Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Our next stop is New Mexico but it seems a waste to not catch some of Route 66 on the way. We left Austin and headed northwest to Amarillo to catch the route before heading west to Albuquerque. Unbeknownst to us, just outside of Amarillo is the Texan state park of Palo Duro Canyon, second in size only to the Grand Canyon. It’s considerably smaller, but, you can drive down into it which is pretty cool.

After another night at a Home2 Suites we headed to the canyon. This would be Roland’s first true test and muling our water. And our first hike with actual hiking shoes (highly recommend). We had a great hike in the canyon to the lookout point for lighthouse rock. The dog makes an excellent pack mule (also highly recommend). It was a gorgeous sunny day. We unfortunately were all a little overdressed as the sun felt way stronger in the canyon.

After a quick parking lot change in to shorts – another perk of traveling in the off season – you pretty much have the place to yourself. The drawback is the smell – the next town over is the cattle capital of the US. Thankfully the wind was blowing in the right direction and the overwhelming smell from manure fields drifted away from us.

I’m pretty sure that the primary reason for traveling Route 66 now is to see all the weird stuff along the way. Our travels were no exception. Cadillac Ranch is just west of Amarillo and shows up in all three of our guidebooks of must do things in Texas.

Despite there being absolutely no signage along the highway for this alleged not-to-miss attraction we found it fairly easily. What we didn’t realize is that half of the attraction is that you get to spray paint your own art onto the installation. Thankfully the kids are cute and we had several groups donate their partially used cans to us when they were done. We actually had a good bit of fun once we had some paint to play with. While I wouldn’t say it’s a stop going out of your way for, if you happen to find yourself outside of Amarillo Texas, it’s worth stopping in.