Choose your location
TexasHighways
Editor’s Note: Down in the Dunes
Freelance photographer Tom Urban captured the sea oats and purslane that decorate the dunes of upper Padre Island for this 1991 cover. The cover story by Jack Lowry and Laura Black explored Padre Island National Seashore’s wildlife, sea creatures, and birds, while an accompanying story highlighted the treasure trove of seashells along the beaches of Padre Island.
Everything You Need to Know Before Floating a Texas River
How To Texas is a recurring column offering step-by-step instructions on how to be Texan. We’ll guide you through the cultural traditions, customs, eccentricities, lifestyles, and activities you’ll find on your travels that make the state uniquely Texan. Summer is tubing season in Texas. Thousands of people descend...
Create Lasting Memories at These Family-Friendly Resorts
Traveling with kids may not be easy, but it is always an adventure. Luckily for parents and grandparents in Texas, the adventures tend to be pretty epic. You can hike mountains towering over deserts teeming with wildlife, zip on a golf cart through miles of beautiful coastland, and visit vibrant cities filled with thought-provoking art and historical attractions. Family travel in our state also yields plenty of friendly conversations with locals and other travelers. (Texans are generally a friendly lot, after all.) Looking for your next family getaway? Grab your bathing suit and hit the road.
Eaker Barbecue Is Redefining the Smoked Meat Plate
“I’m just the blowtorch lady,” Boo Eaker jokes as she levels her blue flame over a slice of banana, transforming its starchy yellow flesh into a nutty-brown coin. She doesn’t wait for it to cool, wrapping her fingers around its edges to tuck it delicately into a nest of pillowy cream.
Rescuing Texas’ Once Wild Horses
Like all the horses and donkeys on the property, Cassidy the quarter horse and an American paint horse named Delight get regular cranial massages to soothe their muscles and their minds. On sunny days, their pink noses are spread with sunscreen. Instead of being confined to stalls, these rescued animals roam sprawling fenced spaces at Allyson and Mike DeCanio’s ranch near Ben Wheeler, about 25 miles west of Tyler. Life wasn’t always so idyllic for these horses, though. Some, like Sky, Jax, and Shelby, were malnourished and left for dead on the land of a neglectful owner in Wood County.
The Daytripper Braves the Devils River
The Devils River got its name from early settlers, who said the 93-mile waterway—and the treacherous terrain surrounding it near the U.S.-Mexico border—was created by Lucifer. The river runs between the present-day cities of Sonora and Del Rio, a slim turquoise ribbon cutting into the thornscrub and sunburned sand of the Chihuahuan Desert. The river is fed by a series of springs that keep the water cool even in the desert. It’s never been dammed or impounded. Evidence of recent human activity along its banks is nearly nonexistent—hardly anyone ventures here because it’s so remote. That’s heavenly for adventurers seeking isolation but potentially dangerous for the poorly prepared.
Catch a Show at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Theater
The only free-standing theater designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright ever built is located in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood. Experience the musical stylings of “the female voice of the Spanish guitar.” Her music will highlight one of the elements that makes the Kalita special—its acoustics.
On a Night Hike, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
The sun has just slipped below the tree line as we begin our hike at the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne. The tops of the oak trees behind us are tinged with orange, and crickets chirp in the grass. Standing at the trailhead, I feel a ripple of anticipation for our adventure, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cibolo’s nocturnal world.
A Weekend Getaway in Historic Nacogdoches
Six flags have flown over Texas, but the small Piney Woods city of Nacogdoches, or Nac as locals call it, claims nine. The stories behind those extra three flags—a dramatic mix of scrappy rebellion, bravado, and blunders—are the stuff of legends. Originally a Caddo Indian settlement circa 1200 AD, but officially established by a Spanish trader in 1779, this friendly burg is considered by many to be Texas’ oldest town. While that claim is debated, one thing is certain: Nacogdoches delivers an old-timey travel experience. Whether it be a stroll down the red brick streets of the historic downtown, a visit to a Caddo Indian Mound, or an amble through a lush azalea garden, an exploration of Nacogdoches immerses visitors in its unique history and culture amid the sweet-smelling pines of East Texas.
A Cascade Caverns Guide Takes Visitors Below Boerne’s Surface
While there are two natural caves in Boerne, Cascade Caverns and Cave Without a Name, Brandon McClelland only knew about the latter growing up. He went on field trips in elementary school to Cave Without a Name but was introduced to Cascade Caverns in 2019 when he found it online and went for a visit. His tour guide, Lynnrae Smith, made the adventure fun and interesting, and the limestone cave itself stuck with him. “I had never seen that much water in a cave before,” he says. When McClelland was looking for a summer job before starting college at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he applied to be a tour guide. “I was pretty antisocial at that time, but it broke me out of my shell, and I’ve been here since,” he says.
Inside the Sport of Texas Rock Crawling
“The Star-Spangled Banner” has barely finished playing before a rock buggy skids down a giant boulder, overcorrects, then crashes sideways. The sight is startling, but it’s common at the Texas Top Gun Shootout, a rock-crawling competition held annually, in November, at the Katemcy Rocks Offroad Park northwest of Mason. The landscape is littered with trucks and Jeeps jostling through rock fields as custom-built buggies clamber their 42-inch tires over granite rock faces. The constant sounds of engines revving and rubber spinning, and the occasional driveline shattering, fill the air. From farther away, the sound of a metal frame torquing and bending could be mistaken for the screeching of a wild animal.
