Davis Mountains, Texas

The Davis Mountains are in (surprise!) West Texas, about 125 miles north of Big Bend. They are a mere 25 or so miles from Alpine, where I left you in the last entry. The entry point is the town of Fort Davis, which, I'm sure to your vast surprise, is the site of an historic military site. I did not visit said military site (there are whole strings of these across the west, placed for reasons known to most students of 19th-century US history). Instead I visited two different places, which are at opposite ends of the basin containing Fort Davis, and provided an interesting contrast in views.

The first place is about 5 miles south of Fort Davis, and is called the Chihuahua Desert Research Institute. This is basically a research center for the University of Texas, Austin, but it is open to the public and has a small visitor's center. For a small fee, I hiked the grounds, and caught some nice views. I also saw some kind of mountain goat or sheep. I thought it looked like a bighorn, but the locals deemed that unlikely (it would have been newsworthy), instead claiming it was probably an aoudad, or Barbary sheep. On the other hand, a bird was nice enough to pose.

The second place, where I camped the night, was the Davis Mountains State Park. This is set in a ravine just outside the town of Fort Davis, and is actually adjacent to the fort, which is reachable by a 5-mile hiking trail. (I didn't.) There is a drive up to a viewpoint, looking south over the basin which was seen looking north from the CDRC.

The state park is endowed with further hiking trails, enough to occupy a morning at least. It is also endowed with some wildlife, including this fox?, and some deer that desperately wanted a part of other campers' dinners. (They didn't come harass me -- maybe they don't like vegetarians?)

It also has a lodge, once again brought to us by the CCC. They have lovingly restored the lounge, complete with anecdotes from some of the families of CCC workers at the site.


From the Davis Mountains, it was about three hours of somewhat scenic driving to reach the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where I camped for five nights. (For those keeping score, the arrival date is March 9.)