The Texas Alps

Currently In:  Mercedes Texas
Next Up: Austin

Tim and Jenny decided to take us on another scenic drive through the Davis Mountains.  On our way there, we made a quick stop at the Chihuahuan Botanical Garden.  We were not there to hike and had seen lots of botanical plants, so we took at quick look at the Happy Jack Mine museum.

On to the main event!  This is the start of the scenic loop drive.

First we saw the lodges from the Apache tribes that originally inhabited this area.

Fort Davis was built in 1854 to protect travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road.  Once the Civil War started, this frontier fort was abandoned.  We saw ruins of the original Fort.

 These barracks remain from the post-Civil War Fort.  The fort was re established in 1867 and staffed primarily with Buffalo (black) Soldiers to keep the area safe from Apaches.

This is the row of Officer Housing.

The stonework is native to this area and I thought it was really beautiful.

I love this shot with the Davis Mountains in the background.

The other big stop on the scenic loop is the McDonald Observatory.  It's part of the University of Texas - Austin.

Highest point on our journey today is at the Observatory!

With beautiful views of the area.  The Davis Mountains are known as the Texas Alps.

We saw the Harlan J Smith telescope turning from the outside, but we were not able to go inside to view the actual telescope.  It's on Mount Locke.

But we did get to walk in and see the Hobby Eberly (on Mt. Fowlkes) telescope when we attached ourselves to a tour.  I couldn't get a photo of the telescope itself due to the angle of the view through a glass window, but we saw the mirrors, arms and got a bit of an explanation from the tour guide.

We finished the rest of the loop which had more desert landscapes, but it was a cloudy day and photos were difficult.
Although the weather was not good enough to enjoy the Marfa lights the next day, we were treated to a beautiful sunset when we returned to Alpine that evening.