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The "Dew Drop Inn" Chronicles
- Thread starter michaelo
- Start date
michaelo
Novice
If the roadrunner is Big Bend’s mascot then the javelina has to be Davis Mountain State Park’s. Our first morning at the park was chilly so Susan and I were having breakfast in bed when we heard glass clinking in the vicinity of our galley, I jumped up and found 3 javelinas going through our garbage. There wasn’t much in there really just a couple of empty beer bottles and an empty chip bag from the night before, they were mighty interested anyway. It looked to be 2 large adults and a adolescent, they were teaching the young one about people food early on in life. Suffice it to say we kept a meticulously clean camp after that. They seemed to come by in the mornings and the evenings, we had to watch out for them whenever we were cooking, they seemed to circle and we had to shoe them off when they got too close. Javelinas look like feral pigs but are actually a species indigenous to the southwest and are related to the South American taper, another name for them are collared peccary. We got pretty used to them and would get a kick out of the reaction from newly arriving campers coming face to face with their first collared peccary.
We stopped off in Alpine Texas after depleting our stores at Big Bend, turns out we didn’t have to, the town of Fort Davis has a well stocked supermarket, Alpine did have a better craft beer selection though. That brings up an important point, craft beer. There was a time in west Texas that you could not get a craft beer. I remember driving through west Texas only 3 years ago and not finding anything decent to drink, just the big three (actually it’s the big 2, Budwieser is owned by a Belgium company called InBev and to compete Coors and Miller joined forces and became one company) The world has changed and Texas has changed along with it. Now not only can you find drinkable out of state micro brewery beers stocked in Texas stores you have quite good Texas craft beers available as well. One of our favorite Texas brewers was Real Beer brewery from Austin and Saint Arnold (Saint Arnold is the patron saint of brewers) in Houston.
The campsites at Davis Mountain are nicely laid out, ample shade from the mature live oak trees, generously spaced for privacy and the best showers we’ve had on the entire trip. The campground was laid out by the Civilian Conservation Corp, they also built the Indian Lodge adjacent to the campground. It’s a beautiful adobe lodge, built into the slope of the mountain. It has been lovingly restored and is open for business.
There is a lot to do in the vicinity of the park. The MacDonald Observatory, this world famous facility is only a few miles away. The Fort Davis National Historic site is a must see. It is one of the most intact and preserved of the frontier forts. It was built to patrol the San Antonio to El Paso road against Apache and Comanche Indians and was named after the then Secretary Of War, Jefferson Davis in the 1850s. They have a Gatlin gun, restored officer and enlisted men quarters, a display of the Buffalo Soldiers that were stationed at the fort…
Marfa store window
Marfa is close by and worth a visit, it has a thriving art community. Also a most do is the Prada store just outside Valentine TX, a very cool permanent installation having to do with modern commercialism in a stark west Texas setting.
Next on our west Texas adventure is Guadalupe Mountains NP, I’ll leave that for a future post.
Michael
We stopped off in Alpine Texas after depleting our stores at Big Bend, turns out we didn’t have to, the town of Fort Davis has a well stocked supermarket, Alpine did have a better craft beer selection though. That brings up an important point, craft beer. There was a time in west Texas that you could not get a craft beer. I remember driving through west Texas only 3 years ago and not finding anything decent to drink, just the big three (actually it’s the big 2, Budwieser is owned by a Belgium company called InBev and to compete Coors and Miller joined forces and became one company) The world has changed and Texas has changed along with it. Now not only can you find drinkable out of state micro brewery beers stocked in Texas stores you have quite good Texas craft beers available as well. One of our favorite Texas brewers was Real Beer brewery from Austin and Saint Arnold (Saint Arnold is the patron saint of brewers) in Houston.
The campsites at Davis Mountain are nicely laid out, ample shade from the mature live oak trees, generously spaced for privacy and the best showers we’ve had on the entire trip. The campground was laid out by the Civilian Conservation Corp, they also built the Indian Lodge adjacent to the campground. It’s a beautiful adobe lodge, built into the slope of the mountain. It has been lovingly restored and is open for business.
