Cowboy's Dream - Self Drive Tour
8 Days / 7 Nights
Seasons -
Spring, Summer, Fall
Temperature -
15° to 100° F /
-9° to 38° C
Reservations must be booked and paid in advance
Day 1 : Dallas Arrival
Arrive at Dallas-Fort Worth airport and transfer to your hotel. Overnight.
Day 2 : Dallas - Abilene
This morning you pick up your bike and are off on your ride through the state that really stands apart from the rest of the United States… While its sheer size (800 miles from east to west and nearly 1000 miles from top to bottom) gives a great geographical diversity, it’s firmly bound together by a shared history, culture and ideology. As the old anti-litter campaign put it “Don’t Mess With Texas”! You take Hwy 20 and head out west. Just 30 miles away from Dallas you will come to Fort Worth, Dallas’ inseparable archrival. Unlike cosmopolitan Dallas, Fort Worth is one the most western cities in Texas. In the 1870’s it was the last stop on the Great Cattle Drive to Kansas and cattle trade still is a major industry here. For the quintessential Fort Worth experience you need to visit the Stockyards National Historic District. Soak up the ambiance of the area, where each year thousands of livestock are bought and sold. See the Stockyards Hotel, where Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker once slept, and cool your heels at Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky-tonk. Back on Hwy 20 you are riding through Texas’ backyard, where farmlands and rough-cut juniper-covered hills give way to treeless, sandy landscapes. You overnight in Abilene, a place that has a certain curiosity value to an oppressively God-fearing bible city.
Day 3 : Abilene - Amarillo
From Abilene you continue for a short while on Hwy 20 and then enter Hwy 84 toward Lubbock. You are in the Panhandle now, the southernmost portion of the Great Plains, “The Real Texas”. Lubbock is the largest city in the Panhandle and has long been the center of its commerce and transportation. Lubbock is probably best known for having given the world Buddy Holly, whose songs paved the way for Rock’n Roll. From Lubbock take Hwy 27 and head to Amarillo, up in the northern Panhandle. Amarillo may seem cut off from the rest of Texas, but it stands on one of the great American cross-country routes – I-40, once the legendary Route 66 – roughly 300 miles from Albuquerque and 250 miles west of Oklahoma City. The name comes from the Spanish for “yellow”, the color that is so characteristic to these parts. Western Heritage and breathtaking scenery are on the agenda here. The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, home to one of the finest collections of Western Art in the Southwest, examines the history and geology of the Texas Panhandle. Overnight.
Day 4 : Amarillo - Santa Fe
This morning you might like to explore Amarillo’s most noted geological feature – beautiful Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is second in size only to the Grand Canyon. From Amarillo you head west and take Hwy 40 toward New Mexico. Settled in turn by Native American Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Yankees, New Mexico is among the most ethnically and cultural diverse of all the states in the US. You stick with Hwy 40 until you get to Hwy 285 for Santa Fe, make a right turn here. New Mexico’s capital has ranked among the chicest destinations in the US and it is the country’s most popular city for upscale travelers. Santa Fe is one of America’s oldest and most beautiful cities, founded by Spanish missionaries a decade before the pilgrims reached Plymouth Rock. Overnight.
Day 5 : Santa Fe - Carlsbad
Today your ride will take you to the southeastern corner of New Mexico. From Santa Fe you get on Hwy 285, which will be your road to Carlsbad. You have to cross seemingly endless miles of the Llano Estacio, the death flat rangeland that covers southeast New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. About 70 miles north of Carlsbad you will get to the small ranching town of Roswell – renowned for the alien spaceship landing nearby on July 04, 1947. The geological spectacle that you don’t want to miss while you are in southern New Mexico is Carlsbad Caverns National Park, just a few miles west of the town of Carlsbad. Carved out of the solid limestone of Capital Reef by eons of dripping water, the Carlsbad Caverns contain over 30 miles of underground caves, some over 1,000 feet across. The park consists of a tract of the Guadalupe Mountains that’s so riddled with underground caves and tunnels as to be virtually hollow. Tamed in classic park-service style with concrete trails and electric lighting, this subterranean wonderland is a walk-in gallery. You overnight in Carlsbad.
Day 6 : Carlsbad - San Angelo
From Carlsbad you take Hwy 62 (which soon becomes Hwy 180) toward Lamesa. You ride through the “Wild West” – West Texas, the stuff of “Wild West Fantasy”…parched deserts, ghost towns, looming mesas, and above all a sense of isolation. At Lamesa you pick up Hwy 87, which will take you all the way to San Angelo. You are back in the Panhandle region. The community of San Angelo grew around the frontier site of Fort Concho and was established in 1867 at the junction of north and middle branches of Concho River. Today, San Angelo is the nation’s largest primary wool and mohair market and major livestock auction center. San Angelo is also home to the nation’s fourth largest university planetarium, which features a three-dimensional view of the universe with sparkling stars and celestial fireworks. Overnight.
Day 7 : San Angelo - Dallas
Out of San Angelo you take Hwy 67 for a few miles and then enter Hwy 83 toward Abilene. Ride back to Dallas on Hwy 20 (see Day 02). Alternatively, you can stay on Hwy 67 up to Stephenville and enter Hwy 377 toward Dallas there. In Dallas it will be time to return your bike and transfer back to your hotel. Overnight.
Day 8 : Dallas Departure
Today your trip will end with your departure flight back home.