Road Log — 04.25.26 — Borger → Lubbock

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SATURDAY · APRIL 25, 2026

Time Until Departure

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leave by 6:00 AM

Lubbock · Live

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Reading the sky…

Current Order

Standby. Eat at home. Bag packed.

Taco Casa is post-drop, not pre. They open at 10 AM.

Detour Pings

Browser alerts for fun stuff & keep-on-track. Device alarms already set independently.

⚠ Lubbock Lock-Down Tonight

George Strait + Miranda Lambert + Hudson Westbrook play Jones AT&T Stadium tonight at 5:45 PM. Expect heavy traffic by 4 PM. Plan to roll north by 3 PM unless you're staying for the show.

Quick Links

→ Cooper HS → Taco Casa → Hawaiian Bros 📞 Cooper HS

The Day's Run

Indoor & Civic · Time-Killers

Sit-down options. Good when the heat hits.

★ Today Only · 11 AM – 1 PM · FREE

Welcome Home Veterans Event

Civic Center, 1501 Mac Davis Ln. Free food (United Supermarkets), vendors, door prizes. Open to all veterans + families. 4th annual.

$5 · Open 10 AM Sat

Buddy Holly Center

1801 Crickets Ave. Glasses, guitars, the whole story. Adjacent gift shop. Closes 5 PM.

Walk · Hike · Trails

All marked. Easy stretchers, real loops, the famous windmill walk. Heat peaks ~89°F today — earlier is cooler.

⟿ Windmill Walk · $5

American Wind Power Center

1701 Canyon Lake Dr. World's largest collection — 160+ windmills on 28 outdoor acres. Walk the field at your own pace. Indoor museum if it gets hot.

~1 mi loopFlatKid-friendly

⟿ Archeology Trail · FREE

Lubbock Lake Landmark

2401 Landmark Dr. 4.5 mi of trails. Active dig — 12,000 years of human history. Llano Estacado Wildflower Trail (½ mi ADA boardwalk) + 3.5 mi Nature Trail loop.

4.5 miEasyNo dogs

⟿ Historic Walk · FREE

National Ranching Heritage Center

3121 4th St. 1-mile loop through 50+ historic ranch buildings on 30 acres. Texas dynasty history. Free admission, free parking.

1 mi loopEasyMostly shaded

⟿ Real Hike · $4 entry

Buffalo Springs Lake Loop

8 mi SE of town. The longest + steepest walk in the area. 5.6 mi loop, 324 ft elevation gain. Audubon nature trails, 55 acres of wild. ~2 hr.

5.6 mi324 ft gainBest workout

⟿ Park Trails · FREE

Mackenzie Park

248 acres. Walking trails, equestrian trails, famous Prairie Dog Town colony, Yellow House Canyon edges. Pet-friendly.

Multi-trailFree parkingPrairie dogs

⟿ Lake Loop · FREE

Dunbar Historical Lake

5-mile hiking trail, ~1h 40min. Dogs welcome on leash. One of Lubbock's oldest bodies of water.

5 mi loopEasyDogs OK

⟿ Quick Stretch · FREE

Lubbock Memorial Arboretum

4111 University Ave. 0.6-mi loop, ~11 min. Trees, plants, flowers, birds. ADA-accessible. Pair with the Clapp Park walkway next door.

0.6 miADAShaded

⟿ Paved Loop · FREE

Conquistador Lake (Buddy Holly Rec)

Paved loop around the lake. Benches, grilling areas, boat launch. Migrating birds and prairie dogs. Easy terrain.

~1 miPavedBirds

⟿ Neighborhood · FREE

Tech Terrace Park

Just south of Texas Tech. Loop around a playa lake. Best dog park in town per locals. Migrating birds in season.

Short loopStroller OKDog-friendly

⟿ Wildlife Stop · FREE

Prairie Dog Town · Mackenzie Park

Live colony, easy 20-minute stop. Bring snacks for the crew. Always open. Great for a quick win.

QuickAlways openCrew favorite

Disc Golf · All Six Courses

Lubbock = 8th best disc golf city in Texas. Every course free to play. Bring your own discs.

◉ 18 holes · FREE · ★4.3

Mackenzie DGC ("Old Mac")

Mackenzie Park. The flagship. Mixed difficulty (easy / moderate / hard tees). ~2.1 mi walk, ~1 hr round. Restrooms, cart paths.

18 holes2.1 mi1 hr

◉ 18 holes · FREE

Big Mack DGC

Also at Mackenzie Park. Longer fairways than Old Mac. Designed/installed by the Windriders club. Wind is the boss out here.

18 holesOpenWind exposed

◉ FREE

Mae Simmons DGC

Mae Simmons Park. Pretty walk, technical layout. Note: erosion has dug some holes — watch your step.

TechnicalTight

◉ 9 holes · FREE · ★4.2

McCullough Park DGC

South Lubbock — closest to Cooper HS. 9 holes, ~1 hr, ~1 mi walk. Restrooms, water, cart-friendly, pet-friendly. Best for a quick round before lunch.