There is a lot to do in the vicinity of the park. The MacDonald Observatory, this world famous facility is only a few miles away. The Fort Davis National Historic site is a must see. It is one of the most intact and preserved of the frontier forts. It was built to patrol the San Antonio to El Paso road against Apache and Comanche Indians and was named after the then Secretary Of War, Jefferson Davis in the 1850s. They have a Gatlin gun, restored officer and enlisted men quarters, a display of the Buffalo Soldiers that were stationed at the fort…
Marfa store window
Marfa is close by and worth a visit, it has a thriving art community. Also a most do is the Prada store just outside Valentine TX, a very cool permanent installation having to do with modern commercialism in a stark west Texas setting.
Next on our west Texas adventure is Guadalupe Mountains NP, I’ll leave that for a future post.
Michael
Jim and Sue L.
Junior Ranger
AsheWolf, you are a riot. I'm still rolling over the you betcha.
Michael, keep it coming. You've got a great story going here and thank you so much for sharing. Glad you're keeping safe. And speaking of safe, watch out for those wild pigs. They can get nasty.
Sue
Michael, keep it coming. You've got a great story going here and thank you so much for sharing. Glad you're keeping safe. And speaking of safe, watch out for those wild pigs. They can get nasty.
Sue
michaelo
Novice
Tina has only slowed to under 50mph towing Dewey on 2 grades on the maiden tour. The 1st was on US highway 62/180 on the final approach to Guadalupe Mountains NP entrance, we did however manage to pass a couple of trucks on that very STEEP, long grade. (the other one was the trans mountain highway in El Paso). Guadalupe Mountains are beautiful, they rise straight up out of the west Texas plain, Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in the state. You get a wonderful sense of their massiveness when you are still very far away, their orange and purple silhouette on the far off horizon, it must have been a wonderful beacon for the indigenous people and early european travelers. In fact there is a Butterfield stage stop in the pine forest at the base of the mountains. The Butterfield stage carried mail and passengers from St Louis to San Francisco in the early 1860s before the trans continental railways were built.
We stayed at the Pine Springs RV campground, it’s really just a big parking lot. We chose a small back in site, our galley opened up toward the mountain. It was a great setting for our happy hours, watching the sun set on the high peaks above us. Most of the sites were taken by nightfall.
We spent the days hiking and exploring and the nights chillin, the overnight temps were in the 20s. Sure glad we had our furnace and solar panel because none of the sites had services, but then the nightly fees were only $4 with our senior discount. We had full sun, crystal clear weather during our stay, the views from the mountain trails were awesome, and the starry skies were something to behold. The campground is at 5800 feet and being in the middle of nowhere there was little light pollution so the Milky Way just popped, it was so clear.
Carlsbad Caverns NP is 40 miles away so it makes for a great day trip. We’ve all seen pictures of the caverns for years, right, they could never do the place justice. The hugeness of the caverns is just plain unbelievable, truly one of the wonders of the world. We walked through the main gallery area and I took a guided tour to the lower level where very few get to go. Lots of fun climbing down ladders, squeezing through tiny crawl spaces, experiencing utter darkness with your headlamp switched off, hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth.
On our drive back to our campsite the sun was obscured a bit, almost like fog, but it wasn’t fog, the wind had come up while we were down in the caverns and there was now a lot of dust in the air causing the effect. When we got back to the campground it was completely empty, everyone but us had cleared out. I had been talking to a nice lady in a vintage Airstream that morning and she said that the night before we arrived it had really blown, she said it blew so hard she was worried her trailer was gonna flip over. An Airstream flipping over, you gotta be kidding me I thought to myself, Airstreams are aerodynamic and fairly low to the ground compared to the other RVs assembled, it must have howled. She mentioned to a ranger the next day, “it sure blew hard last night”, his response was, “oh you think that was hard do you” She said that spooked her, if last night wasn’t as bad as it gets she didn’t want to be around for a bigger wind event. Looking at the empty campground spooked us a bit too so we checked the info board where they post a weather forecast and sure enough the forecast called for pain, 25 knots gusting to 30 So we battened everything down expecting the worse but it didn’t happen, what wind there was died down pretty good. The forecast was wrong, we had our sunset happy hour out back of our trailer like before and enjoyed having the place to ourselves.
Our next stop was Hueco Tanks SP 25 miles east of El Paso but that’s another story.
