We had mixed feelings about leaving Maverick Ranch and Big Bend. It is a super nice park; the scenery is out of this world and the community is friendly. But we still have a refrigerator issue (or so we thought, but more on that later) and today’s plans include a 2 1/2-hour drive to Davis Mountain State Park in Fort Davis, Texas for an overnight stop before driving into Carlsbad for our RV appointment.
This is a beautiful park with numerous attractions nearby including Fort Davis, a frontier military post in the 1800s. After getting our site set up, we unhitched and drove down the mountain to the Fort.
This was an amazing historic site, with many of the original buildings, equipment, artifacts, and furnishings from the original fort established pre-Civil War in the 1850s and continuing in operation until the 1880s. We could have spent more time here looking in the buildings and reading the history behind the fort, learning about the men and women who served here, and the wagon trains who were protected by the fort while enroute further west. On occasion, we heard a bugle call playing that is the exact replica of how it sounded in the 1800s. It was so interesting, but time was short today, and we made our way to another equally interesting site in this area.
The State Park campgrounds are located part-way up Davis Mountain, but there is a road leading from the campground that travels to the top of the mountain. While driving up we came across a couple camp hosts who are sweeping rocks from the roadway. We assume this is a regular activity here due to the rock walls beside the narrow road. When we reach the top, the views are 360 degrees for miles overlooking the valleys and mountains of this region. There are trails that lead up to the peak of the mountain and I am certain Ron would have hiked it we had more time. We took many photos here as well as at the Fort before heading back to our campsite for the night.
We had a woodpecker visiting the light post next to our campsite and took a few pictures of them, learning later they are an Acorn Woodpecker who have a very limited range in North America and usually can only be seen in East Texas. There is definitely at least a pair here in Western Texas in these campgrounds.
Since we are leaving early in the morning, we decided to hitch up tonight rather than early morning in the dark. Tomorrow we will be in New Mexico and out of Texas.
2025 Airstream Travels 