Still Trying to Catch Up with Our Travels!

Monday morning we left Brantley Lake State Park, New Mexico, and headed southeast toward Ft. Davis, Texas. As we crossed the state line from New Mexico into Texas we entered the Central Time Zone.

We decided to stay at Davis Mountains State Park near Ft. Davis. It was the first Texas State Park where we've stayed. Unlike most states, Texas charges an entrance fee for each person every day you stay at the park in addition to the camping fee. By purchasing the state park pass, we saved $32 for our 4 day stay! The park pass was $60. We intend to stay in more Texas state parks during the year.

Our camp site was at the base of one of the mountains.

We hiked the trail up the mountain to find a geocache and also take another picture of our site.

We drove the skyline drive and had an excellent view of Ft. Davis (town) and the surrounding area.
We could even see Indian Lodge which is at the far end of the park.
We enjoyed the views of desert and mountains.
Our first order of business while staying at Davis Mountains was to find a place to wash clothes. We found a laundromat in Ft. Davis. As our clothes washed and dried, we walked around town. There were interesting shops with local goodies, but nothing we really wanted.

Next on our agenda was a visit to Ft. Davis National Historic Area. It reminded us of the fort in San Angelo, Texas and also of Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
The officers' quarters have been reconstructed and several have furnishings from the period they were in use.
The hospital under construction, but several rooms have been refurbished and medical equipment is on display.

Another day we visited McDonald Observatory. The observatory has several large telescopes on its property and an interesting visitors' center.
This is the telescope housed in the above building. Our tour guide operated the telescope and the roof opening so we could see how it moved.

From this telescope's building we went to the Hobby Eberly Telescope.

This is a different type of telescope than any I have seen. The entire inside of the building is the telescope! There are 91 mirrors which catch the light from the night sky! This picture is of the mirrors. The poles that look bent are actually the reflection in the mirrors of the top of the building!
Another day while we were at Davis Mountains we drove the loop from Ft. Davis to Alpine to Marfa and back to Davis Mountains.

Alpine is home to Sul Ross State University and the Museum of the Big Bend. We enjoyed visiting the museum since our next camping stop would be Big Bend National Park.

From Alpine we traveled west to Marfa. There was a navy training air field there in World War II. It was also the backdrop for the movie 'Giant' with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean.

Today it is famous for the Marfa Lights--unexplained lights seen at night across the desert. They were first seen in the 1880s.

This site was built to view the lights.

This is the plaque Bob was reading about the lights.
Of course, we found the geocaches hidden around the loop drive!
After four nights at Davis Mountains SP we packed up and headed for Big Bend!