Do we have Texas' TOP Destinations? YES, we DO!

Casa Grande in Big Bend National Park

Does our Texas Mountain Trail region have the best travel destinations in Texas?  YES, we think so!!

Fort Davis National Historic Site

Now's your turn to tell Texas Highways all about them...they're looking for public input on the TOP 40 destinations in the state! 

Is any of these?

Night sky outside Marathon

Hueco Tanks

Marfa's art community
Prada Marfa

McDonald Observatory

Fall colors at McKittrick Canyon,
Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Click HERE to tell them your favorite Texas Mountain destination!  Deadline is October 15!

Perseid Meteor Shower Parties at Hueco Tanks and Franklin Mountains State Park!

Join us for a Perseid Meteor Shower Party from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday, August 11 at Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, 6900 Hueco Tanks Rd. #1, El Paso, Texas 79938.
Rangers from Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site and Franklin Mountains State Park will lead presentations and activities about the Perseid meteor shower, constellation folklore, and our vanishing dark skies. Then, view the cosmos through two provided telescopes or sit back and enjoy the meteor shower! Participants should bring a flashlight, folding chair or blanket, and water.

Reservations are required, and will be taken until the program is full. Call 915-857-1135 or 915-849-6684 for information and reservations. $2 ages 5 and up.

A Perseid Meteor Shower Party is also scheduled for 8:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, August 9 at Franklin Mountains State Park’s Tom Mays Unit.
- See more at: http://texasmountaintrail.com/events/perseid-meteor-shower-party#sthash.v41F0yq9.dpuf

Hikers at Hueco Tanks have a full view of
the sky for the Perseid Meteor Shower,
they're just there a little early in the day!

Join us for a Perseid Meteor Shower Party from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday, August 11 at Hueco Tanks State Park &Historic Site.

Rangers from Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site and Franklin Mountains State Park will lead presentations and activities about the Perseid meteor shower, constellation folklore, and our vanishing dark skies. Then, view the cosmos through two provided telescopes or sit back and enjoy the meteor shower! Participants should bring a flashlight, folding chair or blanket, and water.

Reservations are required, and will be taken until the program is full. Call 915-857-1135 or 915-849-6684 for information and reservations. $2 ages 5 and up.

A Perseid Meteor Shower Party is also scheduled for 8:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, August 9 at Franklin Mountains StatePark’s Tom Mays Unit.

The listing for the event on our calendar is here.

Join us for a Perseid Meteor Shower Party from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday, August 11 at Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, 6900 Hueco Tanks Rd. #1, El Paso, Texas 79938.
Rangers from Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site and Franklin Mountains State Park will lead presentations and activities about the Perseid meteor shower, constellation folklore, and our vanishing dark skies. Then, view the cosmos through two provided telescopes or sit back and enjoy the meteor shower! Participants should bring a flashlight, folding chair or blanket, and water.

Reservations are required, and will be taken until the program is full. Call 915-857-1135 or 915-849-6684 for information and reservations. $2 ages 5 and up.

A Perseid Meteor Shower Party is also scheduled for 8:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, August 9 at Franklin Mountains State Park’s Tom Mays Unit.
- See more at: http://texasmountaintrail.com/events/perseid-meteor-shower-party#sthash.v41F0yq9.dpuf

New "El Paso's Hueco Tanks" Video!

There's an excellent new video about Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site available for those with an interest in native peoples, rock art, the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage route, geology, birding, and on and on.  The preview video is right here!

You can purchase a copy of the full video here.

Our Texas Mountain Trail board had a hand in the funding of this project, as we recommended it receive a grant from the Texas Historical Commission's heritage tourism partnership grant program.

(Sadly this grant program was discontinued due to state budget consideration.)

Watercolor Paintings of Rock Art at Hueco Tanks at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Our friends at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology sent us this about a current exhibit:

Watercolor Paintings of Rock Art at Hueco Tanks

Exhibit on view until June 3, 2012

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology is currently exhibiting Forrest Kirkland’s images of rock art at Hueco Tanks in the auditorium gallery.   

Kirkland was the first artist to systematically document prehistoric rock art in Texas, thus his work is well known and admired by those interested in Texas archaeology. 

The twenty six images in this exhibit, which include hundreds of pictographs, are full color reproductions scanned at high resolution from Kirkland’s plates.  The original watercolors are no longer in a condition to be exhibited because the paper and paints are brittle and light sensitive.  Today some of the images Kirkland rendered in watercolor have faded or disappeared while others in sheltered locations are still visible.

Want to learn more or plan a visit?  Here's the museum's website.

12 Days of Christmas: Many Days of Adventure and Fun with the Texas State Parks Pass

Want room all to yourself?  View from a campsite at Big Bend Ranch State Park

The lovely interior of Fort Davis State Park's Indian Lodge, a CCC-built facility

Spring bloom of poppies at Franklin Mountains State Park

Another TERRIFIC buy for your holiday shopping that reaps benefit all year long...a Texas State Parks Pass, so you can enjoy visiting our wonderful Texas Mountain Trail region state parks!