We stayed at the Pine Springs RV campground, it’s really just a big parking lot. We chose a small back in site, our galley opened up toward the mountain. It was a great setting for our happy hours, watching the sun set on the high peaks above us. Most of the sites were taken by nightfall.
We spent the days hiking and exploring and the nights chillin, the overnight temps were in the 20s. Sure glad we had our furnace and solar panel because none of the sites had services, but then the nightly fees were only $4 with our senior discount. We had full sun, crystal clear weather during our stay, the views from the mountain trails were awesome, and the starry skies were something to behold. The campground is at 5800 feet and being in the middle of nowhere there was little light pollution so the Milky Way just popped, it was so clear.
Carlsbad Caverns NP is 40 miles away so it makes for a great day trip. We’ve all seen pictures of the caverns for years, right, they could never do the place justice. The hugeness of the caverns is just plain unbelievable, truly one of the wonders of the world. We walked through the main gallery area and I took a guided tour to the lower level where very few get to go. Lots of fun climbing down ladders, squeezing through tiny crawl spaces, experiencing utter darkness with your headlamp switched off, hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth.
On our drive back to our campsite the sun was obscured a bit, almost like fog, but it wasn’t fog, the wind had come up while we were down in the caverns and there was now a lot of dust in the air causing the effect. When we got back to the campground it was completely empty, everyone but us had cleared out. I had been talking to a nice lady in a vintage Airstream that morning and she said that the night before we arrived it had really blown, she said it blew so hard she was worried her trailer was gonna flip over. An Airstream flipping over, you gotta be kidding me I thought to myself, Airstreams are aerodynamic and fairly low to the ground compared to the other RVs assembled, it must have howled. She mentioned to a ranger the next day, “it sure blew hard last night”, his response was, “oh you think that was hard do you” She said that spooked her, if last night wasn’t as bad as it gets she didn’t want to be around for a bigger wind event. Looking at the empty campground spooked us a bit too so we checked the info board where they post a weather forecast and sure enough the forecast called for pain, 25 knots gusting to 30 So we battened everything down expecting the worse but it didn’t happen, what wind there was died down pretty good. The forecast was wrong, we had our sunset happy hour out back of our trailer like before and enjoyed having the place to ourselves.
Our next stop was Hueco Tanks SP 25 miles east of El Paso but that’s another story.
I'm so envious. It is fun enjoying your trip through these posts. Thank you.
michaelo
Novice
Hueco means tanks in Spanish, so Hueco Tanks SP, is Tanks Tanks SP. In the old days before they figured out how to pump ground water to the surface, Hueco Tanks was a very valuable place. No matter how dry the surrounding desert became travelers could always find water in the natural occurring depressions in the granite ridge that is Hueco Tanks. The pre history Indians of Texas lived and cultivated crops here and left pictographs on the granite rock faces. Hueco Tanks is famous for it’s number and quality of human mask pictographs. Later came the Apache and Kiowa, these peoples also left their pictographs. There is a large Kiowa pictograph that tells the story of a battle that occurred at Hueco Tanks between themselves and Spanish soldiers. There was also a Butterfield stage stop here, and the drivers and passengers left their mark as well, usually in the form of names and dates, sometimes over top of the older indigenous peoples art work. And now today even more people are leaving their mark, we commonly refer to this as graffiti. So now if you want to view the ancient pictographs it’s only with a guide, which is great because that’s how I learned all this cool info to share with you.
Interesting geology here, way back when a volcanic event brought molten rock up to the surface of the earth from it’s core, but before it could break through it was slowed and stopped by the thick layer that is west Texas limestone. It cooled in place and later through the forces of tectonic activity was forced upward. The limestone eroded and left the granite mountain we see today. This hard granite, pock marked with water and sand erosion attracts a whole lot of rock climbers. The place is world famous in boldering circles.
All campers are required to watch an orientation video of the park, cultural/historical importance and the rules for preserving it. The park is only 25 miles from the center of El Paso and only a few short miles from that city’s urban sprawl, so the place is being loved to death. We got there early on Friday and got the next to last sight that wasn’t reserved, so we got lucky. Our site was a back in with good privacy, shade and a power/water post. You gotta love Texas state parks, $20 a night with a power/water post. California state parks could learn a thing or two, oh lets face it, it could learn a whole lot about hospitality from Texas state parks. At any rate we enjoyed and learned a lot during our stay.
