Hico, Texas: Pie, Back Roads, and a Surprisingly Good Dinosaur Problem

Take Highway 6 through central Texas until the landscape starts doing that excellent Texas thing: wide fields, old barns, limestone fences, and absolutely no reason to check your email. Then stop in Hico, a small town with a courthouse square, antique shops, and enough pie to make breakfast feel like a moral debate.

Park on or around the courthouse square. The spaces are easy to find, free, and close to everything you actually came to see. Start at the Koffee Kup Family Restaurant, where the portions are generous and the coffee arrives with the cheerful urgency of a fire drill. Order the chicken-fried steak if you want the full local handshake. If that feels too ambitious before noon, get a burger and add pie. The coconut cream and chocolate meringue are the kind of desserts that require a brief silence afterward.

After lunch, walk the square instead of immediately climbing back into the car. Look for old storefronts, hand-painted signs, and the Billy the Kid connection that Hico has embraced with the confidence of a town that knows a good story is more valuable than a perfectly verified one. The local museum leans into the legend, and the whole thing is more entertaining than it has any right to be.

Here’s the surprise: Hico is a good base for a prehistoric detour. Drive about 20 minutes south to Dinosaur Valley State Park, where real dinosaur tracks are preserved in the bed of the Paluxy River. Check water levels and park conditions before you go; the tracks are easiest to see when the river is low, and summer heat can turn the exposed rock into a skillet.

For a cheap, satisfying weekend, stay in a basic motel or cabin nearby, then spend the next morning on the back roads toward Glen Rose and Granbury. Bring cash, a hat, and shoes you don’t mind getting muddy. Hico is not trying to be glamorous. That’s precisely why the place works.