Here's a link to information and instructions for purchasing your pass!

Our Texas Mountain Trail regional state parks!  Visit one soon!
Franklin Mountains State Park
Wyler Aerial Tramway
Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site
Fort Leaton State Historic Site
Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center
Big Bend Ranch State Park
Davis Mountain State Park (with Indian Lodge)
and just outside our region, but we'll claim it!  Balmorhea State Park

Give the gift of adventure and fun this holiday season with a state parks pass!

Cool Places on Hot Days! Shade of the Rocks at Hueco Tanks!

Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, just a half hour from El Paso, has caves and rock overhangs that offer shelter from the sun's heat.  These are places early people marked the rocks with pictographs.  It was recently nominted as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's This Place Matters campaign.  Their website says this,"This place matters because it gives our visitors a rare glimpse into the minds and cultures of peoples of the past, through amazing painted images. It is a place that allows recreation in a wild and unique landscape, while inspiring stewardship for cultural heritage and the natural environment. This place preserves an irreplaceable connection to our shared past, for the benefit of today's visitors and future generations."

Due to the fragile nature of the rock art and the popularity of this small park for boulderers and birders, entry is limited.  Plan ahead, make reservations and enjoy! 

Rock Art of Big Bend Ranch State Park

Our region is full of traces of earlier life in the form of rock art, from Hueco Tanks in the west to Big Bend in the east.  Today's photo comes from Big Bend Ranch State Park from a place on the main road to Sauceda Ranch.  Here's a bit from their website about evidence of the archaeology and history of the park's land:


"Big Bend Ranch Sate Park offers some of the most interesting archeology and history in the region. There are presently over 500 documented sites on the park. Many of the known sites are located near water sources but sites also occur on upland areas away from any obvious drainages, springs or tinajas. There is both need and potential at BBRSP for additional archaeological research to be conducted.

 The earliest artifacts identified within BBRSP indicate that Native Americans traversed the area as early as perhaps 11,000 years ago, and continued to do so well into the 19th century. Native American site types attributable to the prehistoric era include open campsites, open camps associated with rock shelters, rock shelters, quarries, lithic scatters, Late Prehistoric Cielo complex (ca. A.D. 1250-1680) sites, rock art sites (primarily pictographs, or rock paintings) and special-use or ritual sites.
 Many pictographs that have been recorded within the Park are monochromatic red, black, or white. Bichrome and polychrome (red, black, yellow, white) figures also occur. The figures include humans, animals, insects, tally marks, double zigzags, hourglass chains, star patterns and various other abstract motifs. Most of these pictographs were probably painted during the Late Archaic (ca. 1000 B.C. - A.D. 1000) or Late Prehistoric (A.D. 1000 - 1535) periods. Other pictographs represented by human figures on horses, longhorn cattle, Spanish saddles and crosses date to the Protohistoric (ca. A.D. 1535-1700) period or later."

Read more from the park's website, here.

Texas Mountain Trail Classics Week: Hueco Tanks

Just 30 miles east of El Paso, Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site has been loved by local residents for years...so much so, that with the delicate rock art and world-class bouldering in the tiny park, planning a visit ahead of time is a necessity.  That's not to discourage travelers from taking in this magical place, you DO need to understand what's involved before you hike, watch birds, view ancient (and fragile) rock art, and climb those rocks!

The park's website says this, "For the protection of natural and cultural resources at the park, visitation is limited. Special reservation and entry restrictions are required at this park. Please contact the park or park information (1-800-792-1112-Option 3) for details."   Please take the time to do this, or else risk being turned away at the gate.

The park's website also says this about the fragile pictographs and the park's history:  "From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route."
 
Visitors come from all over the world to climb the boulders of this small 860 acre park.  Everyone entering the park will go through a brief orientation program designed to help visitors protect the pictographs and other park resources, even those who have reserved a place on the birding, hiking, bouldering, and pictograph tours noted on the website.  Don't let that deter you from visiting Hueco Tanks, a place with more biodiversity than many of the world's deserts! 

Click here to view a video of Hueco Tanks.  Click here to download a guide to the pictographs of Hueco Tanks.

Hueco Tanks is also a site on the new Far West Texas Wildlife Trail map.  Read more, and find a link to purchase the map here!

West Texas Trip!

Part of our work involves forging cooperative agreements with communities--small and large--to market our beautiful region.  The West Texas Trip partnership involves most of West Texas to promote our region to the motorcoach industry. 

We've built itineraries for bus tour travel (which can also be used by you and your family!) all across the region!  Take a look at the orange and green loops for ideas in the Texas Mountain Trail region!  This is one of the ways we promote economic activity in West Texas...each busload of travelers mean income for hotels, restaurants and attractions in our communities!

The links take you to our "Cowboy Country" itinerary, and we have more...this is just the first to go online.

Here's the link to the West Texas Trip website...check it out for ideas for your next trip out West!

Views from Hueco Tanks!

Near El Paso, Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site offers adventurers bouldering, hiking, rock art, and birding opportunities.  This small park has so many assets (and some--namely the rock art--is so fragile) that entrance is limited to a certain number every day.  That shouldn't deter visitors from experiencing this special place...just plan ahead, call ahead, make reservations ahead of time.

