Tejas Trail from Dog Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Yesterday, we headed up to Guadalupe Mountains National Park since it had been too long since we'd been to Dog Canyon in the northernmost reaches of the park.  We stopped at the ranger station before checking in at the trailhead, and we were very glad we did.  It was in the upper 90s and the ranger told us the Tejas trail had the most shade, and he was right.  We were able to hike longer in the heat because most of the trail had the blessing of shade cover. 

This is a trail backpackers take through the park, ending up at Pine Springs or the McKittrick Canyon trailhead, and there's the Tejas backcountry campsites,  6.2 miles from Dog Canyon.  Backpackers need to take all their water with them, because the trail is rich in views and wildlife and adventure, but not water!
Here's a link to the park's map.

You can also bring your horse to this part of the park, as there's a corral at the trailhead in Dog Canyon.  Read more here.

Because Dog Canyon is high country forest, there are different birding opportunities here.  The park's website says the area is a great place to view acorn woodpeckers and the magnificent hummingbird.  The ranger station at Dog Canyon had several hummingbird feeders, providing a great show early and late in the day, especially!

Last Night's Sunset in Marfa!

Terlingua's Starlight Theatre

One of the region's special dining experiences is offered off the River Road (Hwy 170) and up the road through the adobe and stone ruins deep in Terlingua Ghostown.  The Starlight, an actual theatre built in the 1930s now offers live music many days of the week and serves dinner EVERY day of the week. 

Check out their Facebook page for menu updates and the entertainment schedule! 

Everyone is welcome at the Starlight...we've dined with cowboys, river guides, park rangers, geologists, birders, families with kids.  And they're smoke-free! 

The Starlight Theatre is listed, along with other dining options in Terlingua Ghostown, by Visit Big Bend here.  The New York Times' review is here.

Open Air Sleeping Rooms at Stone Village Tourist Camp!

Porchsitting is welcomed and encouraged!

Inside one of the open air camp rooms

One entire wall of your room is open to the fresh air!  A securable screen door and screen windows keep you inside.  And your bicycle can stay inside too...plenty of room in this cycle-friendly property.

One of the most unique accommodations in our region is the 1935 Stone Village Tourist Camp in Fort Davis.  Fully restored and renovated with modern conveniences, this property is in Fort Davis on the main street...which puts it on the gem of a cycling route, the Scenic Loop!

In addition to regular motel rooms, they also offer open air camp rooms...sleeping there is a perfect blend of the convenience and comfort of a motel room and camping outside.  You can get full benefit of the soft desert breezes and cool summer nights!

This property is also a participant in our Texas Mountain Trail cycle-friendly program.  Here's their listing from our cycling page: 

Stone Village Tourist Camp, 509 State Street, Fort Davis, TX 79734, 432-426-3941, www.stonevillagetouristcamp.com  Renovated 1935 tourist court located in the middle of Fort Davis. Cycle-friendly features include: in-room bike parking; choice of motel-style rooms, suites (w/microwave and refrigerator) and modernized open air camp rooms with securable screen doors; wi-fi; next-door access to natural foods grocery/deli/bakery; pool.

Exploring the history of Big Bend National Park

All over Big Bend National Park, visitors can see remnants of early life in the area.  Our photo today comes from Lee Towns, the Director of our partner organization along the Gulf Coast, the Texas Independence Trail.  Taking a trip to Houston or the communities in that region?  Consult them!
But even city-dwellers like folks from Houston head to our region to experience the frontier. 

Big Bend National Park's website says this about the historical settlement of the area:

"Ranches, villages, trading posts and cavalry camps all existed in the Big Bend in the century prior to the park's establishment. A number of historic districts within the park protect the tangible evidence of human history in this region; elsewhere solitary ruins, graves or camps mark the spots where history was made."   Read more here.

Wearing a sunbonnet to climb those rocks!

Another great image of early life in Van Horn from the collection of the Clark Hotel Museum!

Ojito Adentro Trail in Big Bend Ranch State Park--water, even in a drought

View of the trail from the trailhead.  Look beyond the ocotillo to the green of the cottonwoods...that's where we're going!

A cool, fern-covered pool in the center of the desert!

Big Bend Ranch State Park has some wonderful hiking opportunities, including some treks to water.  Even in the desert, even during a drought, the Ojito Adentro trail delivers a surprise after a stroll through flatland with prickly pear, a scramble over rocks, to a cottonwood covered streambed.  And then...more scrambling over rocks to a lovely pool area covered with ferns!

The trailhead (top photo) is about halfway on the road to the center of the park, the road to Sauceda Ranch. When you park your car, you can see your destination...the green of the cottonwood trees in the distance gives you just a hint as to what's greeting you at the end of the trail!

A Common Thread: Textile Artists Anne Eckley and Ann Matlock at the Museum of the Big Bend

Dusk by Anne Eckley

Head on over to the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University in Alpine!  Starting May 15th, they're going to showcase the work of textile artists, Anne Eckley and Ann Matlock.  Free motion embroidery work of Anne Eckley along with the weavings and watercolors of Ann Matlock will be on exhibit through August 5. 

An evening opening reception will be held on June 8 from 6 to 8 pm at the museum.  A Gallery Talk is scheduled for the following morning from 10am to 12 noon featuring both artists at the museum. Tickets are $15 per person and seating is limited.  Works will be available for sale and a percentage of each sale will benefit the Museum of the Big Bend.

Anne Eckley is a native of Oklahoma, but came to Texas over forty years ago.  She received her BA and MA from the University of Oklahoma and a MA in Education from Central State University.  She has worked with jewelry, sculpture, ceramics and paintings, but found her voice when she began to paint with a sewing machine.  Initially she created wearable art and then moved to thread paintings. Anne sketches the design on canvas, over paints with acrylic paint and using free motion machine stitches, covers the canvas with thousand of stitches.  Her works are exhibited across the United States, France, Mexico and Switzerland.

Red Tomato, Home by Ann Matlock

Ann Matlock was born and raised in Texas. She received her BFA in Painting and Photography and an MFA in Art Education from the University of Texas, Austin.  Ann is a Professor at Lamar University, Beaumont, where she teaches Fibers, Art Education and Design.  She has been weaving since 1969 and hand spins and hand dyes most of her yarns.  Her weavings combine traditional tapestry techniques with brocade stitches that she has developed.  Ann also creates watercolors painted on location, which are the basis for many of her weavings.  Her works are exhibited across the United States and are in corporate, public and private collections.

The Museum of the Big Bend is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9am to 5pm and Sunday 1 to 5pm.  Parking and admission is free, but donations are always welcome.  For more information about this exhibit and how to purchase tickets to the Gallery Talk, please contact Mary Bones at 432-837-8734 or by email at maryb@sulross.edu.

Hummingbird Season!

Hummingbird on an agave!

A couple of years ago, we had the chance to watch a hummingbird banding session at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center near Fort Davis.  Even the casual visitor to the Center this time of year is treated to a wonderful hummingbird viewing opportunity.  There are many feeders hanging around the visitor center, and you're welcome to sit awhile and enjoy watching these beautiful creatures.

Since the hummingbirds are back, we thought we'd share some of those banding session photos with you!

The hummingbird are captured in cages and temporarily put in mesh bags while they await inspection and tagging

Birds are handled carefully during very step of examination

Measuring each bird, before applying the band

Blowing air through a straw to move the birds feathers aside.  Is this female hummingbird carrying eggs?  Their skin is so transluscent, you can see eggs!

Lovely!

After handling, they remain still, then flip over and fly off!

Our region has been hard hit the past couple of years with drought--and last year, wildfire--and that's been tough on habitat and food sources for birds.  One of the keys for hummingbird survival is the sugar water bird lovers put out at hummingbird feeders. 

Would you like to feed hummingbirds and help with their survival?  There's a complete guide written by a resident of our region, Carolyn Ohl, available here.  Our region is also lucky to have Kelly B. Bryan, a hummingbird expert...the same gentleman who conducted the banding session at Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center.  He has a great website, www.westtexashummingbirds.com and he's also provided a great guide to the birds of our Far West Texas Chihuahuan Desert from Texas Parks and Wildlife here. 

The Nature Center is one of many sites on the Far West Texas Wildlife Trail, a project of our own Texas Mountain Trail, our neighboring Texas Pecos Trail and Texas Parks and Wildlife!

We wish we knew the story!

Another of the wonderful images of early life in Van Horn, from the collection of the Clark Hotel Museum.  We wish we knew the story behind this image...should we make up one?

Sunset over Historic Sauceda Ranch

And the ranch in the daylight!

Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest state park in Texas and offers some of the best mountain biking anywhere (And who says so?  The International Mountain Biking Association says so!) as well as great hiking and photography opportunities.  When you're in the park you're WAY out in the wilderness.  Most campsites are are away from each other, and there's lots of privacy and quiet in which to enjoy an evening's sunset.

Visitors can also stay in the park's bunkhouse or the Big House, which is the historic ranch house in the center of the park.  The Sauceda Ranch, in the center of the park (where the bunkhouse and the Big House are located) is the location of the first ranch established here in 1894.

Click here to view a walking tour guide for the historic Sauceda Ranch.  Take the tour, and you'll see the Tack Room, the Wool Barn, Corrals, the Dormitory and the Big House!

Cholla Blooming Season

We're starting to see some lovely cholla blooming in the region!

The tree cholla is common in our Chihuahuan Desert landscape, and often is the only green plant around.  It generally grows between 2,000 and 7,000 feet.  After the plant dies, the long branches dry and reveal a skeleton-like cane.

Lost: Culberson County Courthouse

One thing Texas does VERY well is provide resources for the preservation of county courthouses.  The funds are limited, making the climate very competitive, but the folks at the Texas Historical Commission do their best at making the most of a limited budget.  Read about the courthouse restoration program here.

The program came too late for the folks in Culberson County.  This courthouse, long a community center as well as a governmental center, was razed in the 1960s for a more modern building.  Many a Van Horn resident today, wishes we could reverse the decision to take down the old courthouse.

Centennial Pioneers Dance at Culberson County Courthouse, 1936, Photograph, 1936; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14149/ : accessed May 28, 2012), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas. 

Click on the photos to get a closer view!

Dog Canyon area of Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Photo by Don Baumgardt

The view as you drive into Dog Canyon from the north

This weekend, a fire closed the southern edge of Guadalupe Mountains National Park where many visitors to the park base their stay.  Yet Dog Canyon at the north edge of the park remained uncrowded, open for business, and lovely.

Adjacent to the Dog Canyon campground, corrals for your horse!

Check the park's website here, and page down to read about trails from the Dog Canyon area of the park.

Memorial Day Greetings

A jackrabbit visits the cemetery in Marathon!

A cooler place on a hot day down by the river

For a short, easy hiking adventure with plenty of shade from the hot sun, try Closed Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park

Light reaches through the narrow Closed Canyon, part of Big Bend Ranch State Park
easily accessible from the River Road between Terlingua and Presidio

This is an easy, 1.4 mile hike in shade most of the time, and considered a highlight of any visit to Big Bend Ranch State Park. 

Hikers enjoy the stroll between tall rock canyon faces; this is a cool and quiet place just above the Rio Grande.  There are stretches with slick rock at your feet, and places with an abrupt drop of a yard or so....so only go as far into the canyon as you feel comfortable.  We'd recommend taking this hike on clear days, since a (rare) day with rain could produce a flash flood.

The trailhead is located on Hwy 170, known as the River Road, between the Ranchieras West and Ranchieras East trailheads.  After a brief hike through typical Chihuahuan Desert terrain, you reach the canyon opening.

Our friend, Dawn, wrote a wonderful blog entry (with lots of great pictures!) about her hike in the canyon.  Read it here.

Here's a link to a detailed trail report.

Beautiful Presidio County Courthouse at Dawn

In Marfa!

Evening light near Marfa

in the Greenhouse

A lovely from Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center.  WWW.cdri.org

View from the Amtrak

On the Sunset Limited, heading west to Marathon!