6 Best Sights in Marfa, West Texas and the Panhandle

With one of the largest permanent installations of contemporary art in the world, the Chinati Foundation displays works by American minimalist Donald Judd and others in buildings spread over 340 acres of the former Ft. D. A. Russell. The Judd collection includes 15 concrete works outdoors, plus 100 aluminum pieces housed in two converted artillery sheds. You'll also see 25 sculptures by John Chamberlain and an installation by Dan Flavin that occupies six former army barracks. The museum's comprehensive guided tours require a significant commitment of time—six hours, including a two-hour break for lunch—and energy to walk up to 1½ miles over uneven terrain. While self-guided tours are always an option, space on the guided tours is limited.

The town may be three hours from the nearest commercial airport, but Ballroom Marfa is smack-dab in the middle of the world of contemporary art—visual arts, film, music, and performance. As the name implies, the gallery was converted from a 1927 former dance hall, and it has 4,500 square feet of indoor exhibition space and 6,000 square feet of courtyard. The intellectual impact generated from Ballroom events like Marfa Dialogues has garnered interest from institutions in major cities of the world. This is a heady place with a mission to provide a platform for expressions that may not find a home in more traditional gallery or museum settings.

While you won't get served coffee or wine here, you will find a tribe of Mabookco (Marfa Book Company) groupies who like to hang inside this publishing house–art gallery and film, music, and performance space that effectively masquerades as a bookshop. As you might expect, this literary collection focuses on art, architecture, design, and poetry, but you can also find a little something for the grandchildren and a few magazines to read on the flight back home.

Every town has its legends, and Marfa is no exception: if you come here, you must go see the Marfa Lights—visible most often 9 miles east of town from a roadside park built especially for this purpose by the Texas Department of Transportation. Called by a variety of names—including "night mirages" and "chemical plasma lights"—the phenomenon, although rare, has been seen often enough that the Marfa chamber of commerce gives directions to the site near Mitchell Flat. Even if you don't see the Marfa Lights, you'll be in a prime spot for spectacular stargazing.

This installation of roadside art designed to resemble an actual Prada store is one of the most Instagrammed sights in all of Texas for creativity. Built in 2005, the $80,000 sculpture "store" lies just outside of the small town of Valentine, about 37 miles northwest of Marfa, and it has and will never open for business (though it has been vandalized).

This 1886 Second Empire–style confection with projecting surfaces and Mansard-style roofs casts a striking image over downtown. A quick elevator ride and a short flight of stairs will put you out on the cupola for a not-to-be-missed panorama of the Marfa Plateau and nearby Davis Mountains. Be sure to glimpse the Goddess of Justice, perched on top of the dome.