When I think about visiting a desert location, I do not think about seeing green landscape everywhere I look, and I certainly do not think of beautiful flowers that are so prevalent in the landscape that they literally change the color of it as you gaze across it from a distance. This was our experience as we visited the Davis Mountains of far West Texas for the first time in a non-winter month this past weekend. We had such a fabulous time, and I will share more about our brief time there in a series of upcoming posts soon.
We had the happy task of introducing two of our favorite state parks, the quaint town of Fort Davis and the famous McDonald Observatory to two special friends for the first time this past weekend, and I believe they fell in love with this area just like we did three years ago when we made our first visit in our new-to-us RV in the last week of December in 2011. Honestly, it would be hard to not fall in love with this place when it is absolutely gorgeous like it was during this trip, especially since the fall monsoon rains were quite generous to the area this year.
Over the past few years, my love and appreciation of this mountainous desert area has grown as we have spent more and more time there, and seeing God’s unique handiwork in this region is always such a treat. It is a very popular place to visit, and we have to plan further out to reserve a spot for the RV now than we did just three years ago. If visiting by car, having a hotel reservation in advance is an absolute must most of the time, especially on weekends and holidays.
I have previously written about this unique part of Texas, even though both of those posts told about our experience in winter months. We love this area even in the winter, and those first posts have a lot of good information in them for potential visitors, which I will try to not repeat in this post and upcoming posts. I would still encourage everyone to make this area a bucket list destination at least one time in the appropriate season of your choice.
Winter in the Davis Mountains (2013)
Springs in the Desert at Balmorhea (2014)
Normally, we escape chilly winter weather in the Texas Panhandle for the more moderate climate in this area in the winter months, but I suspect we will now likely add yet another yearly visit in the fall. We may even try a spring trip sometime, as the scenery is supposedly beautiful then, too.
Seeing the Davis Mountains region at a peak time of beauty really cinched my love of this place, for sure. And as strange as it may sound, a few views on this trip reminded us of the mountains of Kauai from our trip back in May, especially on Friday morning when the weather was very cloudy and a bit rainy as we drove across Wild Rose Pass between Balmorhea and Fort Davis.
If there was a slight disappointment for us on this trip, it was the fact that we saw very little wildlife as compared to the winter months when mule deer and javelina roam freely around the campground every day. It was only a small disappointment, and the beautiful scenery more than made up for it this trip.
Visiting two iconic mountainous areas in four weeks has certainly been a blessing for us this year, as we just visited Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time over Labor Day weekend and loved every moment of our time in that area, too. In fact, I think we may likely look back on this particular travel year as one of our best ones ever, even though the year started out quite rough in that respect due to bad weather and my mother’s bad fall in late January. I can already feel that “look back” post coming later on after the year is done, too. 😉
In my next post, I will share more beautiful detailed photos of Balmorhea State Park.
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Several years ago I camped there, at this time of year, and I must say the wildlife was ever present…a skunk wandering right under my (occupied) lawn chair! Really though…beautiful area and one of my favorite places in Texas.
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Oh dear! That would wake you up, for sure! We so wanted our friends to see the deer and javelina, but we were told that wildlife was still up in the mountains due to the rain but would be back as things dried out again. We drove up Skyline Drive with a permit to look at the stars after 10 pm on Saturday night, and we all heard something big rustling around in the dark nearby, so we jumped back in the car and headed back to camp. They post warning signs about mountain lions in the park, and we all decided that we were not ready to experience that particular thrill at that moment. We love the area now, too! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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Looks beautiful. Hope the weather in TX holds out for us this winter to explore some of these places 🙂
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It was very beautiful, for sure! Spring would also be a great time to go to this area, if you are in the state that long and can head out west for a bit. We will continue to explore it even more before then, I’m sure. 😉
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