Our final destination on our long weekend trip during the last week of September was to the Fort Davis area, specifically to go camping at “the top of Texas” in our RV at Davis Mountains State Park once again. This beautiful and historic state park has become one of our favorite places to visit over the past three years, too. We have previously visited this area three times in the RV in winter months, but this was our first trip to the area in a non-winter month.
I posted about this area almost two years ago at Winter in the Davis Mountains, and there is some good information there that I will try to not repeat here, especially for first-time visitors to the area. I also shared a pictures post from this area at Wordless Wednesday – Vacation Pictures back in January. However, I truly wanted to share pictures while the park was a bit more green, and happily, I am finally able to do that.
It was such a treat to visit this unique area that was so gorgeous after recent rains, and the pictures really do not do justice to the beauty. The seasonal monsoon rains helped to create a wonderful display of Goldeneyes that blanketed the mountains almost everywhere we looked, and their rich color helped to create a “carpet” of green and gold across most of the landscape in this area. The floral display this year was apparently one of the best in the history of the area for this time of year, and we were so fortunate to see it on this trip. In fact, I’m not sure we will ever see this area as beautiful as it was on this trip, so I will count that as a wonderful blessing.
We also enjoyed introducing two of our good friends to the area for the very first time, and we had a great time showing them around in the two days we had there together. We also attended both a twilight party and a star party together at McDonald Observatory on Saturday evening. This time, we saw several Messier clusters (11, 13 and 17 that I recall) and close-up views of the moon and Saturn, including Saturn’s rings. But perhaps one of the most surprising and memorable sightings for our star party group that did not even require a telescope was seeing a discarded rocket stage that is in a long-term earth orbit that passed overhead at dusk just as the party started.
The employees at the observatory do such a fabulous job with their star parties. My inner space nerd was so happy, and our friends had a great time, too. It was also interesting to hear that the big telescopes were shut down for the evening, as the humidity was over 90%, which adversely affected their operation.
While we typically enjoy camping in parks that are out of cell range, our friends required a cell signal several times each day for business reasons. So, we found ourselves at the top of Skyline Drive inside the park several times on this trip, as everyone was able to get full cell and data signals there from Fort Davis. We even made a trip up the mountain around 11:30 pm on Saturday night after the star party for two reasons – to check messages and do a little more star-gazing. We discovered this little trick to see some fabulous stars on our previous trip, so we purchased the $3 after-hours pass for Skyline Drive and made the trip up there once again.
We pulled up to the highest observation point and turned off all of the lights, and even though the clouds were starting to move back in, we were once again so impressed with the many bright stars in the sky. However, we also heard something rustling around in the brush nearby, which quickly got our attention because it sounded like it might be pretty large. It was so dark that we could hardly see where the car was nearby, and since there are signs posted all over the park to watch for mountain lions, we all agreed that our star-gazing adventure would just have to be cut short as we bailed back into the safety of the car to finish checking phone messages. Experiencing the thrill of a surprise close encounter with a mountain lion was definitely not on our agenda for the evening.
We all hoped to make the hike down from Skyline Drive to the Fort Davis National Historic Site, as it is an easy hike downhill that takes less than an hour, but time did not permit us to make this hike on this trip, unfortunately. It works quite well to leave a vehicle in the parking lot of the fort and catch a ride back to Skyline Drive to make this downhill trek, ending with a tour of the historic fort area, as the trail is well-traveled and well-marked. The hometown Thriftway is also just across the street from the fort area, if visitors need groceries while in town.
We also did not have time to drive the 75-mile scenic loop with our friends, which is one of the most beautiful drives in Texas. I’ve driven it twice, and it would have been a gorgeous drive on the trip. I suspect we will all be returning to the area again sometime and will catch-up on some of these great things to see and do while in the area. Highway 118 from the park to the observatory is actually part of that scenic loop, so at least they were able to see that portion of the drive, which also happens to be on the highest state-maintained road in Texas at 6,791 feet at the McDonald Observatory.
I will let the pictures below tell more of the story about this memorable trip.
The Davis Mountains region of far West Texas is such a great place to visit any time of the year, and we look forward to returning again for more fun times with family and friends in the future.
