April 21-30, 2021

TL;DR: Marfa was a little shut down, but we got a good taste for the town, and thoroughly explored west Texas, both on the ground and in the sky. Also, we’re now on mountain time (!).

The stats

Hikes: 5
Hiking miles: 21 (2,823 ft elevation gain)
Miles in Layla: 275
Galaxies seen: 2
Unidentified (Marfa) light witnessed: 1
Javalinas dodged: 7

The sights

Marfa

Unfortunately about half of Marfa was still shut down (very small town with no big hospital), including the Judd exhibits (inside and out!). But we did get a good feel for it and had the opportunity to eat at lots of great spots (see Roadfood).

While we were doing laundry, and a few other times, we walked down Highland Street, which seems to be the main street with shops and galleries, including the adorable Esperanza Vintage. Even the courthouse is beautiful. Stopped at El Paisano hotel for some happy hour margs in the courtyard, which was lovely. Also liked the Raba Marfa store quite a bit.

We also went to see the Marfa Lights, and we’re pretty sure we saw one. We went right before dusk because we heard that’s the best time, but didn’t see this little guy until about 45 minutes after. We named her Tinkerbell. Caught a good sunset too.

Davis Mountain State Park

The first day we were here we were very excited to have a constellation tour at the nearby McDonald Observatory, only to realize once we drove over and tried to check in that we were 4 days early. 

At the park, we hiked the Skyline Trail up and took the Old CCC Trail down, and it was gorgeous. Relatively steep to start, but once we were up top, the views were expansive.

Took a 75-mile scenic drive around the park and it was so beautiful—plus, we had the road to ourselves. Took 118 to 166 and the first ⅔ was especially pretty. We were admiring a really cool property with huge boulders and front-row views of the Sawtooth mountains.

Drove over to the Madera Canyon Trail and the Davis Mountains Nature Preserve and immediately saw a big herd of javalina being super cute.

Lots of tall grass (but no mountain lion sighting), and tons of Alligator juniper.

Tried to drive to the viewpoint for the loop across the park that starts at Limpia Creek Trail, but we wound up at a dead end, and headed back to watch the sunset at the top of the Skyline Drive (still pretty!). We did see a sweet Very Long Baseline Array Telescope, a resourceful makeshift gun range, and a Texas flag barn.

Our next stop was the Chiuauan Desert Research Institute, where we took the loop through many different landscapes. The trail starts by going down into this really beautiful gorge/ravine with a little oasis/spring and green trees at the bottom. Lots of shale and sandstone.

Came out and climbed back up the side of the hill with crazy views in every direction. Different mountain formations that were the result of different volcanic extrusions.

At the top, there’s very detailed display: Every 45 degrees of your view is a different formation, complete with its own set of information. Super windy on the back half, and poop everywhere (we think from mule deer?). Pretty cloudy with gorgeous light bouncing off the hills/mountains/meadow/Alluvium fields.

They also have a really beautiful and well-labeled botanical garden that included many different yucca, cacti, and oaks. 

The finale/highlight was the McDonald Observatory viewing. It was a little cloudy all day and we weren’t sure they were going to do it, but they did an abbreviated version (would have been better if the damn clouds weren’t in the way!). Started out with a live telescope viewing from the 16” telescope and included Messier 86, Messier 3+4, and Messier 81: one was a planetary nebulae, which had two gas circles (AKA a dead star). Also saw an open star cluster, globular star cluster, and cigar galaxy. The live images were a little underwhelming because they were black and white and a little grainy from the clouds and haze, but they also provided color shots from both their telescope and the Hubble telescope, which were just amazing. Their biggest satellite (HET) is 394” and ties for 2nd biggest (4-way tie); it’s currently being used to detect dark energy. 

The super moon rising over the mountain didn’t help our viewing, but was stunning to watch. Walked up to the amphitheater for the constellation tour and learned a lot about the Big Dipper, which arcs to Arcturus. Also North Star/Polaris is fixed in the sky and Earth lines up perfectly with it (so cool!). Also saw Sirius, the brightest one in the sky. 

Guadalupe Mountain

The drive from Davis Mountain to Guadalupe Mountain was so gorgeous, with huge mountains and pretty cloud-dappled light.

Tried to go on a hike the second day we were here but it was super rainy and stormy. Our one attempt to get out while we thought we had a break was thwarted by fresh rain so we just hunkered down and worked until we got a gorgeous day on Friday and did the McKittrick Canyon Hike, which is along a wash with yucca, alligator juniper, and madrone.

There were also some Ponderosa pines (Tahoe vibes!), and quite a few maples, which actually looked like they were changing into fall colors, which was a little disorienting.

There was also a crazy bright orange fungus growing on some of the junipers. Apparently it’s called cedar-apple rust (part of the Gymnosporangium genus). The orange telial horns grow after a heavy spring rain and eventually release fungal spores, but usually don’t hurt the junipers.

The end/turnaround of the hike was the “grotto,” with stalactites and stalagmites all rounded out from the weather, but it definitely wasn’t the highlight. Overall a really nice hike with limited incline and lovely scenery. 