We needed to catch up on some business so we stayed in an El Paso Motel 6 for a couple of nights. I guess we had enough of the desert on this trip so we ended up driving to the coast in 2 days with an overnight at a Motel 6 just outside of Tucson.
An interesting note, we got 32 mpg on our run from El Paso to Tucson, that is mighty indeed.
I’m caught up on my posts, return here for more as Dewey and crew head north up the coast roads home.
Michael
Interesting geology here, way back when a volcanic event brought molten rock up to the surface of the earth from it’s core, but before it could break through it was slowed and stopped by the thick layer that is west Texas limestone. It cooled in place and later through the forces of tectonic activity was forced upward. The limestone eroded and left the granite mountain we see today. This hard granite, pock marked with water and sand erosion attracts a whole lot of rock climbers. The place is world famous in boldering circles.
All campers are required to watch an orientation video of the park, cultural/historical importance and the rules for preserving it. The park is only 25 miles from the center of El Paso and only a few short miles from that city’s urban sprawl, so the place is being loved to death. We got there early on Friday and got the next to last sight that wasn’t reserved, so we got lucky. Our site was a back in with good privacy, shade and a power/water post. You gotta love Texas state parks, $20 a night with a power/water post. California state parks could learn a thing or two, oh lets face it, it could learn a whole lot about hospitality from Texas state parks. At any rate we enjoyed and learned a lot during our stay.
We needed to catch up on some business so we stayed in an El Paso Motel 6 for a couple of nights. I guess we had enough of the desert on this trip so we ended up driving to the coast in 2 days with an overnight at a Motel 6 just outside of Tucson.
An interesting note, we got 32 mpg on our run from El Paso to Tucson, that is mighty indeed.
I’m caught up on my posts, return here for more as Dewey and crew head north up the coast roads home.
Michael
Sue,
Ya, you betcha. As a world-renowned pig veterinarian of mystery, I spent a bunch of time in the midwest, especially Iowa and Minnesota. I picked up the accents and dialects and have a good time with it. My closest colleague out there was born in Pipestone, MN but lives in Iowa now, right near the big Norwegian museum. His stories are a hoot. When he was dating his future wife, he went to her place for Christmas. He claimed how much he liked her lutefisk, which is apparently some type of fermented fish. She got a big grin on her face and told him how she was so glad because nobody on the family liked it except her and this was going to be the last year. She said she would always make it for him. He, of course, actually loathes the stuff, but every year he eats it at Christmas.
AsheWolf
Ya, you betcha. As a world-renowned pig veterinarian of mystery, I spent a bunch of time in the midwest, especially Iowa and Minnesota. I picked up the accents and dialects and have a good time with it. My closest colleague out there was born in Pipestone, MN but lives in Iowa now, right near the big Norwegian museum. His stories are a hoot. When he was dating his future wife, he went to her place for Christmas. He claimed how much he liked her lutefisk, which is apparently some type of fermented fish. She got a big grin on her face and told him how she was so glad because nobody on the family liked it except her and this was going to be the last year. She said she would always make it for him. He, of course, actually loathes the stuff, but every year he eats it at Christmas.
AsheWolf
michaelo
Novice
You are hilarious AsheWolf, you know that the only demographic
safe to joke about these days are Scandinavian Americans and Appalachian Americans so you're OK, but wait aren't you from North Carolina, don't the Appalachian Mountains go through North Carolina, oh I get it, I get it, you're just showing that you can give it as well as take it. You're a real sport AsheWolf.
Michael
safe to joke about these days are Scandinavian Americans and Appalachian Americans so you're OK, but wait aren't you from North Carolina, don't the Appalachian Mountains go through North Carolina, oh I get it, I get it, you're just showing that you can give it as well as take it. You're a real sport AsheWolf.
