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United States United States canyon rim

Palo Duro Canyon

You can see 12 km from here, looking north.

43Viewyas Score

Canyon rim

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 12 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

43out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 12 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
  • 91%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 867 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are in July and from September to November.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-west58 min before the sea-level sunset54%
  2. Febwest28 min before the sea-level sunset48%
  3. Marwest22 min before the sea-level sunset53%
  4. Aprwest24 min before the sea-level sunset55%
  5. Maywest18 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  6. Junnorth-west16 min before the sea-level sunset59%
  7. Julnorth-west18 min before the sea-level sunset60%
  8. Augwest26 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  9. Sepwest22 min before the sea-level sunset64%
  10. Octwest24 min before the sea-level sunset63%
  11. Novsouth-west50 min before the sea-level sunset62%
  12. Decsouth-west64 min before the sea-level sunset50%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Palo Duro Canyon.

Canyon system in the U.S. state of Texas

Palo Duro Canyon is a canyon rim in United States, 867 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 12 km away, looking north.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 91% of the circle.

The skies are clearest in July and from September to November.

Palo Duro Siwek 10
Danny Siwek · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Tours, cable cars and tickets for Palo Duro CanyonGetYourGuideSee prices Stays with a view near Palo Duro CanyonBooking.comSee prices Car hire at LBB airport (Lubbock)Discover CarsSee prices 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Palo Duro Canyon seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 8other viewpoints within 5 kmCCC Overlook and 7 more
  • 9named peaks within 5 kmBrushy Butte, Capitol Mesa, Capitol Peak and 6 more
  • 18car parks within 3 km
  • 1visitor centres within 5 kmEl Coronado Lodge Visitor Center
  • 6campsites within 10 kmFortress Cliff Campground, Hackberry Campground, Wolfberry Campground and 3 more
  • cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
  • marked trails within 3 km
  • shelters and huts within 5 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • places to stay within 10 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Palo Duro Canyon, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas9 mountains within 25 km
Capitol Peak · 0.9 kmCapitol Mesa · 1.7 kmRed Mesa · 2.3 kmBrushy Butte · 2.8 kmCastle Peak · 2.9 kmTimber Mesa · 3.1 kmGoodnight Peak · 3.4 kmCooley Butte · 5.3 km
Canyonyas1 canyons within 20 km
Palo Duro Canyon · this placePalo Duro Canyon · 2.8 km
Riveryasthe river nearby
Red River2,189 km · 1,900 m³/sBlue RiverLittle RiverNorth Fork Red RiverPease RiverPrairie Dog Town Fork Red River

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Palo Duro Canyon and Capitol Peak
Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Palo Duro Canyon 1
Clinton Steeds from Los Angeles, USA · CC BY 2.0
Capitol Peak Palo Duro
Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1369399) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Canyonyas, Riveryas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are here
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit forestsForestyasEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit