Davis Mountains State Park, TX
03/26, Site 67 | 04/01, Site 78
We initially planned to stay at Davis Mountains State Park as a pit stop on our way to Marfa, but ended up loving it so much that we went back on our way from Big Bend to Hueco Tanks State Park. It was a surprisingly awesome campground, well laid out with beautiful strenuous hikes on the surrounding mountains.
DAY 1 (3/26)
We arrived on the afternoon of my birthday and got settled into our (very un-level) campsite. The sites were beautiful, it was the first time we had trees around us since Lost Maples. We went on a hike up the mountain, which we thought was going to be pretty low-key but ended up having way more elevation — we basically made it to the top of the mountain and had incredible 360 views all around us. We also had cell phone reception for the first time in DAYS, so ironically we hung out on top of the mountain to check in with friends and family for a while.
That evening, we headed to McDonald Observatory for a Star Party. It was looking pretty cloudy, and there were two epic thunderstorms coming in from either side of the sunset. We got up there early and made dinner in the van, had a birthday whiskey, and watched the sunset. The Star Party was awesome — way more people than I anticipated, but a really cool experience. We laid down on our blanket (as instructed by our friend, thanks Kylene!) to watch the guy give us the constellation tour with his mega powerful laser pointer. It started to get cloudier, so he sent us all over to the telescopes where we looked at several open star clusters. It made us want to buy a telescope (conveniently sold in their gift shop)…
We drove down the mountain in total darkness and went straight to sleep. In the morning, we checked out the bird blinds which were so cool — lots of great close views of birds feeding at the feeders and bathing in the pools.
DAY 2 (04/01)
Because we loved it so much the first time, we booked another night here as we were leaving Big Bend. This provided a much-needed shower stop and it felt surprisingly delightful to be in a familiar place. We also ran into a couple we met in Chisos Basin, who also have a converted van — they happened to be in the campsite right next to ours! We decided that despite its size, Texas is a small world.
BIRD LIST:
Townsend’s Solitaire — White-winged Dove — Black-chinned Hummingbird — Acorn Woodpecker — Pine Siskin — Dark-eyed Junco — Canyon Towhee — Yellow-rumped Warbler
