Magical Texas Mystery Tour

Alpine, Texas: We had a huge day today, took a 200 mile exploration in the Honda and snapped a gazillion photos. From Alpine, we drove to Marfa, then took a scenic loop up to Fort Davis, returning to Alpine. It was all very interesting (to us) and I am going to post too many photos tonight - sorry in advance.

County Courthouse in Marfa. Marfa's downtown is in sad shape - nearly every business is closed.
The movie "Giant" was filmed in and around Marfa in 1955.

Most of the drive today was over "scenic highways" and the route was incredibly scenic - rolling hills dotted with cactus and yucca. Along the drive we came across two massive greenhouse operations, Village Farms, where millions of pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are grown each year!

We saw a lot of this...


Plenty of this...


Miles of this...


And, of course, this.


We saw roadrunners


Pronghorn Sheep (photo by DT)


We heard there are more deer than cattle in Texas (photo by DT)


About every ten miles, the State of Texas has a turn-out with a picnic table, shady tree and grill


Cactus too!

Since 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, we stopped to visit the McDonald Observatory, just outside of Fort Davis. We toured through the Visitor Center and then went up to the Hobby-Eberly telescope - one of the largest in the world. Operated jointly by University of Texas, Stanford, Penn State and two German universities, the Hobby-Eberly is used at night, to measure spectroscopy of stars... but you knew that already, right?

Visitor Center at the McDonald Observatory, with the Hobby-Eberly telescope in the background


Hobby-Eberly telescope


Inside the dome

Next on the agenda was a tour through Davis Mountains State Park. The park has a huge campground, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, group picnic areas, and a beautiful pueblo-style hotel built by the CCC - the Indian Lodge.

The lobby of Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park


How about a state park with a swimming pool?


Rooms at the lodge

We arrived in Fort Davis in time for a late lunch in the dining room at the historic Hotel Limpia. Except the historic Hotel Limpia is closed on Mondays - as was every restaurant on the main street through town. The only place we could find open was Murphy's Pizza on the very south end of town. Murphy's turned out to be an adventure in dining as today was the first day the new owners were making pizza - with the old owner hanging around giving helpful hints, etc. So here is the second pizza the new owner has ever made:

Pretty good for a rookie

One of the other historic sites in Fort Davis is  - ta da - Fort Davis National Historic Site. Fort Davis was built in 1854 to protect travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road and is now one of the best remaining examples of a frontier military post. Named after Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the fort was home to several Buffalo Soldier infantry units. Restoration, excavation and research continues to this day at this fascinating historical fort.

Walkway outside infantry bunkhouse


Inside the infantry bunkhouse


View to the officer quarters


Commanding Officer's Quarters: parlor, dining room, hall, two bedrooms, bathroom, family parlor.
The ceilings were about 14 feet tall. This was the largest house on Officer's Row.
This house has been completely restored and furnished with period furniture.


Dining room in the Commander's home


This house has not yet been restored


Fort Davis is set in a box canyon, under a rocky cliff,
with Limpia Creek running behind the encampment.


400 miles to San Antonio - remnants of the old road still
are visible leading east and west from Fort Davis

We continued on our loop and arrived back to our RV in Alpine, Texas - but just to grab warm jackets. There was one last thing to see eighteen miles outside of town - the Marfa Lights. Since 1883, settlers have been reporting mysterious balls of light appearing randomly at dusk in the hillsides outside of Marfa, Texas. To this day, scientists cannot find the cause of the lights. The State of Texas has built an observation station, with photos and suggestions to the cause of the lights.

The Marfa Lights can only been seen from afar, giving reason to believe the lights are some form of refraction (in the same way you see a rainbow) and some feel could be caused by gasses reacting to quick temperature changes at dusk at nearly 5000 feet elevation. The Marfa Lights appeared to us - and a group of about twenty others - tonight at the viewing station. The lights were bright white and were on the distance hillside and also out in the middle of the dessert, at the base of the hills. I have no idea what we saw, but they weren't headlights or camp fires.

Seekers of the light begin to gather before dusk at the Marfa Lights Viewing Station

No dinner for us tonight (unless you call a couple of beers and a handful of peanuts dinner). We are exhausted and I have just spent an hour going through my photos. Sorry for posting so many! Until my next update, I remain, your mysterious correspondent.

RV Park: Lost Alaskan RV Park. This park is nothing fancy, but we like it here very much. Lost Alaskan is the best choice of the several parks in town. Owners are very friendly and helpful with advising excursions, restaurants, etc. Full hook-up gravel sites with picnic tables. All sites are pull-through. 30 & 50 amp, water pressure isn't very good (50psi). Many nice, large shade trees, but we had no trouble finding our satellites. Cell service. Aluminum can recycling. Good cable television, laundry, bathhouse, club house, horse shoes, play ground, swimming pool in season. Just over a mile to town. We paid $30.