George, Gene and I had a nice 5 or 6 hour tour out to Ft. Davis market day and then had a picnic in the Davis Mountains State Park. We'd never been before but George had. We didn't go to the town of Ft. Davis cos we've been so many times before and besides it was "t'other way".
The weather was perfect, perfect and perfect. Not too hot, not much wind and only TWO flies.
This area always gets more than Pecos...but it isn't green out there yet. The tips of the huge cottonwood trees are just starting to turn.
There's a rough and tough hike trail that goes to Ft. Davis itself. I think it's a 4 mile hike.
You can bring your horse to the park and trailride for a day or camp WITH your horse...they have a special area set aside for horse-campin'-people.
Then they have primitive campsites...if ya have a tent.
And then there's the campsites for folks with pop up campers, R.V.'s and 5th wheelers.
There's a cool adobe style hotel built in the 30's by the CCC called Indian Lodge.
You can see the Mcdonald Observatory waaaay off in the distance.
There are scenic overlooks and wildlife viewing spots.
They have certain trails for hiking and certain trails for biking.
Cost to get in was $3.
So, we actually DID something and WENT somewhere!
1. Park Entrance.
2. Park Exit.
3. Park Lookout.
4. Cool Rocks.
5. A "wild rose"...see explanation #13.
6. A windmill on the drive there.
7. Painted gourds that i bought at market day.
8. One of the park lookouts.
9. We picnic.
10. & 11. We like to take pictures of rocks.
12. An old, old rock fence that goes on for miles and miles on the way there...can you IMAGINE the backbreaking work it took to create... in the hot weather?
13. O.K. this is strange. We drive thru this little place called "Wild Rose Pass" and I always wondered why it was called that...I've never seen anything. Then today I SEE it and yell "STOP!" Turns out people stop there and tie fake flowers on the scrub bushes. I don't get it. Actually it was named Wild Rose Pass by a guy who was passing by in 1849 because there WERE demaree rose plants growing down yonder by the spring...well, there aren't any there now.
14. "Rockers" in front of a store across from the actual fort...the market day was next door.
15. duh...entrance again.
16. Indian Lodge close up...we should've gone inside it's been all remodeled and the pictures online look COOL.
17. Indian Lodge far away...click on this for a good view.
That's all.
love, mary
3 comments:
Dear Mary,
This was one of your best blogs yet. I really liked the pics. Duh, check out pic #3, absolutely zero shade. Can you imagine riding a horse across that country years ago? In the picture of Gene in the rocking chair, maybe he should be whittling or chewing some Red Man tobacky.
Love,
Dave
We will put Ft. Davis on our list of places to check out when we head west again. Probably '09
Excellent blogspot, Mary. Don't know if you remember, but Mom and Dad stayed at the CCC-constructed Indian Lodge on one of their bus expeditions.
Tell Dave that lack of shade bothered the horses back then - they get sunburned, too - especially paints and Appaloosas. Nope, don't know what the Indians did about that problem.
How 'bout whittlin' AND chawing Red Man?
Love, R.B.
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