The 11 Strangest Roadside Attractions in Texas

The Ultimate Texas Road Trip Stops

Texas has some of America’s best road trip routes – historic Route 66 in the Panhandle, winding roads through Hill Country, and coastal drives along the Gulf. These roads are packed with weird and wonderful stops that show off Texas’s big personality.

In a state known for doing everything bigger, the roadside attractions definitely deliver with unexpected art, history, and pure Texas weirdness.

Cadillac Ranch – I-40/Historic Route 66

• Address: I-40 Frontage Road, Amarillo, TX 

Ten Cadillacs stick out of the ground along Route 66, buried nose-first at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Art group The Ant Farm and rich guy Stanley Marsh III set them up in 1974 to confuse locals and show off the evolution of Cadillac tailfins.

The cars started out in their factory colors but quickly became a canvas for visitors who started adding their own artwork. Even though they had to move the whole thing in 1997 to escape Amarillo’s growing city limits, it’s still one of the most photographed spots on Route 66.

Cathedral of Junk, Austin – I-35, South 1st

• Address: 4422 Lareina Drive, Austin, TX 78745 

The three-story maze includes bikes, typewriters, doll heads, kitchen appliances, and more, all connected by walkways, stairs, and rooms with high ceilings. Vince Hannemann started building it in 1988 when he was in his twenties, and now it holds over 60 tons of unwanted items.

Big Texan Steak Ranch, Amarillo – I-40

• Address: 7701 E I-40, Amarillo, TX 79118

You can spot the bright yellow building with blue trim and a giant bull statue from a mile away on I-40. R.J. “Bob” Lee opened The Big Texan Steak Ranch in 1960 on Route 66, and it’s now world-famous for its 72-ounce steak challenge.

The challenge started when Lee watched cowboys from nearby stockyards competing to eat the most steaks. Now, if you can eat a 72-ounce steak with shrimp cocktail, salad, potato, and roll in one hour, it’s free.

Almost 140,000 people have tried, and over 9,000 succeeded. The restaurant seats 650 people, and three-quarters of customers are tourists.

In 2025, they added “Slug Bug Ranch,” with painted VW Beetles buried nose-first, inspired by Cadillac Ranch. Look for their white Cadillac stretch limos with longhorn hood ornaments that inspired a character in the movie “Cars.”

Beer Can House, Houston – I-10

• Address: 222 Malone Street, Houston, TX 77007
• Fees: Adults $5, Kids and seniors $3

Before 1968, this was just a regular house until John Milkovisch, a retired railroad worker, started his odd home improvement project.

Over 18 years, he flattened and attached more than 50,000 beer cans to the outside of his home. He mostly used Budweiser, Texas Pride, and Shiner cans, his personal favorites.

Beyond covering the walls, he made curtains from pull-tabs and wind chimes from can tops that actually helped lower his energy bills. The yard features concrete with embedded marbles that create colorful patterns in sunlight.

World’s Largest Cowboy Boots, San Antonio – Loop 410

• Address: 7400 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78216

You can’t miss the giant cowboy boots standing outside North Star Mall. Artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade built these 35-foot-tall boots in 1979, and they’ve become one of San Antonio’s most recognizable landmarks.

The boots were first made for an art show in Washington, DC before the mall bought them in 1980 and hauled them to Texas on flatbed trucks. Each boot weighs over 7 tons and is built with steel frames covered in fiberglass and foam.

They officially earned the Guinness World Record in 2016, beating out a pair in Seattle. During Christmas, they light up with twinkling lights you can see from the highway.

Eiffel Tower with Cowboy Hat, Paris – US Highway 82

• Address: 2025 Jefferson Road, Paris, TX 75460

When your town shares its name with the City of Light, you need to stand out somehow. Paris, Texas solved this problem by building their own 65-foot Eiffel Tower in 1993, topped with a giant red cowboy hat to make it uniquely Texan.

Local ironworkers built the structure, which stands about 1/15 the size of the real Parisian tower. This wasn’t actually the town’s first try—an earlier, smaller version from 1984 got damaged by a tornado. They completely renovated it in 2013 with fresh paint and better lighting.

At night, the tower lights up with the colors of the Texas flag, creating a patriotic display you can see from most of town.

Stonehenge II, Ingram – Highway 27

• Address: 120 Point Theatre Road South, Ingram, TX 78025

The Texas Hill Country seems like an odd place to find an ancient British monument, yet here we are. Artists Al Shepperd and Doug Hill created this replica in the early 1990s at two-thirds the size of the prehistoric original.

It all started when Hill gave Shepperd a large limestone slab, which sparked the idea to recreate the famous circle. Unlike the real Stonehenge with massive stones weighing tons each, this version uses concrete over wire mesh and steel frames, painted to look like weathered stone.

The monument first stood on Shepperd’s property but moved to the Hill Country Arts Foundation in 2010 after he died. The site also includes two Easter Island head replicas that Shepperd added later. Like the original, the stone positions line up with seasonal sunrises and sunsets.

Glass Bathrooms, Sulphur Springs – Highway 154

• Address: 100 Connally Street, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482

Probably the weirdest public restrooms in America sit right on the town square. These working bathrooms are made entirely of one-way mirrored glass, so you can see out while nobody sees in.

Built in 2012 for $54,000, these unusual facilities were inspired by an art installation in London called “Don’t Miss a Sec.” While inside, you get a full view of people walking by and often the funny sight of tourists taking photos of the bathrooms, not knowing someone might be watching them.

Dinosaur Valley, Glen Rose – US Highway 67

• Address: 1629 Park Road 59, Glen Rose, TX 76043

This state park has real dinosaur footprints preserved in limestone from about 113 million years ago. At the park entrance, you’ll see huge fiberglass dinosaur statues built for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

The 70-foot T-Rex and 70-foot Brontosaurus were made by sculptor Claude Bell and given to the park after the fair ended. These colorful sculptures have become roadside landmarks visible from the highway.

Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center, Langtry – US Highway 90

• Address: 119 West Loop 25, Langtry, TX 78871

This historic site keeps the Jersey Lilly Saloon just as it was when the infamous Judge Roy Bean handed out frontier justice west of the Pecos River in the late 1800s.

Bean called himself “The Law West of the Pecos” and ran his combination saloon and courtroom from this small building. He was known for strange rulings, like fining dead men in his court and letting a man go free who killed a Chinese worker because his law book “didn’t say anything about killing a Chinaman.”

You can see his original bar where trials took place and the chair where he made his judgments. Despite his controversial reputation, Bean helped bring order to a lawless area and became a folk hero later shown in movies and TV.