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 T

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 Ben

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. Ori

Don your Wranglers and cowboy boots: It’s time for a cattle drive! The quintessential experience at the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District is the Fort Worth Herd cattle drive, where authentic cowhands drive a herd of Texas longhorns dow

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. Inst

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 intende

I stare at the waves from the Pleasure Pier boardwalk, whose glittering Ferris wheel makes a quirky beachside town in Texas look a bit like Santa Monica, California. Galveston’s low-key surf is often described as “crumbly,” which sounds like a cookie

The second-largest canyon in the U.S., Palo Duro Canyon State Park is an outdoor lover’s dream. Clocking in at 120 miles long and 800 feet deep, the canyon—part of the Caprock Escarpment near Amarillo—has 15,000 acres of trails to hike, bike, and exp

Letters from the archive Your September travel issue precipitated a trip to West Texas that we had considered for some time. We covered more than 1,000 miles, from San Antonio to the Basin in Big Bend. The trip to McDonald Observatory and the scenic

The Texas State Railroad carries passengers on a leisurely round trip between the East Texas towns of Palestine and Rusk. The rail line was built in the early 1900s to transport iron from the Rusk state penitentiary’s foundry, but since the 1970s the

The 2-mile Scenic Drive along Rim Road is an El Paso special. Local photographer Christ Chávez snapped this shot of Murchison Rogers Park, a small overlook at the southern tip of the Franklin Mountains, in March during the golden hour. “Scenic Drive

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 he

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 i

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

Photographer Sean Fitzgerald is no stranger to far West Texas’ McKittrick Canyon, where he shot “A Notch Above” (Page 64). “The first time I visited was when I was dating my wife,” the Dallas-based photographer says. “We did a huge multiday hike. We

◦ Buc-ee’s◦ Cowboy boots◦ Fort Worth Stockyards◦ Houston Rodeo◦ Mechanical bull◦ Pleasure Pier◦ Rainbow Bridge◦ Rivals football game◦ River Walk◦ Small town◦ Texarkana◦ Texas pronunciations◦ Whataburger ◦ Boogie Woogie Highway◦ Henry Trost architectu

“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 delic

Like a scene out of Pirates of the Caribbean, a rabble chants, “Walk the plank! Walk the plank!” as Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo accepts her fate and plunges from an anchored pirate ship into the bay. And with the annual “Dunking of the May

Head to the undisputed Barbecue Capital of Texas early on a Saturday, when all of Lockhart’s destination joints are slinging smoked meats at full capacity. Start your tour at Black’s Barbecue, where fall-apart beef ribs pair perfectly with spiced Mex

Twenty world-class cultural institutions make up 9 square miles of the extraordinary Museum District in Houston and feature impressive exhibits that cover fine arts, natural science, photography, and more. “All of the museums are very welcoming for t

“The Star-Spangled Banner” has barely finished playing before a rock buggy skids down a giant boulder, over-corrects, then crashes sideways. The sight is startling, but it’s common at the Texas Top Gun Shootout, a rock-crawling competition held annua

When I was in elementary school and we lived in Colorado, I spent three consecutive summers in Juárez, Mexico. Since my parents worked, there was no one to watch me. So, when school let out, my parents drove nine hours to El Paso, then across the bor

In the early 1990s, Nancy Wrenn drove her minivan around Tyler with the back seats pulled out to accommodate a 3D mock-up on a 4-by-8-foot platform of what would eventually become the Discovery Science Place. The model demonstrated her vision for a p

A vacant lot just south of downtown Dallas is all that’s left of one of the most influential regional professional wrestling companies in America—the arguable birthplace of mainstream wrestling as we know it today. That lot once housed the iconic Spo