Davis Mountains State Park and Indian Lodge

Friday night August 3rd, we checked into room 311 at the Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park.  The lodge was built in the 30's by the CCC and has been added onto since then.  Our room had 2 double beds, TV, air conditioning and full bathroom.  All the comforts of a regular hotel room.  The Black Bear Restaurant served breakfast, lunch, and dinner and had a fantastic staff.  Everyone was very friendly and helpful.  We went hiking after breakfast up the skyline drive trail.  The kids only lasted about 2 miles, but Shawn hiked to the top.  We also drove to the scenic point at the top of Skyline Drive.  The mountains here are green with trees and lots of wildflowers.  There was are birds, javalinas, mountains lions,a nd the usual skunks, possum, and raccoons.  The one thing they don't have is water.  No creek, lake, stream or pond in sight.  The mountains are surrounded by the Chihuahuan Desert.  After we hiked, we went back to the lodge for lunch.  Shawn wanted to do more hiking and the kids wanted to hit the pool.  So Shawn went out on his own to hike the Indian Lodge Trail, Montezuma Quail Trail and Old CCC trail which lead to the Ft. Davis National Historic Monument.  The kids and I went swimming.  We shared the pool with several barn swallows swooping down to drink.  One also dropped an enormous moth into the pool which the kids all thought was disgusting.  The bird either found it too heavy or also thought it was disgusting.  There were nests all over the lodge built on all the eves and overhangs.  Most were filled with baby birds.  The kids loved them. 
I can't wait to go back to this area again.  The lodge was very reasonable at $95 a night and the restaurant had a good variety of stuff.  The high on Saturday may have hit 90 at the most and the lows were in the upper 60's.  The town of Ft. Davis is 4 miles away and has a few sights including a desert botanical garden, historic downtown with soda fountain, and the Ft. Davis monument.  With the McDonald Observatory only 13 miles away and Balmorhea 45 minutes, we could have easily spent 4-5 days here.  Even if you are not campers, come to this park.

Carlsbad Caverns, McDonald Observatory, Balmorhea State Park

I had a hard time deciding how to write about the last leg of the trip.  We saw so much in just a couple days that it was hard to group places together without creating the longest blog post ever.  So I decided to tell ya'll about the parks we visited, but did not sleep in together and write about Davis Mountain State Park and the Indian Lodge in the next post.
We left Palo Duro State Park on Friday morning and made the super boring drive through west Texas and eastern New Mexico.  Sorry Lubbock, I was not impressed.  It was a very long drive that even changed time zones.  We got to Carlsbad Caverns around 3pm Mountain Time.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of this stop because my cell phone died and the camera was in the car.  So I will put some pictures from Google on this posting.  Just try to use your imagination.  The visitors center has a restaurant (where we later had dinner), a gift shop (of course), and exhibits about the cave.  You have two choices when you come in how to get into the cave.  The natural entrance is a 45 minute hike down 750 feet.  It is steep and not recommended for anyone in a wheel chair (duh).  No strollers of any kind are allowed in the cave at all.  Shawn and Patrick took the natural entrance and Natalie and I opted for the elevator.  The cave is a wonderfully cool 56 degrees, practically freezing after our days in the canyon.  We brought sweatshirts and enjoyed the cool air.  The hike through the self-guided area is about 2 miles.  There are bathrooms and another gift shop down in the cave.  Like all the other national parks, they offered a junior ranger program that the kids participated in to earn a patch or badge.  We saw all kinds of amazing formations including soda straws, stalagmites, stalactites, drapes, and columns.  There were pools of water and very deep holes to peer into.  They offer special tours for those that like to crawl around caves and enjoy small spaces.  We did not take one of those tours, instead we stuck with the self-guided tour.  At 7:30, they allow people to start lining up near the mouth of the cave to see the bats emerge.  We still had a 2 hour drive and a time change not in our favor, so we skipped the bats.  The drive to Davis Mountains State Park was beautiful.  We drove past El Capitan and the Guadelupe Mountains National Park.  We saw a thunderstorm in the distance over the mountains and the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.  We arrived at the state park at 11pm.
More about the park in the next posting. 
The next evening we drove the 13 miles through the mountain pass to the McDonald Observatory.  They have one of the largest research telescopes in the country and on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights they host Star Parties.   The party starts at 9:30 pm in the summer.  There were around 100 other people there.  We sat outside on a circle of stone benches while the astronomer took us on a tour of the night sky with a green laser pointer.  We even saw a meteor streak across the sky.  After the sky tour, we went into the telescope park to look through a dozen or so telescopes at stars and planets.  We saw Saturn well enough to see it's rings!  After the full moon rise around 10:45, we got to see the moon through a telescope.  Even with the UV filter it was still very bright, but it was so neat to see all the craters.  We left there a little after 11pm.  Some people brought small children and babies, but this is really more of an older kids and adults event.  It is so late at night and when looking through the telescopes you mustn't touch or it will move it out of focus.  So there were a few screaming tired toddlers, but it was still a fun night.
The next morning after checking out of the Indian Lodge, we drove out of the mountains and into the dessert.  Our last park of the trip was Balmorhea State Park.  This park is very special because it is an oasis.  A natural spring with perfectly crystal clear, cold water comes up to form a swimming hole 22 feet deep in some spots.  Patrick snorkeled and even jumped off the tall diving board.  They have trees for picnicking under and 2 diving boards to show off your skills.  We stayed for 2 hours of refreshing fun before driving off to Fort Stockton and on to home.  Bring food to Balmorhea because there is NOWHERE to eat for 100 miles other than a few small sketchy looking Mexican restaurants. 

