The Big Texan Steak Ranch: Amarillo, Texas
Found right off the highway in Amarillo, the Big Texan Steak Ranch is one of those popular Route 66 attractions that’s impossible to miss. It’s bright yellow and decorated with everything from a cow statue, windmills, and a dinosaur statue to cars decorated with longhorns.
The Big Texan Steak Ranch has been a hot spot since 1960. In other words, it has been a main attraction for road trippers for years. This restaurant is best known for its 72oz steak challenge.
If you accept the challenge, you’ll need to attempt to eat an entire 72 oz steak and a shrimp cocktail, roll with butter, salad, and baked potato in an hour or less. Succeed, and the gut-busting meal is free. Fail, and you’ll need to pay $72.
If food challenges aren’t your thing, the food joint serves up plenty of human-sized cuts of meat and other Texan specialties like chicken fried steak.
As one of the most quirky things to see and do in Amarillo, a visit to the Big Texan Steak Ranch, at least for photos out front, is a must-see when road-tripping through the US.
On a different note, if you’re already in Amarillo, you should include the Cadillac Ranch in your travel plans. This iconic stop consists of 10 spray-painted Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 buried nose-down in the desert.
Created in 1974, the Cadillac Ranch was a pet project of three buddies who got the idea of creating this unique installation after reading a children’s book.
6 thoughts on “Route 66: 8 Incredible Sights You Can’t Miss”
You missed the Wigwams in Holbrook,Az. And Meteor Crater out of Winslow.
Very interesting, and well worth the time and detours, to see some of older historic America.
ive been on every mile of old route 66 as my family moved to california from northern indiana well before I55 on I40 were started
I traveled Route 66 every summer of my life from age 12 (1949) with my Mom, Viola, and brother Tom Roberts and our dog Bootsie. We slept in inexpensive motels and an old hotel in Albuquerque, price $10 per night! What a great learning experience for us all!! We had a great fun 3 month trip, stayed in Los Cruses at the bottom of New Mexico, drove up to Santa Fe and stayed in Adobe huts. We called my Dad everynight to tell him where we landed.
We went to Indian festivals and had some very interesting experiences. One day we visited a Pueblo reservation, many Indians lived there. My Mom pointed her little Brownie Hawkeye at the old Indian chief to take his picture and he started chasing us, yelling at all the other Indians to chase us. We RAN for our 1949 Pontiac!! jumped in and took off. We found out he thought the camera would steal his soul! He was probably born in the 1890’s!
We drove over that bridge in our 1949 Pontiac, in 1949! We drove Route 66 every summer for 4 years. What fabulous memories.
My mom, grandma, sister and I traveled route 66 from Chicago to Monrovia, CA in 1943 when my dad was in the Army, stationed at Santa Anita race track in Pasadena, at that time an Army supply depot. My fondest memories of that trip are of lunches in little Route 66 cafes, where I would always eat a hamburger, along with a chocolate milk shake. Great memories still (at 87).