Big Bend to Fort Davis

Friday, March 19, 2010

We pulled out of the Big Bend Motor Inn and RV Park at 10:00 AM for the short trip to Fort Davis, Texas.  The drive north on Texas 118 was fairly easy, although we made several stops before we got to our destination.  A trip of only 104 miles. 

We hooked-up and then went to the Motor Inn to check-out.  I found this to be a pain as we are used to paying for our camping up front and then just leaving the next morning.  This was more like renting a room.   We were on the road  and up to 65 mph when I happened to look in the rear-view mirror.  (Normally with the trailer hooked-up I only use the exterior side mirrors.)  There on the diesel slip tank was the bag of garbage that we should have left in the dumpster at the park.  I slowed down so the bag did not go flying off in the time it took me to find a place to turn off.  There was an old RV park with a nice large area to turn around so I pulled in and grabbed the garbage from the back and put it into the back seat behind Janet, despite her protests that it belonged in the bed of the truck.  We were back on the road and within a few miles there was a litter barrel just off the highway where we dumped our load.  We were fortunate that we did not “Mess with Texas” as there is a hefty fine for littering.

The terrain here is quite mountainous and the road curves and dips through the passes and valleys requiring you to stay at a reasonable speed.  As we neared the town of Alpine, we came across a Border Inspection Station and we had to make our third stop of the morning.  We pulled up to the stop sign and I rolled down my window.  The guard asked if we were American citizens and I replied, “No we are Canadians.”  He then asked for our passports, to which I said, that I had left them in the trailer.  He asked us to pull off to the side so as not to block traffic so that I could get the passports.  As I came around to the passenger side of the trailer I was met now by 2 border patrol officers.  As I went up into the bedroom to find the passports, the first officer followed me into the trailer.  As he did so, I thought I heard the second officer say, “Be careful”.  I came out slowly empty handed, as I just then remembered that I had put the passports into one of the pockets of my cargo pants.  After I had handed them to number 1, I exchanged pleasantries with number 2 about Big Bend.  Number 1, took a few minutes looking at the passports before declaring we were OK to go.

We were soon climbing fairly steadily into the mountains and I could see that the transmission temperature was starting to go over 195 and the coolant was rising over 100.  The outside temperature was already at 26 Celsius.  I had not yet removed the decorative grill on the front of the truck but decided I had better do that as we were going to venture into some still higher elevations.  From past experience it is a lot easier to perform this operation at a convenient pullout rather than on the shoulder of a steep mountain road with steam coming from the overflow tank and heat warning bells chiming like a symphony!!!  The pullout came just before Alpine, Texas at a scenic overlook above the town. This area of Texas doesn’t seem quite as arid as the desert that we had just travelled through so it was relatively refreshing despite the fact that the trees are just starting to leaf out here.  I suppose that winter lasts just a little longer here in the west Texas hills.

By the time we had registered at our new campground just outside the town of Fort Davis, it was just after 1;00 PM.  The manager had given us a handful of information and brochures but what we had never seen at any other campground was a printed “Things to do around Fort Davis” list and a scenic loop tour around the county.  After a little lunch we decided on scenic tour.  The first part of the tour took us through some fairly arid ranch land but the second half brought us into the Davis Mountains and some “lusher” land able to support trees on beautiful rolling hills.  We stopped in at Indian Lodge and Davis Mountains State Park. (This is one of only a handful of Texas State parks that offer both Full Service sites and Wi-Fi – we had tried to make reservations here before we left Big Bend but all the sites had been fully booked for mid-term break.)  We took the skyline drive to the top of the basalt cliffs that overlook the town of Fort Davis.  There had been a recent fire on the south slope of the drive but you could already see that the grasses and sotol cactus were already starting to recover. We drove through the campground which was nicely laid out in the trees and then drove to Indian Lodge.  This lodge had been built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), during the depression years as a relief project by then president Roosevelt.  It is a rustic looking lodge made of white plastered adobe.  On the homeward route we passed the MacDonald Observatory and Fort Davis National Historic Site, after which the town is named.  Jefferson Davis was the Secretary of War at the time and it was named after him.  (Jeff Davis later became the president of the Confederate States of America.)