Giants and Sanitariums Across Texas
El Paso to Beaumont the long way, taking in Cadillac Ranch, a fifteen-foot pair of cowboy boots, and a string of historical markers where hospitals used to be.
9 stops · 4 days · Texas · roughly 1265 miles point to point
See the whole route and everything odd beside it
OddWay draws your route first, then plots every stop that falls inside the detour you're willing to make. No hunting through a list to work out what is actually on the way.
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Every one of the 9 places in the index. Plan a route and the map narrows to what's actually near it.
Texas is wide enough that a route across it is a commitment rather than a weekend, and this one runs the full width — roughly nine hundred miles from the mountains at El Paso to the Gulf coast plain.
West Texas
A gravity hill on Thunderbird Drive to start, then the long empty run to Amarillo and Cadillac Ranch — ten Cadillacs nose-down in a field since 1974, buried at the angle of the Great Pyramid, and repainted by visitors constantly. Bring spray paint; that is the point of it and always has been.
The sanitarium markers
Odessa and Post both carry Texas historical markers where sanitariums once stood. These are signs, not buildings — the hospitals are long gone.
They are worth stopping for anyway, because they mark something specific: the early twentieth century belief that dry West Texas air could treat tuberculosis, which brought a great many people out here to die a long way from home. The markers are the only thing left of that.
Then the giants
Bowie has the knife. Lampasas has the spur. San Antonio has the Justin boots — forty feet of them, outside a shopping centre, and genuinely enormous in person. Seguin has the pecan, which was the world's largest until other towns started competing.
Finish near Austin
J. Lorraine is a purpose-built ghost town near Manor, which sounds like a contradiction and mostly works. Check opening days before driving out.
Practical
Four days, and that is not padded. West Texas distances are real and the towns are far apart — fuel when you can rather than when you need to.
Everything here except J. Lorraine is free and outdoors.
The Route
Thunderbird Drive Gravity Hill
El Paso, Texas
Stop on Thunderbird Drive, facing south, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Cadillac Ranch
Amarillo, Texas
The Ant Farm art collective created Cadillac Ranch in 1974 for Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, burying ten Cadillacs nose-first in a field at matching angles. The installation was moved west in 1997 as Amarillo expanded, and today it remains free to visit, with travelers walking out into the field and commonly adding their own spray paint.
Site of The Odessa Sanitarium
Odessa, Texas
A Texas historical marker in downtown Odessa identifies the former site of an early sanitarium that opened in the 1880s and later became part of the city's civic history. The sanitarium no longer survives as an attraction, so this is a roadside plaque stop rather than a building visitors can enter.
Old Post Sanitarium
Post, Texas
The Old Post Sanitarium marker documents the early hospital established in Post in the 1910s and the development of organized medical care in the area. OddWay visitors are primarily stopping for the roadside historical plaque and exterior historic setting rather than a haunted-hospital experience.
World's Largest Bowie Knife
Bowie, Texas
Bowie’s enormous steel knife was created as a civic landmark and earned Guinness recognition in April 2016. The 20-foot sculpture remains at the south entrance to town as a free roadside photo stop celebrating both the city name and the famous Bowie knife.
World's Largest Spur
Lampasas, Texas
Lampasas’ giant spur was forged by ironsmith Waylon Dobbs for local businesswoman Leah Caruthers and installed on March 14, 2016. The roughly 35-foot steel, copper and iron sculpture earned Guinness recognition and remains visible from U.S. 281 with parking available for photos.
The Giant Justins
San Antonio, Texas
These are Bob “Daddy-O” Wade’s “The Giant Justins,” created in 1979 for the Washington Project for the Arts. The 40-foot boots moved permanently to North Star Mall in San Antonio in 1980, where they remain an easy exterior photo stop and one of the city’s best-known pieces of oversized public art.
Seguin Giant Pecan
Seguin, Texas
The giant pecan associated with this record is at the Texas Agricultural Education & Heritage Center in Seguin, not Geronimo. Seguin unveiled the 16-foot-long fiberglass pecan in 2011 to regain a “world’s largest” title, although a still larger Texas pecan surpassed it in 2025; travelers can see the monument on the Big Red Barn grounds during public access.
J Lorraine, Texas Ghost Town
Manor, Texas
J. Lorraine Ghost Town is a recreated Old West roadside attraction outside Austin, built with western storefronts, props and rustic structures meant to evoke a fictional frontier settlement. It is a playful man-made ghost town rather than an authentically abandoned community, with access depending on the property's posted hours and events.