Our final hike here was Devil’s Hall, which you can access right from the campground. Magnificent mountains everywhere, pretty blue sky. We were behind a lady who at one point led us down the wrong path (read: never blindly follow the hiker in front of you!). Thankfully we both eventually found the right way. Most of the hike was spent in the wash, which had a lot white smooth rocks and huge clusters that looked like granola.

Toward the end there were these crazy three-inch layers/steps up into the rocks. Looked like it was man-made, almost, but it wasn’t, and led to Devil’s Hall, a slot canyon. Apparently the day before a guy had slipped and broken his wrist here and it took 6 hours to get him out (!). On our return, we saw horses on the ridge, which looked awesome (note for a future trip!). 

Details, details, details

The Marfa laundry situation was extremely empty and easy. Always a win.

Discovered a very cool artist, Margaret Sullivan, who is a native Texan and lives on a working ranch in Western New Mexico and makes one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. 

After we picked up our BBQ from Convenience West, we stopped at this adorable little book store, Stop and Read books, and got an amazing Universe book for $5! Also met Pepper the doggo.

On our way out of town from Marfa toward Fort Davis, it was relatively flat desert until we started climbing into the mountains and the terrain completely changed.

At Fort Davis, there were a lot of trees and brush versus the cacti we’ve been seeing for the past week.

Even though the very bright super moon wasn’t great for the Observatory viewing, Bri did get to try out taking night pictures of the moon when we got back, which was pretty cool.

Didn’t realize the Prada Marfa store was in Valentine, but we happened to drive through there so stopped on our way. Wasn’t too busy, which was nice, and even though Bri didn’t care for it too much, Jess was happy to see it. 

The Madrone is pretty gorgeous, and we’re thinking we include that on our future property should the climate agree with them.

And then this happened…

The door handle for Layla broke again but we had kept the one we ordered when it originally broke, so now it’s working like new (because it is). Excellent!

Brian broke the 50lb resistance band. Fortunately it didn’t snap violently or anything, but it won’t go back on.

The gas strut on the door also broke off. Not a huge deal, but very annoying to put back on.

We brought our delicious toast from Do Your Thing back to our RV park, and were gonna sit outside to eat it but when Bri went to sit down the entire table flipped! We somehow caught just about everything. But thank goodness it wasn’t someone who isn’t as nimble as Bri.

When we were walking around Davis Mountain State Park the first night we were there, we heard this huge commotion and a feral pig was attacking a dog! Huge, and saw them quite a few times. Nuts.

While we were trying to find the viewpoint off of Limpia Creek trail, we ended up on a road with a bunch of gorgeous horses grazing with no fence. Jess got out to take a pic and they kept getting closer… and closer… and closer, until she had to jump back in the car! They walked right up to it and nudged the front. Couldn’t tell if it was friendly or they were telling us something more sinister.

Remember Dan and Maddie from Big Bend? They were also at Fort Davis park and at the McDonald Observatory at the same time as us. 

Now we know

Discovered the difference between Sotol and Yucca: Sotol have spikes! Yucca have white wispy hairs.

Feral hogs are generally loners, big, and have an obvious tail while javalinas are more herd-like, smaller with no noticeable tail, and have a white band of hair around the shoulder. They also seem to not hear well because they wandered out into the street at night and only moved when we were VERY close.

There are 50 species of bees in Texas alone. 

Roadfood

We visited The Waterstop for silky mac and cheese and a roasted jalapeño chicken sandwich on thick house-made potato bread.

We found a spot under Al Campo’s bistro lights to dig in to The Guerrero Sandwich, with tender braised brisket, Dijon aioli, crispy shoestring fries, and jalapeños.

We savored each tangy slice of Do Your Thing’s thick sourdough toast, from butter-soaked cinnamon and sugar to the Everything with cream cheese and tomato.

Very grateful we planned ahead to pick up a juicy DIY brisket sandwich kit from Marfa’s Convenience West, and caramelized banana pudding.

We watched owner Ramona Tejada roll fresh tortillas in the kitchen before digging into one of her tasty breakfast burritos at Marfa Burrito.

Where we stayed

Nights one through three: Spot 3, Tumble In RV Park, Marfa, Texas

Nights four and five: Spot 60 at Davis Mountain State Park, Texas

They had no service here, but they did have “internet,” which was almost worse than having no internet because it would work for a little and then just crap out. Very frustrating, and had to go to the top of the hill to get service for a work call to make sure it didn’t drop.

Nights six and seven: Spot 38 at Davis Mountain State Park, Texas

Moved spots because they didn’t have one spot for all four nights.

Nights eight through ten: Site 27, Pine Springs Campground, Guadalupe Mountain, Texas

On our way from Davis Mountain to Guadalupe, we saw three Airstreams in a caravan, and got anxious they were heading toward Pine Springs since it’s first come first serve. Bri made some big moves and passed them, we got a spot, and they DID end up pulling in. Phew.

Just show me the pictures already