Victoria’s Bicentennial Trolley Tour Is the Most Coveted Ticket in Town
As I walk around the 1892 Victoria County Courthouse, the first stop on the Bicentennial 2024 Old Victoria Trolley Tour, I feel a presence and permanence of the past. There’s the gorgeous blue Muldoon sandstone trimmed with limestone on the facade, a reproduction of an 1838 County of Victoria map that hangs on the first floor, multihued sheet tile blossoming at my feet, and black-and-white portraits displayed of significant figures like former mayor Jesse Obadiah Wheeler. Little surprises, like a hidden plexiglass floor cutout in the county judge’s office suite that shows the original foundation, delight and astound throughout this three-story Romanesque revival building.
Filmmaker Iliana Sosa Directs Your Attention to Her Native El Paso
After spending seven years immersed in directing What We Leave Behind, an award-winning documentary about her grandfather’s home in Durango in Mexico, El Paso-born filmmaker Iliana Sosa told herself her next film would not be so personal. She intended to work on something lighter and give herself a break from becoming emotionally involved in a project. But then Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright (Going Clear, The Looming Tower) and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused) came calling.
El Grandpa Mexican BBQ Serves an Ancient Style of Barbacoa in Georgetown
Huddled in a rural Georgetown field, a handful of roaming gastronomes are attempting to warm themselves over two sealed brick fire pits arranged in a custom-built trailer. Despite their ability to battle the elements that chilly April morning, it’s what’s inside those 3,000-pound hornos, or ovens, that has turned El Grandpa Mexican BBQ into a viral social media sensation.
Texas’ Only Ice Cream Boat Has Embarked on Lake Conroe
It was a typical blistering hot summer day last year at Lake Conroe Park when the idea came to Ryan and Brittney Stirpe. Sitting southside of the park, the couple, who were engaged at the time, were feeling “woefully unprepared” for the heat and humidity. “We started talking about how great it would be to have ice cream right about now,” Ryan recalls, “and then we’re looking out at the lake and Brittney says, ‘It would be even cooler if an ice cream boat pulled up right now.'”
Mesquite Is the Latest Culinary Darling
Malty, nutty. chocolatey, spicy, or even akin to the scent of a campfire—mesquite is a notoriously tricky flavor to describe. But it’s one worth getting to know, especially if you are one of the many Texans who consider it a “trash” tree. Native to Texas, Prosopis...
The end of a 5-mile hike through McKittrick Canyon reveals the most beautiful spot in Texas
As we hike through desert scrub, the soft, light purple of a madrone tree catches my eye. Its boughs twist out with sculpted elegance. If I were to imagine a unicorn’s horn, the limb of a freshly peeled madrone would do the trick. The last time I was in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas, I was transfixed by the trees’ red bark. But I had forgotten they peel. That was summer; this is late fall. When the bark is new it is white and so smooth it gives the madrone another name: Lady’s Leg. In the spring, the trees bloom with white flowers, and in summer they begin to shed their bark. The glossy leaves carry clusters of red berries, sometimes called manzanitas. Their scientific name, Arbutus unedo, means “strawberry tree.” “This is a tropical plant!” exclaims our guide, Theresa Moore, the park’s acting superintendent and visitor services manager. A tropical plant in the desert.
Texas’ Top Female Pitmasters on the Changing Face of Barbecue
On a Sunday afternoon in mid-November, two forces of barbecue collide in Lexington. In one corner stands 89-year-old Norma Frances “Tootsie” Tomanetz, the renowned pitmaster who’s made Snow’s BBQ a certified institution the world over. Across from her is Chuck Charnichart, 25, Haley Conlin, 31, and Alexis Tovías Morales, 25—a trio of relative newcomers straight out of barbecue’s new school. After learning the ropes at Franklin Barbecue in Austin and Goldee’s in Fort Worth, the three friends launched Barbs-B-Q in Lockhart in 2023. Where Tomanetz has perfected the classics, the women of Barbs are bringing something new to the picnic table: smoky staples forged in a South Texas style, such as molotov pork ribs that crackle with lime zest and “Green Spaghett,” a creamy poblano take on typical mac and cheese. Looking out on the barbecue landscape, it’s mostly a man’s world. So, while these two eateries might have different approaches, the women at the helm have come together to celebrate their respective successes, analyze an evolving industry, and simply revel in the perfect bite of brisket.
On Top of the World at Big Bend National Park
The air is rare at the top of Big Bend National Park, an 800,000-acre expanse of towering mesas and deep river canyons on the U.S.-Mexico border. This Texas Highways archival photograph by Jack Lewis shows a pair of Austinites enjoying one of Big Bend’s most popular features: the South Rim trail through the Chisos Mountains, a 12.6-mile trek that gains 2,000 feet in elevation. Richard Craig (left) sits on a rocky outcropping and peers through a pair of binoculars, taking in the mesmerizing vistas visible from the trail. There’s an astonishing variety of native wildlife to see here, too, including Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer, Mexican jays with electric-blue plumage, and the colima warbler, an extremely rare songbird that can only be found in the Chisos. Craig’s buddy, Kirt Kiester, stands among the rocks and catches his breath under the shade of a bucket hat. That makes sense—this is a hot, hostile environment where temperatures can exceed 110 degrees in the summer. Craig and Kiester’s hike will continue to Emory Peak, the highest elevation in the park, at 7,832 feet. —Christopher Collins.
TexasHighways
1K+
Posts
4M+
Views
Texas Highways is the Official Travel Magazine of Texas, and your ultimate guide for exploring the Lone Star State's people, places, & wide-open spaces.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.