Texas Motorcycle Tour

From Dallas/Irving you head northeast and ride Hwy 287 up to Wichita Falls. It’s hard to believe that the waterfall that gave Wichita Falls its name could exist in this flat country…You continue your ride close to the Oklahoma border and are on your way to Childress, a vintage Texas town built around an old Spanish zocalo. Overnight.

Pick up US 83 and south of Childress you pass through a magnificent landscape of rich red and gold canyonlands covered with vast groves of trees and arrive at Paduca, a cotton town. As you continue south on Hwy 83 you get deeper in the heart of Texas, surrounded by miles and miles of green grass, red earth, mesquite and juniper trees, windmills, pump supplies, and peanut dryers. Ride down to Abilene, where you overnight.

Today you ride through Northern Texas to Amarillo which takes its name from Spanish and it means “yellow”, the color that is so characteristic to this region. Tonight, be sure to enjoy dinner at the famous "The Big Texan Steakhouse"!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Today your trip will end with your departure flight back home.