Michael
michaelo
Novice
Susan and I have been seeing skunks in the Refugio Beach campground on our trips to the restroom at night. Last night Susan got up and out, I rolled over and opened the window a tad because it was getting a little warm in the trailer. When I opened the window I got an unmistakable whiff of skunk. oh no I thought Susan just got blasted. I jumped out of bed, but the smell was not overpowering just a hint of it. Then I noticed a commotion in the bushes just in back of the trailer, in the dim light of the clouded over moon I could just make out the faces of a few masked invaders and a large black and white bundle of fur. It seems that the Raccoons were messing with the skunk and the real life Peppy Le Pew had sent a warning shot over their bows. I didn't know they could do that, I thought it was all or nothing, thankfully they can though they were only a few feet from Dewey. The raccoons got the message and the party broke up pretty quick and Susan and I went back to bed.
70 degree temps and no rain at Refugio Beach this week, we're staying until they kick us out.
Michael
70 degree temps and no rain at Refugio Beach this week, we're staying until they kick us out.
Michael
I don't blame you for staying put at Refugio. I am also a big central coast fan.
Enjoy your northward journey, whenever you choose to make it. Don't forget Nepenthe for a burger and fries.
If you need/want a stop in the Bay Area, we are likely very close to your planned travel route, as we are between 101 and 280, close to 280.
I am guessing the state parks will have their showers turned off, due to our drought. So if you need a shower, we are happy to oblige.
Further, if you just want a place to park your TD so you can head up to The City (SF) without the TD, you can leave it at our house, no problem. We live about 30 miuntes outh of the City. Easy.
Have you been swimming, yet?
When you come north from Big Sur into the Bay Area, take it slow on Highway 17 (Owhich connects the Bay Area to the Coast). It's a crummy road.
-Al
Enjoy your northward journey, whenever you choose to make it. Don't forget Nepenthe for a burger and fries.
If you need/want a stop in the Bay Area, we are likely very close to your planned travel route, as we are between 101 and 280, close to 280.
I am guessing the state parks will have their showers turned off, due to our drought. So if you need a shower, we are happy to oblige.
Further, if you just want a place to park your TD so you can head up to The City (SF) without the TD, you can leave it at our house, no problem. We live about 30 miuntes outh of the City. Easy.
Have you been swimming, yet?
When you come north from Big Sur into the Bay Area, take it slow on Highway 17 (Owhich connects the Bay Area to the Coast). It's a crummy road.
-Al
michaelo
Novice
What a great offer Al and Cathy, we may just take you up on it. If we time it right we'd like to go to the monthly sea shanty sing at the seaport, loads of fun, we'll let you know as we get closer. We have not gone for a swim, way too cold for us, I did go for a short dip in the Gulf when we were in Florida in December, I thought that a tad too chilly. We have not been to Nepenthe but it's on our itinerary now. Thanks for that.
Our plan is to head to the 101 after our visit to Monterey but thanks anyway for the heads up on the conditions on the coast road to the city. Will keep in touch...
Michael
Our plan is to head to the 101 after our visit to Monterey but thanks anyway for the heads up on the conditions on the coast road to the city. Will keep in touch...
Michael
if you go to Nepenthe make sure you sit outside and get a view. Tell them you will wait longer for a good table.
Also, they may have changed the setup since I was there last, but they have table outside, at a counter, which also have great views and no waiting (usually).
Burger and fries. I can't vouch for much else!!
Also, they may have changed the setup since I was there last, but they have table outside, at a counter, which also have great views and no waiting (usually).
Burger and fries. I can't vouch for much else!!
michaelo
Novice
Thanks Al and Cathy for the great tips.
We finally broke camp at Refugio Beach, I think we were starting to grow roots after being there for a full 2 weeks. We headed north on the 101 to the 1 at San Luis Obisbo and on to San Simeon SP. We're in site # 294 at the top of the hill that is the Washburn RV campground with a view of tha Pacific. Our site is behind a hill which will give us a bit of a wind break, it can really blow here. The camping fees are almost half what they were in SoCal at $18. Susan and I have camped here many times and it's great to be back. More posts to come about this great area, stay tuned...
Michael
We finally broke camp at Refugio Beach, I think we were starting to grow roots after being there for a full 2 weeks. We headed north on the 101 to the 1 at San Luis Obisbo and on to San Simeon SP. We're in site # 294 at the top of the hill that is the Washburn RV campground with a view of tha Pacific. Our site is behind a hill which will give us a bit of a wind break, it can really blow here. The camping fees are almost half what they were in SoCal at $18. Susan and I have camped here many times and it's great to be back. More posts to come about this great area, stay tuned...
Michael