Crossing the Texas Panhandle: Embracing the Open Road On Our Way to Route 66 Roadside Attractions

As you drive across Texas Route 40 and the Great Plains, most ranches have simple signs next to their gated roadside entrances. Periodically, you’ll see an American-style water pump windmill—essential in the plains for raising crops and livestock. (Photo: Edie Kramer)

Middle America Road Trip
Part 3-Texas Panhandle

We recently took a road trip from Phoenix to Kansas City, visiting six US states (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri). We started the trip in Arizona, visiting off-the-beaten-path attractions and the impressive Petrified Wood National Park and Painted Desert. After Arizona, we enjoyed Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the surrounding forests. Then, we entered the Panhandle plains of Texas.

The Drive From Santa Fe (NM) to Amarillo (TX)

Large cattle ranches and some grain and hay farms dominate the countryside, which has multipurpose uses. At one point, we spent over an hour driving through a large wind turbine farm, where in some sections, cattle were grazing.

However, one thing consistent on the drive across the Texas Panhandle is an overwhelming sense of isolation and vastness. It’s flat for as far as the eye can see. Our drive was occasionally interrupted by roadside billboard advertisements about Route 66 restaurants, shops (only 20 miles!), Indian Reservation casinos, and Conservative Christian signage. Not much else.

The ‘Mother Road’ Route 66

As mentioned in previous articles about our middle-America road trip, we used Route 66 as our guide. We knew many days would involve hours of driving through the plains and deserts, and we’d need some stops to break up the monotony.

In truth, iconic Route 66 has been primarily replaced by Interstate 40 (I-40), which follows a similar route and sometimes shares the road with Route 66. Occasionally, you need to take an exit off I-40 to see Route 66 attractions on a town’s main street (old Route 66), but it’s a quick detour (no more than a few miles).

Along the ' Mother Road, ' you can see how the Interstate adversely affected small-town America. Some are almost ghost towns with populations under a thousand and boarded-up commercial and residential buildings. In many cases, Route 66 attractions are aging and forgotten; they are nicely maintained in some places, usually closer to or in a city.

You can make many Route 66 stops across Texas. We chose a handful in Amarillo, McLean, and Shamrock, each with multiple attractions.

Amarillo, TX

More than 72% of the Panhandle's residents live in the Amarillo Metropolitan area. Some of the most famous Route 66 attractions are in Amarillo, TX, including Cadillac Ranch, The 2nd Amendment Cowboy, and Big Texan Steakhouse.

Amarillo also boasts an official Route 66 Historic District on 6th Avenue. (I checked and rechecked my notes and pictures; it is 6th Avenue, not Route 66!) Anyhoo, you’ll find about a mile of antique shops, craft and specialty shops, restaurants, bars, and more that will bring you back to an era gone by. When we asked a young hotel worker at our Amarillo hotel where this district was, he didn’t know and looked at us dubiously. Crazy tourists?! Another worker, however, gave us directions, and it was just a few miles down the street from the hotel.

Cadillac Ranch

In the 1950s, roadside attractions along Route 66 were created to attract tourists driving to California from Chicago. This was when many motels, restaurants, and gas stations were constructed along Route 66. Cadillac Ranch was not one of them.

Cadillac Ranch was an art installation created by an art group (Ant Farm) in 1974—long after I-40 had opened and Route 66 towns and businesses were dying. Yet today, it is one of the most popular Route 66 attractions.

Location, location, location.

It was initially located in a wheat field (owned by the art group’s sponsor, Stanley Marsh, who was from a well-heeled oil family). In 1997, it was quietly moved to a cow pasture along I-40 (also owned by Stanley) away from Amarillo city limits because the city was growing.

Cadillac Ranch is visible from the highway and has an easy pull-off.

The cars have a thick coat of spray-painted graffiti, and bringing a few cans of spray paint with you is encouraged. All 10 cars have been painted black to mark the passing of one of the Ant Farm artists, rainbow colors for Gay Pride Day, and solid black with the words "Black Lives Matter" in June 2020 to protest the murder of George Floyd. That said, the cars receive a fresh coat of painted graffiti most days.

2nd Amendment Cowboy

Route 66 Historic District on 6th Avenue - Murals and More

The Big Texan Steakhouse

We’re not big on touristy restaurants, but we made an exception for The Big Texan Steakhouse. Reviews said the steaks were well-prepared, and we just had to visit and see if its historic popularity was deserved. We both ordered normal-sized steaks, and they arrived cooked to our level of bloodiness. It’s not Capital Grill or a fancy steakhouse. The loaded baked potato is foil-wrapped; a plastic cup of shredded cheese is your loaded potato's ‘loaded’ part. You get the picture. To add to the atmosphere, a casual father-son duo walked around the restaurant playing country music for tips.

While there, we had two 72-oz challengers seated on a center stage so that all patrons could watch the contestants and the clock. Your meal is free if you eat the 72-oz steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, roll, and butter and finish within an hour. If you throw up midway or don’t finish, you pay for the meal.

The waitstaff is still talking about Molly Schuyler, a 124-lb competitive eater who, in 2015, consumed three 72-ounce steaks, three baked potatoes, three side salads, three rolls, and three shrimp cocktails – that’s more than 13 pounds of steak, not counting the sides. And she did it all in 20 minutes, setting a record in the process. I don’t get the excitement of testing your digestive system like this, but you do you, girl.

Why do I suddenly feel pukey just thinking about ‘steaking’ (pun intended) a claim to that kind of challenge?

McLean, Texas

Devil’s Rope Museum

McLean, TX, has always had a small population. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, the town had around 1,450 residents. The 2023 census was 648.

Devil’s Rope Museum showcases the history and importance of barbed wire, from its start when wire replaced rope on ranches to its later use in WWII battlefields. Research material in-house supports 450 related patents, and the museum is chockful of pieces from private wire collections. Many paper displays and photos are starting to curl, and it’s a bit worn around the edges. However, the volunteer there was so enthusiastic and proud of the place that we found ourselves looking at displays from her point of view.

There’s a lot more to barbed wire than we ever thought possible.

Personal highlights for me were the ranch branding iron collection, including the brand George Washington used on his Mount Vernon farm and the brand of Teddy Roosevelt’s ranch in Montana. There’s also an arresting photographic history of the Dust Bowl on display.

Shamrock, Texas

Shamrock is 15 miles west of the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Given my Irish heritage, we had to stop in Shamrock to see a piece of the Blarney Stone from Ireland’s Blarney Castle (truth be told, I don’t remember what the kissing stone at the Castle looks like, just that everyone bends backward to kiss it). In addition to Blarney Stone Plaza, Shamrock’s Route 66 attractions include numerous murals, the Conoco Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café, and the Magnolia Gas Station.

To give you a sense of why small towns along Route 66 could thrive: when the U-Drop Inn was built in 1936, it was the only café within 100 miles. According to the census, the population in Shamrock in 1930 was 3,780; in 2020, it was 1,789.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at the Barfield Hotel in Amarillo, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. I’ve only stayed at a handful of these hotels, but each is unique and upscale, and often, the building itself has an interesting history.

I’ll admit some fan excitement when I was watching Yellowstone a few months later and saw that Beth and Rip spent a getaway there while he was herding Dutton cattle in Texas. The room was spacious, with a nice sitting area and an up-to-date, large bathroom. It was clean, and the bed was comfortable. The hotel’s claim to fame is its basement speakeasy.

After the Texas Panhandle, we headed to Oklahoma City, which turned out to be a highlight of our two-week trip. Stay tuned!