Alright, stop it. There are some out there and you know it.



Seriously, how about a little Google Maps guide to cool, scenic, interesting Panhandle/South Plains spots? Perhaps they aren't worth a trip in and of themselves, but worth a small detour.

I'm not thinking so much of museums or attractions, just really nice overlooks, views, etc.

This was prompted by SuzyQ06's inquiry about Palo Duro. She wants to leave Lubbock and get some fresh (non-tcehie) air, so what do you suggest? Some I can think of:

Highway 207, Tule Canyon below Mackenzie Lake Dam And the lake itself is not bad. Although I understand the water level is way down.




Caprock Canyons Overlook South Between Quitaque and Silverton on 86.

Caprock Canyons Overlook North Nice little drive down the Caprock, there is a roadside park somewhere along 256, not far after the road drops off the cap.

Highway 207 between Silverton and Claude Roadside Park on 207, right before the road drops down the cap into the lower Palo Duro Canyon.

Hwy 207 from Post north is not bad at all...very scenic in numerous spots, including the ones you mentioned.
I have always enjoyed north and south of McLean on 273 - but nothing really worth "stopping" for, just a good drive.

We have great scenery.

After all, we don't have all them trees and mountains cluttering up our scenery.

eric what is your email address. I tried to email but it bounced back.

thanks

david

eric@gruver.net works. but it has to be either PGP encrypted or PGP signed.



Alternatively, you could try:


my username @ my username .org




(In case you're wondering, I really don't care if spammers automatically harvest the eric@gruver.net e-mail address from this or other web pages and spam it. That address appears as my contact address on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Port Assignment List (tcp and udp ports 1218 and 1219). Consequently, it gets spammed so heavily that it doesn't matter.

I've yet to receive any PGP signed or encrypted spam. So requiring PGP encryption or signing of any incoming e-mail gets rid of the spam with little or no problems. If they spam it, they get a return message the first time telling them to use PGP. So far, noone has.

If you want to see the response, just send an e-mail to that address that is not PGP encrypted. The server keeps track of the e-mail addresses used and won't respond in the near future to further attempts to send unencrypted, unsigned e-mail until such time as the file gets full and the address is dumped out. The messages are just deleted without being delivered.

So far, the system works fine.

The second address, on the other hand, is not known to the spammers. So I don't want to put it on here in an easy to harvest format.)

[This message has been edited by eric76 (edited 10/19/2007 4:24a).]

The hwy 256 overlook is one of my favorites anywhere.

We traveled that route for my whole life visiting family in Clarendon, before we moved back.

I like Hwy 114 out past Ralls as you drop off the Caprock...much much better than 87 to i-20 heading East.

Here's a pic of my "excursion" towards Caprock Canyon. I didn't get a timely start at all, left around 6 pm (mainly cause the test didn't start on time) but I'm still glad I went. I just cranked up the radio, sang at the top of my lungs and enjoyed the West Texas sky.



This picture was taken somewhere between Floydada and South Plains, from my car.

[This message has been edited by SuzyQ06 (edited 10/21/2007 2:45p).]

Nice pic...thanks for sharing. Do your lungs hurt. J/K

Copper Breaks State Park out of Quanah.



[This message has been edited by Lekner XII (edited 10/21/2007 6:36p).]

Suzy-

Are you talking about just east of Crosbyton? I seem to recall a very nice roadside park just off the cap there.

Link here

How was Caprock Canyons? As it turned out, the wife and I went to Palo Duro Friday night for a picnic. We hadn't been in a long while, but with 75 degree weather in October and "0" wind, it was too much too resist.

We couldn't figure out why all the folks were there until we stumbled across the headquarters for the Trail Run. I knew that "drivinwest" had mentioned it, but I did not realize it was this past weekend. It was not publicized worth a darn in Amarillo and Canyon.

There was an article in Texas Monthly about two years ago that had the best road trips in Texas and one went through the Caprock/Tule Canyon area and skirted Palo Duro. I did that with my fiance and some friends and we thought it provided some amazing views.

Caprock Canyon State Park has some great views and you only need to walk a few hundred yards from the road to get some of them.

You could always try Boone Pickens mansion near Pampa. He's poured so much money into that area that it no longer looks like the Panhandle but rather some fancy rolling hills golf resort in Florida or California.