2026 - Last Hurrah Texas Road Trip #2 (West Texas)

Two days after we arrived back from our last trip we were off again!  This time for exploration of West Texas areas that we have either been to, or driven by and wanted to do a deeper dive.  We left Luke at Lawrence's place this time because - too hot!  Also, he would have much more fun with Daisy and the gals.  It just so happened to be Daisy's birthday and he made it in time for the party! 😂

In addition, Roland will have an Open House while we are gone, so we have been busy making sure the house is ready!

First stop Hamilton Pool Preserve, a beautiful natural grotto formed by the collapsed dome of an underground river.

The Park Ranger spotted this Water Moccasin swimming in the creek!

From the Grotto you can hike to the Pedernales River.  The "falls" at Pedernales is actually our next stop and over-night, but we decided to do the short hike to the river.  Its a beautiful walk along the creek where we saw interesting bugs and some fossilized ammonites.  

Texas Hill Country Olive Co. sits between Hamilton Pool and Pedernales, so we decided to have lunch there.  We have visited here twice with Roland & Viv, and did a tour there once.  Viv is now hooked on their oil & vinegars!  

I booked us for a night at Pedernales Falls State Park.  We did the hike to the "falls" before checking into our spot.  The falls are actually a gradual cascade of water over large mounds of rock, and since it's been dry, there are no real falls.  It is more like pools of water with meandering streams of water.  Apparently though, flash floods can happen at any time when there is a storm which reminded us of the floods during last July 4th weekend...scary.  

The campgrounds are so nice!  Best state park bathrooms/showers I have experienced.  We had leftover chicken curry from the night before...perfect!

Next stop Johnson City, where we were educated on everything Lyndon B. Johnson!  Our first stop was the National Historical Park.  The Visitor Center is located in what used to be the local hospital.  We caught the movie, a ranger led tour of the home that President Johnson grew up in, then did the walk around the Johnson Settlement - the original site where Lyndon's dad & uncle first landed and ran cattle up the Chisholm Trail.

Lady Bird and LBJ purchased a ranch that is a short drive away from town.  It's kind of confusing, but part of the ranch is now a State Park & Historic Site, and part belongs to the National Park Service.  On the State Park side there are exhibits and trails, as well as a Living History Farm where park rangers run the farm just as they did in the 1800's - I'm such a sucker for living history museums! 😆 

The actual home the Johnson's lived in at the ranch was referred to as the "Texas White House", since he spent many days during his term at the ranch conducting business and entertaining staff & guests.  Unfortunately it is currently closed for renovations, but we did catch a glimpse of "Texas Air Force One", which is the tiny plane that LBJ traveled on to & from this place...as well as the descendants of LBJ's Hereford cattle which are still cared for here by park rangers. 

We spent the night at Silver Dollar Wine & Italian Bistro.  Sadly the bistro had already closed for the evening, but we did wine & cider tastings and cooked up our polish sausage dogs from Costco for dinner!  The sunset was magnificent and we had the site all to ourselves!

Ever since we landed in Texas people have been telling us that we must visit Enchanted Rock and climb to the "summit".  It is a beautiful park, and basically "the rock" is a huge granite mound that looks daunting to get up, but is actually not that bad.  

There are beautiful views from the top, but the most interesting thing for me was the tiny flowering ecosystems that thrive on the summit.  They are like little tiny islands of life!

We have  been to Fredericksburg many times - it is the Texas equivalent to California's small wine towns.  There are many wineries, along with gift stores and more.  One time we came and spent an entire day at the National Museum of the Pacific War (also known as the Nimitz Museum, since the Admiral was born here).  Since we were in the area, and had some time to spare we walked around a little and did some grocery shopping before we found out there is a funny thing called "Stonehenge 2" which is located in Ingram, TX which was not far from our next stay.  

Our next day's drive was to Davis Mountains State Park.  We stayed there 3 nights total, since we wanted to visit the McDonald Observatory, and attend one of their "Star Parties".  Unfortunately the day we booked was one of the only rainy nights of this road trip 😩.  The staff there is great though - they have a whole "Plan B" program that is educational and in the auditorium.  The most interesting part for me was learning about "Dark Sky" cities.

Fortunately the next two days of our stay were perfect.  We drove to Fort Davis, a small town with not much to see except for a well preserved frontier military post active during the Indian Wars, which is now a National Historic Site.  They have been meticulously renovating to show what life was like there in the late 1800's. 

