There’s nothing like cool, blue spring water on a Texas summer day.
For many thousands of years, people have been enjoying what’s now called San Solomon Springs, the source of the water in the pool at Balmorhea State Park in Toyahvale. In the early 1930s, the State of Texas acquired the land. The park was constructed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that created jobs, infrastructure, and training opportunities in the wake of the Great Depression.
The pool at Balmorhea reopens this weekend—the anniversary of its initial opening in 1936—after being closed for park construction. Whether in the West Texas desert, the eastern Piney Woods, or the Coastal Bend, numerous historic state parks are open now for summer adventures.
 Cattle Raisers Museum
Bull riding, calf roping, and any number of other competitions known as “rodeo” date back to the 16th century. Rodeo in Texas can trace its roots to the Spanish conquistadors and Spanish-Mexican settlers who introduced both horse and cattle to the southwest.
Local contests became annual events. In fact, this weekend’s West of the Pecos Rodeo is the continuation of the earliest such event on record, dating from 1883. In historic arenas across Texas, visitors can get a taste of this old southwest experience.
Dozens of arrows, 22 feet tall, pierce the landscape of the Panhandle Plains. They commemorate Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanche (Nʉmʉnʉʉ), and the territory called Comanchería where his people lived.
In 2011, residents living in the former Comanchería established the Quanah Parker Trail to interpret the Indigenous history of the region in the days before and during colonial settlement.
Travel the Panhandle to find these arrows and the history they mark. The THC’s related road trip itinerary has additional local destinations:
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