Amarillo, Texas map

Amarillo is in the middle of the Panhandle, about 45 miles south of the Oklahoma line and roughly 90 miles east of New Mexico. It is closer to the state capitals of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado than it is to Austin. Nothing else in the Panhandle comes close to its size: the next-largest towns nearby are Canyon, 17 miles south on I-27, and Pampa and Borger, both about 50 miles away.

The city straddles a county line. The northern two-thirds sit in Potter County, whose seat Amarillo is; the southern third, including most of the newer subdivisions, sits in Randall County, whose seat is Canyon. The 2020 census split the city almost evenly between the two. The Potter–Randall line runs roughly along the alignment of Hollywood Road and the southern edge of the older city grid.

The terrain is the Llano Estacado's northern edge — level caprock at about 3,600 feet, treeless except where planted. That elevation makes Amarillo one of the highest cities of its size in the United States and gives it colder winters than anywhere else in Texas at the same latitude.

Old Route 66 entered Amarillo from the east on Amarillo Boulevard and ran west, but the older 1920s alignment used Southwest Sixth Avenue through the San Jacinto neighborhood. That 13-block stretch of Sixth is the Route 66 Historic District, the part of the road most visitors come to see. West of town, on the I-40 frontage road, the buried Cadillacs of Cadillac Ranch stand in a wheat field.

Two industries shaped the city. Natural gas from the Cliffside field northwest of town carried an unusually high helium content, and the federal government built its helium plant and reserve here, which is why Amarillo called itself the helium capital and why a helium monument stands outside the Don Harrington Discovery Center. The other is cattle: the flat, dry country around Amarillo holds some of the densest concentration of feedlots in North America, with beef processing plants and one of the country's larger livestock auctions inside the city.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park is the region's landform. From Amarillo the route is I-27 south to Canyon, then SH-217 east about 12 miles to the rim. The canyon runs roughly 60 miles southeast from there and drops several hundred feet below the plain — invisible until you are on top of it, which is why first-time visitors always overshoot the turn.