Sweetwater, Snyder & the Upper Colorado

The Colorado River of Texas begins as draws on the plains of Dawson and Borden counties and runs southeast through red hills, cotton farms and some of the largest wind farms in the nation. Interstate 20 and the Texas and Pacific line follow it through Colorado City, a cattle and railroad town of the 1880s, and on to Sweetwater. Lake Colorado City State Park offers camping south of Colorado City.

At Avenger Field in Sweetwater, the Women Airforce Service Pilots trained during World War II, and more than a thousand women earned their wings there. The National WASP WWII Museum tells their story in one of the field's hangars. Sweetwater is also known for its rattlesnake roundup each March.

North of the interstate, Snyder grew from a buffalo hunters' trading post that Pete Snyder opened in 1878. The Scurry County oil discovery of 1948 brought a boom, and the Scurry County Museum in Snyder tells of both. Beyond are Kent and Stonewall counties, with Double Mountain on the horizon.

To the south, Fort Chadbourne was set up in 1852 on Oak Creek in Coke County, and the Butterfield mail made it a station in 1858. The fort's ruins stand on a family ranch that has restored them for visitors. Farther south, Ballinger and Robert Lee are farm and ranch towns on the Colorado and its reservoirs.

What to See in Sweetwater, Snyder & the Upper Colorado

8 places across the region, grouped by what they are.

Sweetwater, Snyder & the Upper Colorado rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.