Alpine. 17th October 2025.
The original plan for today was to drive to the Big Bend National Park which would have entailed about a 10 hour drive there and back. Unfortunately the current US government shutdown means that none of the park wardens are currently at work and although it means the entry fee is free it also means none of the facilities are open. We therefore decided that due to the distances involved and the lack of facilities we would give it a miss. Instead we chose to try the Davis Mountain Scenic route.
Travelling some 25 miles from Alpine the loop itself starts at the town of Fort Davis and we proceeded to drive through winding roads with the sight of mountains looming in the distance. The terrain changed from grassland to scrub to rocky outcrops and then eventually to desert.
The roads changed to long straights and as we turned a corner a different vista came into view. It was truly magnificent or as Sylvia’s father would have said “marvellous “.
In terms of wildlife we saw a small deer and a long horned mountain sheep but they both moved too quickly to be captured on camera. The only creature that made it into photo was a large grasshopper that was wallowing in the sun.
The weather forecast had predicted some rain in the mountains during the afternoon but the sun burned off some early cloud and it remained very hot.
The nice thing on this drive was the number of stopping points where we could stretch our legs and take plenty of photos.
The loop itself is around 75 miles long and with the stops took over two hours to complete. Throughout the whole of the journey we never saw another vehicle either in front or behind us and only three cars and the same number of motorcycles coming the other way.
Returning to Fort Davis we next visited the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center, a collection of plants of the desert region.
All the plants are grouped together in their botanical families and a handy booklet gave useful facts as we walked through the gardens.
There are longer treks but Sylvia and I were neither equipped or capable of taking these on so did a quick 1/4 mile scenic loop ……..
…….followed by a visit to the greenhouses where the collection of cacti made Sylvia very jealous.
We ate a light picnic lunch on the visitor centre patio before heading back to the hotel in Alpine.
Later in the afternoon we drove into town to do a little shopping and made our way to the Texan Music Mural. Painted a few years ago this is made up of various musicians from various forms of music that were all born and bred in Texas.
I’ve heard of many of them but would probably struggle to recognise them from this painting. How many can you name?
I can name the following :- ZZ Top, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Sly Stone. I’m sure that many of the country and western stars are names I would know but can’t name them. Please add any others in the comments below.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the small town of Marfa.