Tour de Texas-Lajitas Area

Sunday we drove from Alpine to the border town of Presidio.  Saw this lovely church in Presidio as well as a few interesting rock formations along the way.

established in 1683

profile of Abe Lincoln

Elephant Rock

After a quick lunch, we stopped to explore Ft Leaton National Historic Site.It is a reconstructed fortification that was a trading post on the old Chihuahua Trail from 1848-1884.

Saw these 2 at Ft Leaton

LW doesn't realize it would have taken 10-12 oxen to pull this carreta.

Then we stopped in Big Bend Ranch State Park to check out the HooDoos & Balanced Rocks and to hike down Closed Canyon. Highway 170 is a beautiful drive that hugs the Rio Grande River.

Not a great picture but that's the Rio Grande River.

Finally we arrived in Lajitas at the Lajitas Golf Resort where we are staying until Thursday.

Boardwalk at the resort

Sign in front of Mayor Clay Henry's cage.  He's a goat.

These signs are posted all around the resort.

 

Today we drove into Big Bend National Park, visited Terlingua GhostTown, and spent time at the resort pool.

Saint Inez Church in Terlingua

Tomorrow we are going into Big Bend EARLY to do a little hiking before it gets too hot.

Tour de Texas-Ft Davis Area

We started our day with a drive out to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute Nature Center and Botanical Gardens.  First we hiked about 3 miles into the property for some incredible views of the surrounding area.  

Then we checked out the botanical garden and the Cactus collection in the greenhouse.  I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of cacti, and these are just the ones native to the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico.

Following our hike we drove into Ft Davis for lunch at the Ft Davis Drug Store and then a scenic drive. We saw some very interesting things on our drive.

US Border Patrol Blimp

Prada Marfa

Sawtooth Mt

Rock pile

Roadrunner or chaparral?

Another one in a tree

Tonight we are going out to the Marfa Viewing Center to see if we can observe the Marfa lights. I'll let you know in my next post.

Tour de Texas-Next Stop

Today we were supposed to be headed to Ft Davis to stay at the Indian Lodge and check out Davis Mountain State Park but we received a call from Texas Parks and Wildlife that both of those places were closed due to a Covid case.  So we quickly adjusted our plans and headed to Midland-Odessa..

In Odessa, I had a three sights on my agenda. First was the Chris Kyle Memorial Plaza.  Chris Kyle was a Navy Seal and decorated veteran who wrote American Sniper of which the movie is based.

This shows the plan for the plaza and reasons behind it.

One of the quotes around the plaza.

Then it was on to the campus of University of Texas Permian Basin to see the replica of Stonehenge.

Caught a glimpse of LW walking.

Following that we found the Shakespeare Globe Theater replica.

Then we drove to Monahans Sandhills State Park.  It's a little park but very cool to see the sandhills.  I tried to use a slide to go down one of the hills. LW recorded it but there were two problems.  One my slide didn't really work and two the videos are not very flattering so you will need to use your imagination.

Saw a jackrabbit.

After some lunch in Monahans at a blast from the past-Bennigans-we headed south to Alpine for the night. Look how beautiful!

Tomorrow will be a tour of the area, including Ft Davis, Valentine, Marfa and Alpine.