After breakfast at IHOP we left Del Rio for Fort Davis. About 45 miles outside of town we stopped at Seminole Canyon State Park. it was very interesting and proved to be a great stop over. We checked out the visitor and information center and took a short walk down to the canyon. Imagine a canyon a couple of hundred feet deep and at least that wide that is dry . . . except when it rains. As the water rushes down the canyon at each turn it carves huge overhang in the canyon wall. People thousands of years ago began living in these overhangs to get shelter from the elements so there are tons of artifacts and whatnot along with wall paintings and such.
We drove a little bit further into the park and then hiked about 30 minutes back to an overlook where two canyons converged just before feed in to the Rio Grande. We came to the most amazing site. The walls are approaching two hundred feet tall and the cliffs are essentially straight up and down with huge boulders in the water below from where the cliff walls have collapsed over time due to the erosion by the wind and water. We stayed there for about a half hour just soaking up this incredibly beautiful site and then made our way back to the truck and onward west.
The next significant stop was at the Pecos River bridge, which is the highest in Texas at 273 feet and replaced several much smaller bridges that kept getting washed away by the flooding waters of the Pecos. I first crossed this bridge on my motorcycle about ten years ago. You are driving along at 75+ mph, you enter a cut in the road that blocks your peripheral view and all evidence of what you are about to cross and when you exit the cut you find yourself on top of a narrow two lane bridge over a huge canyon. It’s incredibly disorienting and actually quite alarming the first time it happens.
On the bike it’s extra weird because you all ready have a sensation of flying on the bike and then when you burst out of that cut and find yourself on the bridge . . . let’s just say that it has a very high pucker factor :)
We stopped at the overlook first and took pictures and enjoyed the sights and then made the crossing over the Pecos. Next was Langtry and the Judge Roy Bean site.
There is actually a very nice visitor center which was not there when I came through back in 1998 and the actual buildings of the Salon/Court House/Pool Hall and Opera House are still there and in remarkably good shape.
From there we had to beat it to Sanderson, Marathon and Alpine and then into Fort Davis to get a campsite at Davis Mountain State Park. We had some really good BBQ at the Chuck Wagon in Fort Davis and then got up to the McDonald Observatory just in time for the Star Party.
The weather was great, the sky was clear and we got a great tour of the sky, the stars and the planets and then got to look at them again using the various telescopes their on the grounds. They ranged in size all the way from a 24 inch down to a set of tripod mounted, high power binoculars. They showed the Charles and Ray Eames short movie, The Power of 10 and it was generally a fascinating evening taking in some of the most wondrous features of God’s creations.
We got back to the campsite around 10:00, enjoyed a refreshing adult beverage and then hit the sleeping bags in the tent. I slept fitfully at first but eventually got some good rest. We got up around 7:00, struck camp, had breakfast at The Texas Drugstore in Fort Davis and headed off to Big Bend.
It’s been a great trip and we are both looking forward to one of the wonders of the world down on the Texas and Mexico border.
More to come . . .
Did you eat any of Judge Roy's beans?
Posted by: Lisa Buchanan | March 06, 2009 at 03:17 AM