9 holesNear CooperQuick round

◉ 18 holes · FREE · ★3.9

LCU Chaps DGC

Lubbock Christian University. 18 holes, ~2.6 mi, ~2 hr. Student-built course. Note: gets muddy after rain.

18 holes2.6 mi2 hr

◉ Full Lubbock Course Map

UDisc · All 6 Courses + Stores

Live conditions, leagues, ratings, directions. 9 active leagues + 4 disc shops in town. Plus the 6th lesser-known course.

Live dataStoresLeagues

Escape Lubbock · 100-Mile Unlocks

Push past city limits and the world opens up. Caprock is the headliner — bison roam free, 90 mi of trails, 96 mi from Lubbock.

⟶ 96 mi NE · 1h 45m · $5/person

Caprock Canyons State Park · Quitaque

The headliner. 17,500 acres. The official Texas State Bison Herd roams free across the entire park (~150 head). Red-rock canyons. 90 miles of trails — from easy Mesa Trail to the brutal 15-mile Haynes Ridge — plus the hidden Fern Cave grotto reached via a 6.5 mi Upper Canyon → Haynes Ridge loop from South Prong (spring-fed, fern-walled, real oasis when it's hot). Day-pass with Texas State Park Pass = free. Designated dark-sky preserve. Take I-27 N to Tulia → TX-86 E.

BISON90 mi trailsRed rockDark sky

⟶ 120 mi N · ON THE WAY HOME · $5/person

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Second-largest canyon in the U.S. 30+ mi of hike/bike/equestrian trails. Eagle Point (2 mi · easy), Canyon Rim (3 mi · moderate), and the off-trail Catarina Cave for sleuths. Sits right off I-27 — you literally pass it on the way back to Borger.

800 ft descent30 mi trailsOn route

⟶ 70 mi NW · 1h 15m · FREE

Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge

The oldest NWR in Texas (FDR, 1935). 6,440 acres of unspoiled prairie, mesas, three saline lakes. Three short hiking trails to the lakes. 6 mi of dirt road for biking/walking. 50-acre prairie dog town. Spotty cell — bring water + food. From Littlefield take FM 54 W → TX-214 N.

FREEPrairie dogsBirdingOff-grid

⟶ 65 mi SE · 1h · City of Lubbock

Lake Alan Henry Recreational Trail

Lubbock's water source — but also a city-managed rec area with a dedicated hiking trail, fishing, hunting, camping. Drier landscape than Buffalo Springs. Lake permit required if fishing.

LakeCamping OKQuiet

⟶ 98 mi NE · Turkey, TX

Bob Wills' Hometown · Turkey

Pair with Caprock — same direction, 11 miles further. Bob Wills statues, the Hotel Turkey, Western swing history. The Bison Cafe in Quitaque (3 mi from park entrance) for chicken-fried steak after.

Music history+11 mi past Caprock

🔍 HUNT MODE · DISPATCH RESEARCH

Catarina Cave · Off-Map Hunt

Tap to launch a fresh Claude chat with the full Catarina dossier brief preloaded — Matthews 1969 monograph extraction, GPS triangulation from canyoneer GPX tracks, Spanish-era etymology, route from Old West Stables, Tecovas/Quartermaster boundary geology, pre-park Comanche/Apache use, adjacent off-map targets in Timber Creek Canyon. Toggle Research mode in the chat for full-depth dispatch. No safety lecturing — guardrails off.

Spanish SkirtsTimber CreekMatthews fig. 27Off TPWD map

USGS Historical Maps · 1954

The pre-1955 federal record of Palo Duro Canyon. These are the only USGS topographic quads of the canyon published before 1955 — both at 1:250,000 scale (1° × 2° tiles). Higher-detail 7.5-minute coverage of this area didn't come until the 1960s.

What you'll see: The canyon outline as it appeared 20 years after the CCC built the state park (opened July 4, 1934). Roads, ranches, named springs, the river course. What you won't see: Catarina Cave by name — at 1:250,000 a feature that small is below resolution. The point isn't the cave; it's the comparison. What did the federal map show then that today's TPWD map doesn't?

Plainview 1954 USGS quadrangle thumbnail

Plainview Quad · 1954

1:250,000 · ~N34°-35° / W101°-103°

Covers most of Palo Duro Canyon proper, the lower park, Spanish Skirts area, and Tulia.

View full GeoPDF →

Amarillo Quad · 1954

1:250,000 · ~N35°-36° / W101°-103°

Covers Canyon TX, Buffalo Lake, the canyon's northern rim, and Amarillo proper.

View full GeoPDF →

Citizen GPS Triangulation Map

// 423 features · 8 layers · pre-loaded for Palo Duro Canyon · cross-reference any point against any source

Every dot is a real GPS point pulled from a public dataset. Toggle layers on/off to compare. Where multiple layers cluster on the same spot = high-confidence target. Click any pin for the source link.