Below the rim road at Palo Duro Canyon, the red walls go dark first, and the juniper turns to silhouette against a West Texas sky that holds its light long after the canyon floor has gone to shadow. Most of the day goes to the trails down there, and to whatever shade the canyon gives up in the afternoon. When the light finally goes, the rig heads back to Amarillo and the same site it has held all week.
Families in a motorhome run the canyon from town because a week of Panhandle summer is easier with a home base that never moves. The air conditioning runs all afternoon, the kids get a pool after a morning on the trails, and nobody breaks camp to see the canyon again tomorrow. In summer the trip shifts inside the state park for a few nights of TEXAS, the outdoor musical played under the canyon wall.
Big Texan RV Ranch and the parks along I-40
Big Texan RV Ranch is the name RVers trade first when the talk turns to Amarillo, and it holds a family for a week as easily as a night. Its premium pull-throughs run 90 feet in total length, with full hookups, there's a heated indoor pool, and sites book through camping.com. Amarillo By Morning RV Park, the other Big Texan park, has full hookups and its own heated indoor pool and books through Campspot.
At that length the Ranch takes anything in the rental listings, which leaves dates as the only thing to settle before reserving the rig. Delivery is listing by listing. Some trailer owners will tow to the park and set up on your site, and the listing says whether that one does.
When both are full, Amarillo RV Resort has 90-foot pull-throughs and full hookups right off I-40, near both Cadillac Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon. Fort Amarillo RV Resort is the other fallback, out on Historic Route 66 with full hookups and pull-throughs. A night on either side of town is the easy way to fit in Cadillac Ranch, the row of old Cadillacs buried nose-down in a field and coated in whatever spray paint the last carload brought.
Caprock Canyons State Park and Lake Meredith National Recreation Area make longer days out from the same site, and the overnights at both are on the Amarillo campervan page. For RV weeks elsewhere in the state, from the Hill Country to the coast, start with the Texas RV page.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park and the TEXAS musical
Summer nights inside the canyon belong to TEXAS, the outdoor musical that plays Tuesday through Sunday at the Pioneer Amphitheater with the canyon wall behind the stage. The evening starts with barbecue on the covered patio and ends in singing and fireworks against the rock, and staying for the finale is easier when the rig is already parked in the canyon for the night.
Sagebrush is the loop closest to the play. It and Mesquite carry water and 50-amp electric, with some sites holding RVs up to 60 feet as of September 2026, and in canyon summer heat that power is what keeps the air conditioning running through the afternoon. Two people who would rather sleep small near the Lighthouse Rock trail can size down, and that trip is on the Amarillo campervan page.
Summer is also the park's busy season, and Texas Parks and Wildlife says it often reaches capacity. The families coming for the show are after the same loops and the same rental rigs as everyone else's summer week, so reserve the canyon site first, choose a rig that fits it, and build the town nights around those dates.