One of our friend, TR, alerted us to this article about winter birding at Hueco Tanks...take a look!

Hueco Tanks is a site on the new Far West Texas Wildlife Trail map...for more information, click here.

For regional hiking information, visit our hiking page: www.texasmountaintrail.com/hike

Rock Art and Beauty at Hueco Tanks

Hueco Tanks' rock art sets it apart from other public land in our region, in that spectacular and fragile rock art is visible to visitors.  Over 3000 images are located in the park, the earliest put there by hunters and gatherers known as Archaic Indians.  The Indians filled the hidden and secret places in the rocks with sacred paintings depicting their beliefs and the world around them.

To learn more about the rock art in the park, click here to download a 3.79 MG guide.

Check out our entries in the past two days for more information about this very special place near El Paso!

More images from Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site

Our thanks to TPWD for sharing these photos of this special place!  See yesterday's entry for more information about Hueco Tanks near El Paso.

What's a Hueco? Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site

"Huecos" (pronounced way-co's) are large natural rock basins that have furnished a supply of trapped rain water to dwellers and travelers in this arid region of west Texas for millennia.  Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, is located 32 miles northeast of El Paso in El Paso County. It offers great hiking, birding, rock art and world-class bouldering opportunity. 

Because of the special nature of the park's attributes, admission is limited to protect it from "being loved to death."  Please contact the park or park information (1-800-792-1112-Option 3) for details. 

The park has an incredible history.  TPWD's website says, "A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the "tanks." From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route. "

Thanks to TPWD for the use of this photo!  Check tomorrow's entry for more images of Hueco Tanks!

Climbing at Hueco Tanks

Hueco Tanks State Park and  Historic Site offers great bouldering opportunities for visitors who plan ahead.  Because this small park also has precious ancient rock art, special care and limited entry to the park is required.

From the park's website, "A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the "tanks." From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route."


To enjoy the park, visit TPWD's website and call the park for more information.

For the protection of natural and cultural resources at the park, visitation is limited. Special reservation and entry restrictions are required at this park. Please contact the park or park information (1-800-792-1112-Option 3) for details.

Photo courtesy, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

...and here's a Hueco!

See yesterday's entry for information about Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site near El Paso!

Exploring Hueco Tanks

Near El Paso, there's a wonderful park that provides hiking, birding, rock art expeditions and bouldering for visitors...Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site.

Here's what TPWD says about the park:

This 860.3-acre park is named for the large natural rock basins or "huecos" that have furnished a supply of trapped rain water to dwellers and travelers in this arid region of west Texas for millennia.

A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the "tanks." From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.



Because of the delicate ancient rock art, visitation is limited to protect it...but don't let that discourage you from visiting.  Just plan ahead and make a reservation with Texas Parks and Wildlife, the agency that manages the park.  The park is so popular, without a reservation you may not gain entry!

For other regional hiking information, visit: www.texasmountaintrail.com/hike

Flowering beauty at Hueco Tanks

Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site in El Paso County appeals to the birder, hiker, rock art enthusiast, camper and rock climber.  In fact, it offers so much to so many that visitation is limited to protect the resources of the park, particularly the ancient rock art.

That shouldn't dissuade you from visiting Hueco Tanks...just make arrangements well ahead of time.  For more information, click here.

What does Hueco mean?  And what are tanks? The 860.3-acre park is named for the large natural rock basins or "huecos" that have furnished a supply of trapped rain water to dwellers and travelers in this arid region of west Texas for millennia.

Thanks to TPWD for this great photo!

Hiking in Hueco Tanks

El Paso County's Hueco Tanks State Historic Site provides hiking tours, bouldering tours, rock art tours, and birding tours. Fragile rock art dating back 1,500 years limits the public's use of the park, so planning your visit ahead of time is essential. It is one of our very favorite places in the region, so make your reservation and enjoy a truly special experience.

Read more about the park here and here.

Blue Sky at Hueco Tanks

Visitors to El Paso miss a tremendous treat if they don't find some opportunity to head into the mountains, either at Franklin Mountains State Park or Hueco Tanks State Historic Site.

Because of the fragile nature of ancient rock art and the tremendous popularity of the world-class bouldering opportunities, visitation at this small park is limited and reservations are strongly encouraged. However, a visit to Hueco Tanks is also strongly recommended!

For more information about visiting Hueco Tanks click here.

Stagecoach Route

Down there, in the middle ground of this photo, is the original route of the Butterfield Overland Mail, a stagecoach making the first transcontinental mail delivery in 1858. The route runs through the current Guadalupe Mountains National Park (pictured here), Hueco Tanks State Historic Site, and the El Paso airport.

A year after the service was established, it was rerouted to the south and ran through Fort Davis and just south of Van Horn.

For more information on the Butterfield Overland Sesquicentennial, visit: www.texasmountaintrail.com/butterfield

An exhibit about the Butterfield Overland Mail can be seen through January at the El Paso Museum of History. For more information, click here.