If you are heading out on I-40 going through Amarillo, then I would take the 30 minute detour to see the Cadillac Ranch. It is a collection of Cadillac cars that were buried in the ground in 1974 to showcase the tail fins of the iconic Cadillac. Now the cars are painted over with hundreds of thousands of layers of spray paint. The ranch is just off of I-40 and easy to get to on the service road. You will be able to see the cars parked on either side of the service road, the spray paint on everything or the cars sitting on the South side of the road. When I say spray paint on everything it is everything! The dumpster, concrete highway barrier, asphalt, dirt, the wheat the farmer has planted, the fence, gate and anything else someone can put spray paint on it is covered. Once you park on the side of the service road you will need to walk through a gate which prevents motorized vehicles from coming onto the property. Inside the fence line is a vendor selling spray paint in case you have forgotten your paint but Home Depot/Walmart/Lowes will have less expensive paint if you really want to paint the cars. There was even a vendor when I arrived at the ranch who was selling jewelry made from flakes of paint that was taken off/fell off of the cars if you want to keep some for eternity. I have to say that it was a cool stop but not worth making the single trip to Amarillo for the 30 minutes of time at the ranch.
When you are driving into Amarillo on the north side of I-40 there is a park that has other vehicles parked in the dirt just like Cadillac Ranch. These cars are painted as well and range from bugs, to the Cadillac. The Cadillacs are put in trunk first so you can see the top and someone placed long horns on the hoods of these cars. The painting of these cars is not as heavy as at the ranch but it has a good amount on them. Again, if you are heading on I-40 then the few minutes to get to this area is worth it.
If you see on the dates, I did go to the ranch two separate times as I wanted to get some shots of the entire ranch of Cadillacs without people in the shot and I spent about 4 hours in total at the ranch and was not able to accomplish the photo I had wanted but oh well it was still fun to see. It is a poor man’s Wynwood Walls, in Miami, FL.
