A West Texas mountain escape, and gateway to the stars.
In the midst of the Chihuahuan desert, about 25 million years ago, volcanic activity helped to form the Davis Mountains. Now, higher elevation brings cooler weather and more rain, generating a unique ecosystem known as a sky island. The high elevation and low light pollution also offers an amazing view of the night skies. We chose to visit the Davis Mountains to escape the Texas summer heat. While we were in the region, we also visited Balmorhea State Park, McDonald's Observatory, Marfa, and Alpine.
After setting up our tent as base for our week-long trip, we went exploring around the park. We have a small car, and I’m a minimalist packer, so I usually just bring a foldable scooter for such ventures. But this time it was just me and the kiddo, so we had room for her bike. She was pretty stoked to explore with pedal power.
We first found the CCC trail. Like many Texas parks, the Davis Mountains State Park underwent substantial development during the 1930s’ CCC era. The CCC trail in the park was used during the construction of Skyline Drive, the road that heads up to several peak vantage points in the park. The CCC trail is rated for both mountain biking and hiking according to the park map, but I wouldn’t make plans to take your kids mountain biking on it. There was way too much loose rock. We tried it anyway, but only made it about a quarter of the way up before ditching the bike under a shrub.
Even if you are not into mountain biking, my strong opinion is that bikes or scooters are key to camping with kids. They’re useful for bathroom trips, “please go away” entertainment, and to allow your offspring to join the packs of wheeled children that often arise in campgrounds. The number of hiking trails my kid has covered on her beat-up little kick scooter is also pretty astounding. I think clacking teeth must make it more fun? I also bring low-key entertainment (coloring, card games), good in a pinch if it rains. Despite some rainy days and storms, we managed to only use these in sunny weather on this trip.
Our explorations also landed us at the park's interpretive center. This was a pretty cool feature, literally and figuratively. Even in the mountains, the Texas summer sun can be brutal, and having a little bit of respite is life-affirming. The interpretive center had puzzles and educational TV programs. But, most awesome was the bird blind window. Most bird blinds we’ve encountered are not half-pint friendly. When kids have to scale the wall just to see out, it defeats the purpose as I have yet to see this be a quiet process. Here, from the comfort of an air-conditioned room, kids can (and will) sit at a window and watch humming birds dive bomb birds ten times larger. We also saw the largest doves (white-winged) I’ve ever seen. If indoors is not your jam, there is an outdoor, shaded bird blind facing the same area.
Our first morning, we headed out to hike the Skyline drive trail, which meanders up the same elevation change as its namesake road. On the trail, we crossed over one of the spring-fed creeks that supports the diverse wildlife in the park. We also managed to spook a Montezuma quail out of the brush. Unfortunatley, I failed as a hiker and somehow lost the trail map…all three copies of them. So after making the ascent, there was some confusion on my part as to how to meet up with the CCC trail to loop back down. In the end, as the midday sun was bearing down on us, I ended up having us turn back around to do the hike as an up and back. When we drove up with my parents later in the week, of course I found that we had almost been to where we needed to be.
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