The Texas Panhandle is just a blank canvas on which God paints a new masterpiece every day.
Growing up in Arlington, Texas, I thought beauty meant the cool grey shade of a post oak tree, the relentless green of St. Augustine grass, the mossy blue of the Brazos River at Granbury where I attended summer camp, and the bright fuschia of the ubiquitous crepe myrtle trees lining every road in the area.
But the Texas Panhandle, where I have lived since 1987, features more earthy tones. After some years of reluctant adjustment, I can now find beauty in the reds and ochre of the Spanish Skirts along Hwy. 207, the pale yellow grasses growing along the fence lines of every farm, the dark rust mud of the Canadian River, and the unending brilliant blue skies covering it all.
Yes, the Panhandle is flat. And that was an adjustment from the more interesting topography around DFW. But this part of Texas has unmatched sunrises and sunsets. There is no adequate word for the spectacular beauty of those morning and evening skies. And in between the dusk and the dawn, millions of stars shine down on me whenever I get a few miles from the cities.
Of course, Palo Duro Canyon is probably our most breathtaking site in the Texas Panhandle, and so I never get tired of exploring and photographing its beauty. Here is a gallery of recent pictures of PDC.
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