Davis Mountains Interlude

Upon leaving Big Bend National Park on the morning of March 3rd, my “plan” was to go north to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which is in northwest Texas and bordering New Mexico. One of the other campers suggested that I stop at Davis Mountains State Park, which was on the way to Guadalupe.

The 100+ mile drive from Big Bend was uneventful. Which is good. The largest town along the way was Alpine. They had a McDonalds and it had Wifi, which is also good. I stopped for lunch, stayed two hours and was able to check email as well as get several posts uploaded and scheduled. The next town down the road was Fort Davis.

A few miles north of Fort Davis is Davis Mountains State Park. The campground is nestled inside a canyon. The sites are quite nice with lots of trees providing shade, which in the summer would be a blessing. The weather was beautiful during the day with temperatures in the 60s, mostly blue skies and sunshine. After the sun went down, the chill set in and the temperature dropped into the low 30s. Quite similar to the weather at Big Bend, but at least it didn't snow!

A section of the trail leading to the top of the “hill” on the north side of the campground.

Looking to the north across the Davis Mountains.

Looking to the west, from the top of the hill. I don't know the significance of the pile of rocks, if any, but found it amusing that it mimicked the peak in the background.

Looking south. A section of the campground is tucked away beneath the row of trees in the center.

The trail follows the top to the west end then takes you down into the canyon where the Lodge is located. This is the view looking east from about half way down. The row of trees in the center is where the campground is located. You can see a portion of the “Skyline Drive” built by the CCC. As well as providing some magnificent views there are also several more trails up on top of that peak.

My stop in the Davis Mountains was a very pleasant interlude that lasted six days! The fact that the town of Fort Davis was ten minutes away and the Jeff Davis County Library had an excellent, secure, wifi connection, made it even more pleasant. Sometimes you've gotta have some downtime! I was able to get caught up with email, wrote and scheduled blog posts for nearly a week, even read some blogs, and checked in on Facebook! Oh, and I got my taxes filed too.

To top it off, the library staff was very helpful and courteous. The building wasn't much to look at. And the old wooden floors kinda creaked. But there was a steady flow of people in and out and when school let out for the day it was abuzz with kids. I can only wish for more libraries like this one. The only “downside” was that the library was closed on Saturday and Sunday. But that's okay. I'm just glad it was there!