Mountains to Mountains

Time to leave the Davis Mountains and head to the Guadalupe Mountains. Wednesday was a travel day and the Guadalupe Mountains National Park was our destination.





The day started bright, cool and clear; cool enough for a little icing in the water line but not blocked like yesterday. The motorcycles were packed in the trailer and all I had to do was disconnect the water and electricity and we would be off. As I disconnected the water and electricity, I twisted my back badly as I crouched in the cold morning air. Ouch! Walking today has not been fun.






Without further complications, we headed to Marfa, Texas. Marfa is an arts community in the middle of West Texas, miles from anywhere (well, 20 miles from Fort Davis and Alpine). While we thought we might take a look around, our actual reason for stopping was to do laundry. Marfa has the Tumbleweed Laundry and Frama (a coffee cafe and ice cream shop attached to the laundromat). We filled the washing machines, had coffee and split a lemon scone and fired up the computers to do email while waiting. How wonderful, they also have WiFi.






Did I mention that Marfa was an artsy kind of town? When we pulled up to the Tumbleweed, there was a group of people standing outside with cups of coffee and cigarettes in hand. One was a guy in jeans, boots, rawhide jacket and ten-gallon hat. Ellen remarked that he looked like he was right out of central casting. Sure enough, as I walked over to the building, I could hear him talking about making Westerns ... and then he sauntered over to his pick-up truck with the bedroll strapped on the back and drove off into the sun.






After finishing our laundry, we walked through downtown Marfa (slowly, in my case). There was not much to see except the historic Presidio Hotel and the county courthouse. The one gallery we came across was closed except on weekends. We did manage to find a small cafe with an outdoor courtyard for lunch and after that it was off to the Guadalupes.






There may be straighter and flatter roads than US 90 from Marfa to Van Horn, but I'd be hard pressed to name one. After a gas and grocery stop in Van Horn, we headed up a smaller road that went through more interesting countryside in a plain along a range called the Sierra Diablo. Off in the distance, we could see a huge windfarm with many turbines clocking around in the strong and steady wind off the plains. As we approached the Guadalupe Mountains, the sheer cliff of El Capitan stood out at the end of the mountain range. We had to climb a pass to the National Park Visitor Center and Speedy dragged the trailer up the hills, albeit a bit slowly. Finally, we entered the Mountain Time Zone and reached the park.






It is a relatively small and lightly visited national park which is surprising as it is not far from Carlsbad Caverns, but the mountains are pretty imposing and the hiking is supposed to be good. In fact, as I let the ibuprofin do it's work, Ellen headed out for a few hours on the Devil's Hall Trail by herself. Here's hoping my back improves by tomorrow as the hiking was our rationale for coming here.




Photos