5 Free Things To Do In Abilene, Texas

I’ll be honest, when we mentioned to Texans that we’d be spending four days in Abilene, the most common reaction/question was:

Abilene – what are you going to do there?

Well, it turns out that there’s plenty to keep you busy and, best of all, lots of it is free. Abilene has several museums and other activities that cost money, but it was coming to the end of the month and we were trying to stay within our budget (and we succeeded!)

We still had plenty of fun though, so here are 5 free things to do in Abilene, Texas.

1) Storybook Sculpture Hunting

Abilene is not only the Storybook Capital of Texas, but it’s also now officially the Storybook Capital of America. If you wander around downtown, you’re sure to see some sculptures based on children’s book characters.

There are 24 storybook sculptures at the time of writing and you can get a map from the Abilene Visitor Bureau to help you find them all. Check out our post to see what all the storybook sculptures look like and where to find them.

2) National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature

A couple of the storybook sculptures can be found outside the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL), a museum dedicated to illustrations in children’s books.

Shae and I came across NCCIL while sculpture hunting with our dog Truffles. As she wasn’t allowed in there, I waited with her outside while Shae went inside to check out the museum. Here’s her description of what it’s like.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but since I’m participating in a class on writing children’s story books, I was excited to see what was inside.

There’s a large open gallery area with art work by a highlighted illustrator; during my visit it was Sophie Blackall. I’m not familiar with her work, but it was very interesting to walk around since her original artwork was on the wall with the children’s book below.

There’s another area that has autographed books for sale as well as small reading areas with many children’s stories available.

NCCIL is a great stop to warm up or cool off during your sculpture hunt. Check out the current artist on display, enjoy reading some stories with your children and purchase a book signed by your favorite illustrator.

3) Sculpture Tour

The storybook sculptures aren’t the only pieces of public art to see in downtown Abilene. While Shae explored NCCIL, Truffles and I took a walk around downtown and came across all kinds of other sculptures.

That included Mesteño, a replica of the sculpture that can be found in Denver International Airport. The Mesteño sculpture in Abilene was created by the same artist, although it’s only 1/4 of the size of the original.

4) Prairie Dogs In Red Bud Park

We saw some prairie dogs in the wild while driving through Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma and thought they were incredibly cute.

Well, Abilene is home to a prairie dog preserve and – even better – it’s in the middle of a public park called Red Bud Park.

The preserve has a fairly low wall, so you can sit at one of many picnic tables or benches to enjoy the views and listen to them calling out to each other.

It’s a lot of fun getting to see them in a setting like this, so be sure to head to Red Bud Park during a visit to Abilene.

5) Fort Phantom Hill

Fort Phantom Hill is a set of ruins about 15 miles north of downtown Abilene. It was established as an army post in the early 1850s, before being abandoned and burned down a few years later.

The buildings were largely constructed of wood, so the fire ensured that most of what’s left are fireplaces and chimneys made of stone.

Despite the limited remains, it’s still an interesting place to walk around. There’s also a visitor kiosk which has a leaflet with comprehensive information about the site to enhance your self-guided tour. Check out our post about Fort Phantom Hill to find out more about the site.

Question

Those are 5 free things to do in Abilene, Texas that we enjoyed while we were there, but how about you? If you know Abilene well, what other free activities would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.