A bigger town just down the way is Alpine.  We stayed there years ago on our first trip to Marfa.  It is home to Sul Ross University, and some cute galleries, restaurants, and murals.  From this point forward on our trip we were inundated with "No Wall" signs, stickers, and protests!

Some time ago we read an article about a hike you can take to a desk that some students dragged to the top of a hill behind the University....we couldn't pass that up!

Back at camp we feasted on our IKEA meatball dinner and learned how to communicate with people when there is no cell service, but clear skies to track a satellite!

On our full day at Davis Mountains we stayed put and did two big hikes that gave us a great perspective of the State Park.  We had driven up the Skyline Drive Trail the first afternoon we arrived, and this morning we decided to do the hike.  

Indian Lodge is a unique accommodation at a State Park.  It was built by the CCC in the 30's and is run entirely by the State Park.  We had lunch at their Black Bear Restaurant, and then headed out for our next hike.

We really enjoyed our stay here...on our way out the next morning we took the scenic drive up the 118 to Valentine before hitting Marfa.  

This will probably be our last time to visit Prada Marfa.  It looks like they are making improvements to accommodate for all the visitors that come by even though this sits in literally the middle of nowhere!

We finally made it to Marfa Burrito!  Third times a charm...

We love the quirky sights around this cool little town...

Home to Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation and The Hotel Paisano...

After laundry at our Airbnb we wanted to treat ourselves to a night out.  We had wanted to try Cochineal, but they were closed the nights we were there, so we headed for Margaret's instead. 

This is the beauty of West Texas heading out of Marfa...

The last time we were in Marfa was for Thanksgiving of 2021.  Jacob came out to spend the holiday with us and we took him out here and did a day trip to Big Bend.  On that trip we only got a glance at Big Bend because it takes so long to get out there.  

After consulting with fellow road trippers, Dan & Lillian Harmon, we decided to take the 67 down to Presidio to see Big Bend Ranch State Park and drive FM170 to Terlingua.  It's a little confusing to research how this would go, but when we stopped at Fort Leaton we learned that this is basically the start of the scenic drive and where you get your pass to do the drive.  

FM 170 runs alongside the Rio Grande - so basically as you are driving, Mexico is right there to your right (in our case, because we were driving it eastbound)...like right there!  It is the natural border between the US & Mexico, and it is no wonder people are fighting the Wall here.  Not only would it be a complete eyesore, but the freedom for wildlife and ranchers farming here would be completely disrupted.

Here is a screenshot of the 50 mile stretch of scenic hwy:

There are many places to stop along the way.  We did two of the more popular stops and hiked at "The Hoo Doos" and "Closed Canyon".

Here is a typical view across the Rio Grande along the drive:

I was able to book us one night inside the park, so we did two nights in Terlingua just outside the park at Big Bend Station.  Terlingua is a quirky little town.  Aside from their Ghost town, there are some interesting businesses, galleries, and places to stay...but mostly it seems to be the true gateway to Big Bend.  

Our campsite was pretty basic, but we got to experience a beautiful sunset and dark sky views of the stars.

Our first full day in Big Bend was amazing, the weather was gorgeous!

We got there early so there wasn't much traffic, and the scenery was amazing!

I forgot to mention that the night before - after we had already eaten, a random guy was walking around camp trying to give away whole pizzas!  Apparently they were expecting some friends to come by for dinner and they never showed, so their loss was our gain!  I think we made at least 3 meals out of this gift!

Thank goodness we covered a lot of ground on Day 1.  On Day 2 a dust storm blew in! 

We didn't realize that at this southern tip of the park, adjacent to where we stayed our last night, we could cross into Mexico.  If I had brought our passports we could have done this, but I'm sure we did not miss much.  Apparently after crossing (by boat or wading across) you can take a donkey or walk to the remote village of Boquillas, Mexico.

We purchased some locally farmed pork chops in town before heading into the park, and took in our last beautiful sunset in Big Bend 😊 

In the morning we did one more hike, and then headed out of Big Bend northbound.

We made a short stop in Marathon to check out the Gage Hotel.  We joke around with Vivian whenever we see a nice hotel in a remote area...that this is a place she could definitely stay at!

This is the kind of fun weird stuff you see in these towns...these are telephone poles in Alpine, where we stayed our last night on this trip.

For our last night, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Reata's.  We went there the very first time we visited and stayed in Alpine...their biscuits are AMAZING!!!

As we close out this nearly 2 week road trip I am reflecting on how blessed we have been to be able to visit so many amazing places in this part of the country while living nearly 10 years in Texas!  It has been a huge chunk of our lives and a great experience...we are now ready to move back west!