Palo Duro Canyon , twelve miles east of Canyon and twenty miles southeast of Amarillo, is one of Texas's best-kept secrets. Plunging 1000 feet from rim to floor, it splits the plains wide open and offers breathtaking views and colors, especially at sunset and in spring, when the whole chasm is scattered with wild flowers. Pillars of sturdy sandstone loom over the flame-colored rocks, which Coronado's explorers named "Spanish Skirts" on account of their resemblance to stripy flounces.

The park itself is located in the most scenic part of the 130-mile canyon (park daily 8am-10pm, visitor center and interpretive center daily 9am-5pm; $3 per person). You can explore the depths on horseback ($12 per hour; reservations tel 806/488-2180), though backpackers and hikers may want to escape the tourist busloads by following the Prairie Dog Town fork into more remote sections of the park. To camp , advance reservations are recommended (tel 806/488-2227).

You may balk at heart-warming musical spectaculars, but the outdoor production TEXAS has an undeniable pull in an area not exactly throbbing with nightlife, with the dramatic prairie sky as a ceiling, a 600ft cliff as a backdrop, and genuine thunder and lightning (mid-June to late Aug Thurs-Tues 8.30pm; $8-23; pre-show chuckwagon barbecue 6pm; tel 806/655-2181, ).

Palo Duro State Canyon Park

• Palo Duro State Canyon Park

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