West Texas is huge. It takes 8 hours at least to get from our house to El Paso. We have been thru most of west Texas except for the lower western corner. There is actually a lot of things to see and do in that area, you have to be patient tho its not a short drive. Also, be prepared for a lot of heat and extreme weather.
We took off around 9 am for our trip west. I had planned a full schedule for the day, sometimes I over plan things, but I was determined and Chuck was dreading it.
We drove two hours west to Sonora. Drove out to Sonora Caverns, its pretty far out there off of Hwy 10. We were surprised to find that it costs $20 per person. Now sometimes caverns are fantastic and really worth paying to see, but we weren't sure about this one and twenty dollars a piece when your not sure about something is a bit much. We were also being asked to wait 45 minutes for the next tour and of course this would interfere with my timeline, you know the one I was going to stick to no matter what. So we voted to move on down the road.
After another two hours "plus" of driving and a couple more cups of coffee for Chuck we finally got to Balmorhea State Park. Balmorhea State Park is described as a "Oasis in the Desert" and it realy is.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/balmorhea. It has the largest spring fed pool in the world, the pool is built over the San Soloman Springs. The pool and lodges were built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corp. Its a beautiful place, although starting to be a bit rundown, as are all of our parks. The lodges has seen better days. I took our own cleaning supplies, just in case and I did use them here. After checking in we immediately changed into our bathing suits and took off to the pool which was just a few steps away. Took a bit of time to get into the water, its a constant 70+ degrees becase it is fed by a spring. Its not clorinated, the water is constantly flowing thru at thousands of gallons an hour, there is algae and fish, but the water is extremely clear and clean. The deepest point is 30 feet. Its a huge, beautiful pool and was very refreshing.
After our swim we quickly changed and went to dinner. Not a lot of places to eat in the city of Balmorhea, as a matter of fact there is only one, and the next decent restaurant is about 30 minutes away. So we strolled into "The Bear Den". A mexican food place run by a local family, they also have a small hotel that had great reviews. The food was great as was the service. We were in a hurry though so ate fast. Cause you know the "schedule" had to be maintained and we were running late. I drive myself crazy sometimes with stuff like this.
The next scheduled stop was McDonald Observatory.
They have a good selection of different programs to choose from, look on their website for more information. The website is also a great place to play for awhile.
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/
Fantastic drive up there while the sun was setting.
We decided that night we would drive down to Alpine the next morning and drive home along Hwy 90.
All four of us really enjoyed the scenary through this area. Lots of rocky bluffs. It was windy and hot out, but we dressed in boots and jeans cause we like to stop, get out and look around.
Next stop was Alpine and food. Alpine is a little desert community of Artists. I counted 8 galleries in our short time there in the little downtown area. We stopped at the Bread and Breakfast just in time for...lunch. Breakfast already over with, oh well, I was impressed that they had 3 different kinds of iced tea without sugar, a rarity in Texas. All of our food was really good, the place could do with a good cleaning and there is no AC, lots of fans and it was cool enought housed in an old building on main street. I quickly ruined the no sugar iced tea rule by indulging in a very large cinnamon roll and coffee. It was great. Tiffany informed us she "was having fun"!!!
We proceded out of town after stopping at the old courthouse and walking around the little park viewing some of the old historical markers.
Rolling along Hwy 90, which is just north of Big Bend National Park, no time to stop this trip. We plan another trip in cooler weather to the park. Long long drive across this area, till we finally reached Langtry TX. Where Judge Roy Bean museum is at, we decided to forgo the museum but drove down to the cliff overlooking the Rio Grande.
That is Mexico on the other side.
Tiffany gazing off into Mexico.
It was so extremely hot and windy here, but we really enjoyed it. Not a lot of water we could see in the Rio Grande at this point, its probably a shallow area. The deeper areas are west of this point. There are a few homes overlooking the river but most of Langtry (or Eagles Nest is the old name) is a ghost town.
We moved onto Del Rio from here. Chuck wanted to do some work, then we drove on home across Hwy 90.
We had a great time together and enjoyed this section of Texas. If you plan on going out this way make sure your vehicle is in top working order, keep track of how much gas you have, gas stations are few and far between. Take plenty of water and even keep food handy, miles and miles of empty spaces with no help and phone reception is minimal if they work at all. We came across a couple that were planning on driving out to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center but had a flat tire with no way to fix it. We had one of those air compressors that you can plug into your cig lighter.
Next trip we take out this way will be to Big Bend where we plan on rafting down the Rio Grande.
