Witness The World's Largest Cowboy Boots And Shop Until You Drop At A Unique Texas Mall

Although these boots definitely weren't made for walking, they saw their share of hidden gems along Route 66 on their journey from Washington, D.C., to their forever home at San Antonio's North Star Mall on 7400 San Pedro Avenue. The boots are the Guinness World Record holder for "tallest cowboy boot sculpture," coming in at 35 feet and 3 inches tall. (This award, of course, should not be confused with the Guinness record for the "largest cowboy boot," an actual boot structure measuring 8 feet, 2 inches in height, made and measured in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2008.)

Towering over Saks Fifth Avenue, cars traveling along Loop 410 have been passing the cowboy boot sculpture, made of metal and urethane foam and painted like ostrich skin, for more than 40 years. The iconic pair of Texas footwear have been drawing sightseers and art lovers for photos and a view at the mall's free parking lot in the city with the highest number of free things to do in America.

Austin-based artist Bob Wade was commissioned to make a Texas-themed art piece in the nation's capital for the Washington Project for the Arts in 1979. After its initial exhibition, Texas cities bid on the artwork to claim it as its own, and San Antonio-based Rouse Co. won with a bid of $20,000. The sculpture was disassembled, trucked cross-country in flatbeds, and finally made its mallside debut in January of 1980.

North Star Mall opened in 1960, boasting covered access to 50 shops, making it one of the first indoor shopping malls in the nation. When the mall's owners purchased the boots, they had just renovated the space to add a food court, arcade, and a new anchor tenant, Saks Fifth Avenue. Whether the giant cowboy boots were a draw for the Saks customer base, we'll never know.

Today, the 200 shops on the 1.2 million square-foot mall include restaurants and high-end designer outlets, as well as niche perfume, soap, and anime stores on three floors. Many of the shops offer community discounts for educators, students, first responders, and military personnel. And for mall walkers, doors open two hours earlier than the stores, at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. on Sunday, giving walkers the space to spread out and power walk.

Whether it's true that everything is bigger in Texas, the reputation for being big — as well as being home to some of the best "cowboy core" vacation destinations – certainly stands tall. Dallas is home to the largest contiguous urban arts district in America, where museum lovers can stroll fine art to their heart's content.

In the great outdoors, be sure to check out some of Texas' other impressive roadside attractions, too. Like Bob Wade's 40-foot-long iguana at the Fort Worth Zoo and his 70-foot-tall saxophone in Houston's Kensinger Plaza. And we can't forget that the largest Paris outside of France, in north Texas, is home to America's largest Eiffel Tower replica, which is of course topped by a giant cowboy hat. Finally, El Paso Airport boasts the home of the world's "largest equestrian bronze statue" (not to be topped by India's six hundred-foot-high Statue of Unity, which was made from melted down farm equipment).