|
State Overviews Texas Regional Overviews Big Bend Country Panhandle Plains Hill Country Prairies and Lakes Piney Woods Gulf Coast South Texas Plains Topical Overviews Biking Birding Boating Camping Fishing Golfing Hiking National Parks Off-Road Driving Scenic Drives Additional Info Festivals and Events Texas Almanac 
|
Panhandle Plains - Texas Overview
The Panhandle Plains tend to be associated with long, dull vistas, but this is the home of Texas's canyons. Caprock Canyon State Park, between Lubbock and Amarillo, is one Southwestern style canyon in the middle of cow country. Palo Duro Canyon is not only a Texas canyon, but the second largest in the country. The chaparral and cacti feel of the lower plains near San Angelo also make for interesting hiking and biking trails. There are also a surprising amount of lakes in the Panhandle, which are especially nice for fishermen of largemouth bass and white crappie.
Amarillo is near some of the "anomalies" of the Great Plains, and bikers can be as likely to curse as to love such sites as Capitol Peak, Caprock Canyon, and Palo Duro Canyon. This is where the Great Plains start sliding into desert and the terrain scatters with sand and prickly pear. San Angelo bike trails have a similar cacti borderland feel, in the Panhandle as they are. These trails also tend toward the long, grueling, and tricky. Really, who says the Plains are boring?
Texas's Panhandle Plains have enough lakes to keep a dedicated boater hopping from place to place all summer and still have plenty of places to explore next summer and the next. There are so many lakes that it's difficult to cover any at length in a summary, and they vary from rocky to wooded, deep to shallow, thickly vegetated to clear as a summer sky. Abilene and San Angelo are near quite a few of these lakes.
Although Amarillo itself has a nice RV resort, the off camping traveler may prefer Palo Duro Canyon's scenery. There are a good number of primitive campsites and these are the majority, but some nice cabins do exist. Don't expect quite as much . . . luxury at the Caprock Canyons near Lubbock, as water is likely the only amenity you'll have and it's still wiser to bring your own. For a different camping experience, Abilene has enough lakeshore camping to satisfy anyone.
It may be a little bit astonishing that the Panhandle Plains have so very, very many lakes, but they do indeed, and the fishing is fine. Largemouth bass is the species du jour, found in great numbers and at great size, but white crappie is also very popular, very common, and often large. Other common and popular species in the Panhandle are the catfish (channel and blue), the white/hybrid bass, and the sunfish. Take note that lakes seems to crowd especially around Abilene and San Angelo.
The Panhandle is not possessed of quite so many courses as other areas, but Amarillo and Lubbock both have several.
The Panhandle Plains, around Amarillo and Lubbock, hold the Caprock and Palo Duro Canyons, so there are certainly a few hot and strenuous hikes here. Caprock Canyons, nearer Lubbock, are all red rock formations. You could be standing in southern Utah. The Lighthouse, nearer Amarillo, is this colorful pinnacle jutting into the sky. And these two hikes do fall on the easier end of the scale, but tougher walks aren't hard to find.
The Great Plains of Texas are home to a section of old and still-beloved Route 66, with Amarillo serving as a friendly gateway. Amarillo is also close to the gateway of the Palo, that deep gash in the land of cows and fields. Lubbock is, similarly, a nice place to travel to Caprock Canyons, passing from the tableland of the High Plains to the stark reds and stippled greens of the sandy canyon. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
