Davis Mountains – Texas

After leaving the Big Bend NP and SP area we headed north about 125 miles to Davis Mountain State Park.  If we had to choose a single word to describe what we were seeing as we approached the Fort Davis area it would be WOW!

Image from the Davis Mountain SP web site

It really felt as if we had been transported hundreds of miles north to the foothills of the Rockies.

We drove through the cool(I can’t say cute because I’m a dude) town of Fort Davis (population 1201).  It was mid-afternoon on New Years Eve and the place was hopping…for a small town with a population of 1201.  The state park is 4 miles outside of Fort Davis.  We checked in and got our site assigned (#12).  It was a pull-though with trees on both side.  It was perfect for an RV that’s no wider than a few feet with no slides.  So, we drove back to the entrance of the park and tried again.  The park staff was awesome and found us a much larger pull-through site (#24).  After some minor leveling we completed our setup.  It was cold with some light rain.  Perfect football weather.

Ah…Football!

And guess what…they had cable TV in the park.  I know I should be experiencing the great outdoors and I would.  Just as soon as I thawed out and got my college football fix.  I found the game on TV, turned up the volume and to my dismay I couldn’t understand anything the broadcasters were saying since they were speaking Spanish.  The only way I could get the early game is ESPN2 with the ESPN Deportes audio feed.  Oh well.  Better than no football at all!

The next morning I did go for a nice run at 5,000+ ft (altitude in Texas!).  Some of it was on the park roads and some of it on the trails.  One of my “walk breaks” during my run was around the Indian Lodge, which is a 39-room full service hotel with a restaurant and gift shop. What makes the Indian Lodge such a remarkable structure is that it was built by unskilled CCC workers in the 1930’s.  A state park with a hotel, restaurant and cable TV…I must be kidding.  Nope!

One of the good and bad things about the park is there is no cell phone service (at least for Sprint and Verizon) unless you ascend to the top of Skyline Drive to one of the scenic overlooks.  Which we did and received a flood of e-mails, texts, social media posts notifications, etc.  We hurried back down and back off the grid.  Note: the park does have WiFi, but it was spotty at best.

Since it was colder than a witch’s boob in a brass bra we decided to stay in the comfy confines of our truck and go check out Marfa.  Marfa is about a 40 minute drive from the state park.  It’s a small tourist town (pop. 2121) due to its minimalist art following.  We were there on New Year’s day and there wasn’t’ much activity except for the two food trucks.  While in Marfa one has to visit the famed Prada Marfa store.  I mean who doesn’t want to drive 35 miles to the middle of nowhere to spend 38 seconds reading a plaque and taking a picture in front of a “store” that isn’t open and doesn’t sell anything.  Ok…it’s kinda cool…kinda.

After returning from our Trans-Pecos area driving tour we decided to go for a hike.  It was up and down and up again then finally down.  We walked over to the gift shop at the Indian Lodge then headed back to the RV.

The following day we decided to check out Balmorhea State Park about 35 miles NE of Davis Mountain State Park.  The drive over winds up highway 17 through the mountains and Wild Rose Pass.  It’s another beautiful drive.  Other than the spring fed swimming pool we didn’t know much about Balmorhea and we didn’t do enough research (actually we didn’t do any), which was evident when we arrived there.  We were thinking that maybe we could do a quick  hike to check out the park.  Nope…there is no hiking.  Just a lot of asphalt and a ginormous swimming pool.   It may be a nice stop on hot day for a swim, but certainly did not make our bucket list of RV destinations.

The next day, after a early morning run,  Reim and I went for a quick walk then made pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  I could easily live on bacon alone.

Fort Davis – Officers’ housing

Once we cleaned up we drove into Fort Davis to check out the actual Fort.

The Fort Davis National Historic Site is another interesting journey back into a time where life was very different.  They recreated life in soldiers’ barracks, officers’ housing, a hospital and various other original buildings.  At the visitor center I purchased a book on the history of the fort and a magnet to add to our collection (Reim kindly reminded me that I can’t purchase a magnet for every place we visit).  We spent about an hour walking the grounds before the kids reached that point of maximum history overload and it was time to leave.  We drove across the road to a reptile farm, pretending to be a junkyard, but really may have been a used car lot to see a bunch of highly venomous snakes in tanks.  It was actually pretty cool and interesting.

We had made reservations that evening for a “Star Party” at the McDonald Observatory 13 miles from the state park.  Unfortunately we were attending the party under a blanket of some of the most dense fog Reim and I have experienced.  It was so foggy that when we parked we couldn’t see the visitor center 100 yards in front of us.  We inadvertently took the long walk to the visitor center.

The folks were nice enough to offer us a refund or rain check or the option to attend the virtual star party.  We elected to stay and glad we did.  The virtual star party was very informative and we toured one of the “baby” telescopes before we headed back to the park.

After some downtime we made preparations for our early morning (not later than 9 AM) departure the following day, which included a quick run back in to town to get diesel and check e-mail.

We loved the Davis Mountains and absolutely plan to return!