29 Best Sights in West Texas and the Panhandle, Texas

The largest state park in Texas serves as an enormous western buffer to Big Bend National Park. This rugged desert wilderness extends along the Rio Grande across more than 300,000 acres from east of Lajitas to Presidio. It's far less developed than the national park (if that seems possible) and nearly one-third as large, and it's filled with amazing opportunities to hike, mountain bike, backpack, raft, and ride horseback. A collection of hiking trailheads spoke off from FM 170 across from the Barton Warnock Visitor Center at Lajitas, which serves as the park's eastern information post and contains excellent exhibits on the region as well as a covered picnic area. The western visitor center is at 23-acre Fort Leaton State Historical Site near Presidio and contains a thick-walled adobe fort and trading post that dates back to pioneer days, plus exhibits, a ½-mile nature trail, and picnic sites.

With one of the largest permanent installations of contemporary art in the world, the Chinati Foundation displays works by American minimalist Donald Judd and others in buildings spread over 340 acres of the former Ft. D. A. Russell. The Judd collection includes 15 concrete works outdoors, plus 100 aluminum pieces housed in two converted artillery sheds. You'll also see 25 sculptures by John Chamberlain and an installation by Dan Flavin that occupies six former army barracks. The museum's comprehensive guided tours require a significant commitment of time—six hours, including a two-hour break for lunch—and energy to walk up to 1½ miles over uneven terrain. While self-guided tours are always an option, space on the guided tours is limited.

Check out exhibits, examine sunspots and flares safely via film, or peer into the workings of giant research telescopes. Guided tours of the domed observatories are given several days a week following programs at 11 and 2. After nightfall, the observatory offers star parties (usually Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday). Online reservations are required for all public programs. It's a beautiful 15-mile drive from Fort Davis to the visitor center, at 6,235 elevation.

This expansive history-lover's haven has exhibits representing the life and cultures of the region and sponsors an annual show on ranching handiwork (such as saddles, reins, and spurs) held in conjunction with the Cowboy Poetry Gathering each February. The map collection is renowned.

Along the 2,400-mile stretch of America's first highway, the section that passes through Amarillo is still bustling with more than 100 home-owned businesses in the city's first and only historic district. Take home a piece of history from a selection of 25 antiques stores, shop until you drop at 22 specialty boutiques, choose from 15 locally owned restaurants, browse original art in the galleries, or party through the night at nearly a dozen bars and clubs. Wherever you go, your path will be illuminated by vintage lighting and you'll feel nostalgia oozing from tree-lined cobblestone sidewalks.

Tucked away on the campus of Amarillo College, this cozy three-floor museum has a generous range of art in its permanent collection, which has evolved only over the past four decades. You'll see 17th- to 19th-century European paintings, as well as works from 20th-century modernists. Designed by the architect for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., this museum comprises galleries for photography and a substantial collection of Asian art and Middle Eastern textiles, made possible in part by donations from a local physician. Highlights include four Georgia O'Keeffe paintings.

Whether you like signature architecture, appreciate Western art, or just love horses, you'll enjoy this museum, which showcases stars of the American quarter-horse world. Inside, you'll see enormous bronze sculptures and halls of fame honoring horses and humans who have significantly contributed to the history and legends of the breed. See quarter-horse paintings by midcentury Western artist Orren Mixer, or spend some time learning about the bloodlines and special features of the breed in the interactive educational gallery. Temporary exhibits and special events throughout the year make each visit to the museum unique.

The town may be three hours from the nearest commercial airport, but Ballroom Marfa is smack-dab in the middle of the world of contemporary art—visual arts, film, music, and performance. As the name implies, the gallery was converted from a 1927 former dance hall, and it has 4,500 square feet of indoor exhibition space and 6,000 square feet of courtyard. The intellectual impact generated from Ballroom events like Marfa Dialogues has garnered interest from institutions in major cities of the world. This is a heady place with a mission to provide a platform for expressions that may not find a home in more traditional gallery or museum settings.

If you've ever had the urge to spray paint graffiti, but don't want to end up in court, this is the place for you. You can simply view this quirky roadside exhibit of 10 Cadillacs buried nose down in the middle of a pasture a half-century ago by an eccentric Amarillo businessman. Or, if you want to add to the graffiti already adorning the exhibit, bring some rubber gloves and a few cans of spray paint. If the wind is blowing—and it usually is in Texas—you might also want to pick up a dust filter for your nose and mouth. Go 4 miles west of Amarillo on Interstate 40 to the Arnot Road exit. Make a U-turn to cross the freeway, then continue on the access road for 1 mile. Because there is no lighting at the display, this is a daytime activity.

More than 15,000 people signed the guest register in 2013 to see this nostalgic collection of 25 recreational vehicles, lovingly restored over the past quarter century by father-and-son team Jack and Trent Sizemore. Parked inside 10,000 square feet (so far) of climate-controlled display space, these rolling gems include RVs from every decade from the 1920s to 1970s. The RVs themselves are packed with period memories—old-timey cracker boxes to vintage cameras and dominos—to create a snapshot of the travel culture at the time. Look for the bus used in the movie RV starring Robin Williams. Need a place to park your own RV? Ask the Sizemores about their Amarillo Best Wonderland RV Resort.

Every town has its legends, and Marfa is no exception: if you come here, you must go see the Marfa Lights—visible most often 9 miles east of town from a roadside park built especially for this purpose by the Texas Department of Transportation. Called by a variety of names—including "night mirages" and "chemical plasma lights"—the phenomenon, although rare, has been seen often enough that the Marfa chamber of commerce gives directions to the site near Mitchell Flat. Even if you don't see the Marfa Lights, you'll be in a prime spot for spectacular stargazing.

As the second-largest canyon in the United States, this 80-year-old, 14,103-acre park is popular for hiking, horseback riding (including a variety of guided rides with cowboy-style breakfast), swimming, fishing, and camping. Rent a vintage CCC cabin or pitch a tent and picnic under giant cottonwood trees. The park's amphitheater hosts summer performances of Texas, an outdoor drama about the history of the region.

This installation of roadside art designed to resemble an actual Prada store is one of the most Instagrammed sights in all of Texas for creativity. Built in 2005, the $80,000 sculpture "store" lies just outside of the small town of Valentine, about 37 miles northwest of Marfa, and it has and will never open for business (though it has been vandalized).

This 1886 Second Empire–style confection with projecting surfaces and Mansard-style roofs casts a striking image over downtown. A quick elevator ride and a short flight of stairs will put you out on the cupola for a not-to-be-missed panorama of the Marfa Plateau and nearby Davis Mountains. Be sure to glimpse the Goddess of Justice, perched on top of the dome.

While you won't get served coffee or wine here, you will find a tribe of Mabookco (Marfa Book Company) groupies who like to hang inside this publishing house–art gallery and film, music, and performance space that effectively masquerades as a bookshop. As you might expect, this literary collection focuses on art, architecture, design, and poetry, but you can also find a little something for the grandchildren and a few magazines to read on the flight back home.