North of Amarillo?

[CEMENTHEAD]

Hey all!
Anyone live in this area? I've been enamored with this area recently. Just wondering what's to do in that area? hunting/fishing/hiking/camping, etc also the panhandle of Oklahoma too. Thinking of planning a trip that direction. What ya say anyone.........

Thanks, Tom .....AKA "the Wanderer" as the wife likes to phrase

[86er]

Good pheasant hunting around Guymon, OK in December. Also the Guymon Rodeo.

[M. M. Wright]

Lots of prairie dogs in Cimarron county OK. Very big antique tractor salvage in Boise City. Black Mesa. We used to go to Clayton to La Paloma for Mexican food, really good. Guess there's not much.

[Les Staley]

I've hauled close to 100 loads of alfalfa hay from southern Idaho and Wyoming into the area, several large organic dairys located there around Dalhart, and south toward Armadillo... was always glad I didn't live there.. FLAT country.. saw a few antelope and a few pheasant and some prarie dogs.. all private.. not much to tempt me there... I did enjoy a hunt last winter in the Palo Duro canyon with a small outfitter.. got two nice boar hogs 'bout 90# each over feeders.. That is a few miles south of Armadillo.. JMHO Les

[FWiedner]

Antelope and jack-rabbits, ... and convenient stretches of highway that go somewhere else. It's fairly scenic though.

Palo Duro canyon is SE of Amarillo. Kinda pretty. Totally unexpected.

A saving grace to compensate for the miles of emptiness and hours of driving is there's so many beef processing operations up that way that when you make a pit-stop you'll be able to get a heck of a good steak.

But... the best thing about that part of the state is if you're going north anyway, eventually you'll be in Colorado.

[bdhold]

Lake Meredith is a walleye fishery
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fi ... /meredith/

but I think I would keep going into NM.

[Charles]

I lived there for a number of years (Pampa and Booker) and have traveled all over the northern panhandle. The people are salt of the earth, and the weather can be harsh, but nothing to a guy from Rhode Island. Phesant, quail, drove and deer hunting are to be found as well as varmints if that is you bag. Lot of ducks and geese in the Oklahoma Panhandle. A number of good fishing lakes as well in both Texas and Oklahoma.

You will find land much cheaper in Oklahoma than in Texas. If you want to live in a town it won't make a difference.

[awp101]

Antelope and jack-rabbits, ... and convenient stretches of highway that go somewhere else. It's fairly scenic though.

That's no joke! We were through there twice a couple of weeks ago and other than fencing, scrub and mesquite all I saw were miles and miles of miles and miles. I was convinced the GPS had taken a giant leap away from it's good senses when it steered us off of 287. There were a couple of back road State highways (1061 and 385 I think) that made me wish I was in my Mitsu Lancer GTS instead of "her car" though...

But... the best thing about that part of the state is if you're going north anyway, eventually you'll be in Colorado.

And that's why we were going through there, headed to and from Colorado. That part of NM connecting Texas and Colorado ain't got just a whole lot to look at either until you start getting closer to Raton....

[kaschi]

IIRC someone posted a picture several months ago of HUNDREDS of rattlesnakes near a den in that part of Texas. Anyone else remember that one? Sure gave me the creeps!

[piller]

Before planning a trip to Lake Meredith, you might want to check with the Texas Fish and Game dept. to see just how low the lake really is. The Marina on the lake has been on dry land so long it is no longer going to float when and if the water gets back up to it. It was a great Walleye lake, but it has been very low for 2 years at least.

Anyway, do stop and see the Old West town of Tascosa. It is a ghost town, but it has featured in many western novels. When the railroad went to Amarillo, Tascosa died. North of there at Canadian, as you are a little South of town, you can see the welded metal dinosaur on the plateau that some man made for his wife.

[bdhold]

And that's why we were going through there, headed to and from Colorado. That part of NM connecting Texas and Colorado ain't got just a whole lot to look at either until you start getting closer to Raton....

drive through the Mora drainage south of Angel Fire sometime - Coyote Creek.
It's like a little rainforest in the middle of New Mexico.

Let's see, Taos, Santa Fe, Chama, Costilla Creek, Corkins Meadow, the Brazos - yeah, keep driving.

[Bill in Oregon]

I wanted to love that area. My grandmother grew up on a ranch on the Canadian just upstream from the Turkey Track Ranch (site of the Adobe Walls battle) in a town called Plemmons, which no longer exists. It is just south of Stennett. If you can get access to the breaks of the Canadian, there's some lovely country there, but up on top it is pretty flat and kind of vanishes in that Great Plains natural aerosol/haze. I despaired for the lack of public lands, but coming from Oregon, where more than half the state is public and open, that might be understandable.

[Blaine]

I rode the Scoot a bit north of that area in the OK panhandle, and up into KS.....Great, friendly folks. Everything looked hardscrabble It's pretty clear times are tough. Lot's of farms/cattle. A little too flat to want to live there, but I sure enjoyed the ride.

[CEMENTHEAD]

Thanks for all the answers! I think it might turn into a two week trip through Colorado, Oklahoma, N. Texas, and New Mexico.

Thanks, Tom