Still seeing "miles and miles of Texas!"

May 6, 2015 - Guadalupe River State Park - Spring Branch, TX

Traveled from Junction, TX (South Llano River State Park) to the San Antonio - Austin region yesterday.  We're back into a pattern of afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity after over a week in the Chihuahuan Desert air.  

After leaving Big Bend and Terlingua, we headed up to Fort Davis, TX and the Davis Mountains (some over 8,000 feet!).

  We stayed at Davis Mountains State Park.  What a gem, particularly if you are a birder!

This place has some really nice hikes (don’t expect any cell service, and the WiFi is sketchy), but you should be here to get away from it all anyway!  Convenient to the McDonald Observatory, 12 miles down the road.  What a great resource for life altering star-gazing (take in a Star Party on  a Tues, Fri, or Sat night) or a sun program during the day!  We encountered wild peccary on our hike this morning (he backed down after a little tete a tete.)   The birding here is outstanding, the local volunteers provide some bird blinds, and if you are lucky you’ll be rewarded with a siting of the local Montezuma Quail, wow!

A truly great spot here is the McDonald Observatory.   After having listened to Stardate on NPR for the past 20+ years, we were so EXCITED to be actually visiting the McDonald Observatory (part of the University of Texas at Austin).  We took in a Star Party (Tues, Fri, and Sat nites usually) 9:30 to midnight.  Got a chance to view, the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and several star clusters through at least 8 of their telescopes (UNREAL!).  Also were treated to a 45 minute constellation introduction courtesy of their, very entertaining, staff.  A thoroughly enjoyable visit. Great resource!

While we were here we visited the Fort Davis National Historic Site where we felt like we were on the Southern Leg of the Oregon Trail!  The National Park Service has done a really good job of maintaining this historic, American and Civil War site.  Along the San Antonio – El Paso trail, Fort Davis played a significant role in shaping Westward Expansion. We can debate and discuss the impact on the Native American population, slavery and Afro-American history during and post-civil war, and this place is full of inspiration!. It is a very well preserved piece of this time period (1860’s on).  Nice spot, hope you like bugle music!