2024-05-07 Davis Mountains

Following the past few enjoyable days at Kickapoo Caverns, I continued moving west toward my San Diego home. However, I had not quite finished with Texas, and Texas had not finished with me. I chose a ‘less traveled route’ through Del Rio, Langtry, Sanderson, Marathon, and Alpine, to the Davis Mountains State Park 287 miles away. My penchant for intermittent lingering on long drives is no secret. As a matter of physical health, such stops allow me to stretch my legs and restore my circulation. As a matter of mental health, these breaks allow for potential encounters with sights, sounds, and smells that are impossible to enjoy at 60 mph.

My favorite route in and out of South Texas follows US-90, and I’ve used it for all my annual expeditions to the state I’ve come to love. The scenery along US-90 may lack majestic mountains, but it makes up for it with wind-swept rolling hills and sandstone bluffs. And where overgrazing has not abused the vegetation, thorn forest vistas extend for miles. 

The remote settlement of Langtry hosts the Judge Roy Bean Museum and Langtry Travel Information Center. A lovely botanic garden surrounds the facility, and I always enjoy walking its pathways. Sometimes I find interesting birds to enjoy. But the birds were quiet on this occasion.

Rest Stops, or Picnic Areas are strategically located along the highway, as they do across most of Texas. I sometimes stop to look for birds in such places. And if I’m feeling inclined, I sometimes spend the night there. On several occasions, rest-stops twenty miles east of Marathon have provided me sanctuary for the night. The town of Marathon has a few worthwhile venues (e.g. Gage Gardens and Post Park) for meeting birds.

Thirty minutes west of Marathon is Alpine, which is by comparison to all the other settlements along this route, a bustling community. There, you can find just about any business one could hope for. Restaurants, gas stations, hotels, groceries, a medical facility, a university, and much more. Alpine is where I part company with US-90, and I take TX-118 north through the much smaller Fort Davis and the Davis Mountains. 

On my earliest Texas expeditions I explored my way over the Davis Mountains from I-10 at Kent, just to enjoy the scenery. After my first two Texas expeditions in 2020 and 2021, I finally discovered in October 2022 that Texas Parks has a very comfortable camping facility just six minutes west of Fort Davis. Nowadays, I find myself drawn there to stay for a night or two at the Davis Mountains State Park. There are other worthwhile stops along TX-118 where I’ve enjoyed spending time, such as McDonald Observatory and Madera Canyon Roadside Park. I’m certain there is much more in the Davis Mountains region I’ve yet to discover. Perhaps one day, I’ll do so.

Here, I stopped for a few nights. I found birds there during my stay, that included Acorn Woodpecker, Black-Headed Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Canyon Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Rufous-Crowned Sparrow, White-Winged Dove, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay.