Amarillo Off the Beaten Path Tips by brdwtchr

The Don Harrington Discovery Center is a great place for kids and those adults who are young at heart. My wife and I went there a few years ago when they were having an exhibit about Dinosaurs with life size animated dinosaurs. It was a lot of fun but I believe that the dinosaur exhibit has moved on to a new museum now. Even so there is a lot to see and do. There are some neat hands on science exhibits there and an aquarium. The Discovery Center is located at 1200 Streit Drive.

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The Amarillo Livestock Auction is world famous and happens every Tuesday. You don't have to be a cattle buyer to enjoy a few minutes of listening to the auctioneers. In my opinion the greatest auctioneer they have ever had there is my uncle, Jack Howell. The auction is at 100 Manhattan close to the railroad and cattle pens. They have a nice place to eat there as well. A cattle auction may not sound like some thing for tourists but you might find it more interesting than you realize.

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Many of the places to see in Amarillo are closed on Mondays. The Amarillo Zoo is one of them. If you are planning to spend time in Amarillo suggest you come on Tuesday to start your visit. The zoo is a not large but it is free and is in Thompson Park. Thompson Park is on highway 287. During Summer months there is an amusement park and putt putt golf course there as well as the zoo.

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I like to go bird watching a little bit. One place to go bird watching is Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge about 30 miles south east from Amarillo near Umbarger, TX on US 60. I saw a prairie dog town, deer, wild turkeys, and quite a few species of birds there.
One thing I did not see was Buffalo lake. The lake was almost dried up when I was there because the water table had dropped. There are also a number of playa lakes visible from the highways that will often have waterfowl around them if there has been enough rain to fill them up.
In Texas there are signs like this all over the state to indicate good areas for viewing wildlife.

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The Helium Monument looks like a kind of statue made of tall polished pipes six stories tall. I did not understand the purpose of it at first. It is located near a place we parked our car to visit the Discovery Center. I thought the monument was to pay a tribute to a time when helium was an important resource in this part of Texas. I was wrong about that. The monument is a giant time capsule. It is filled with things that are preserved inside of it to be opened by the citizens of Amarillo many years in the future. I wonder what they will find inside of it? Wonder what they will think when they open it?

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