—vistas, particularly when the morning or evening sun casts the colors in gold. The thin pillars of rock called hoodoos are especially amazing.

Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon State Park at a Glance

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