Amarillo is the largest city in the Texas Panhandle, a flat stretch of high plains where the sky dominates and the wind is almost always blowing. It sits squarely on old Route 66, and the ghost of that highway still shapes the city — you can find neon-lit diners, vintage motels, and roadside Americana all along old 6th Street and Amarillo Boulevard.
The city is best known to travelers as a stopping point on cross-country drives, but it rewards a day or two of attention. The Cadillac Ranch, where ten Cadillacs are buried nose-first in a wheat field along I-40, is one of the more genuinely strange pieces of public art in America. Palo Duro Canyon, 25 miles to the southeast in Canyon, is spectacular — the second-largest canyon in the United States, with red and orange rock walls dropping 800 feet that most visitors have never heard of.
The economy runs on cattle, grain, and oil. The feedlots outside town process more beef than almost anywhere in the country, and the Big Texan Steak Ranch offers a free 72-ounce steak to anyone who can eat the whole thing in an hour (very few do). The food scene in town has improved in recent years, with a growing cluster of independent restaurants in the historic downtown.
Winters are cold and windy, summers are hot but dry, and spring brings the occasional tornado. The best time to visit is September through November, when the canyon colors are at their peak and the weather is moderate.