Cap Rock Canyon and Palo Duro State Park

We left Cleburne and headed north towards Wichita Falls, which is the hottest place I have ever been in my entire life, and turned west towards Amarillo.  The landscape flattened out and towns got fewer and farther between.  We got to Caprock Canyon State Park first.  It's about an hour and 1/2 away from Palo Duro, but they have a herd of bison that we wanted to see.  The headquarters was closed, so we drove through the park to check out the scenery and the bison.  We saw 4 bison, 1 fairly close to the car.  We saw more bison than people as we drove through.  Caprock is located on the southern end of Palo Duro Canyon.  The canyon runs 120 miles north south and is a couple miles wide.  Caprock is like Palo Duros' wild outdoorsy cousin.  There are no cabins, screened shelters, or nature centers.  The scenery is similar, but it is definitely a  more rugged park.  We moved on towards Palo Duro stopping for a not so delicious dinner at Sonic arriving at the park around 8pm.  Coming up to the canyon is an amazing experience.  The land is flat as far as the eye can see and all the sudden the ground opens up to this enormous canyon.  It really is awe inspiring.  The headquarters is located at the top rim of the canyon and is open in the summer till 10pm for the guests coming to the Texas show.  We checked into cow cabin #4.  Cow cabins are limited use cabins built by the CCC in the 30's located near the floor of the canyon.  They have double bunk beds, a table with chairs, microwave, mini-fridge, and fireplace.  And air conditioning!!!  Outside is a picnic table with lantern post and water spigot.  I was very concerned that the cabin may actually be a scorpion habitat, but was very pleasantly surprised to see how well it was sealed.  They did warn us that the endangered Palo Duro mouse sometimes came down the chimney at night, but would not bother us.  Having hamsters as a child, this did not scare me like the scorpion prospect.  So the cabin was great and after watching the full moon rise up one side of the canyon while the sun set down the other side, we slept like babies.  The next morning, Natalie and I went horseback riding while the boys hiked to the Lighthouse, an impressive rock formation.  We knew we would be busy in the morning and back to the cabin by lunch due to the heat.  Mid-day was between 108-111 degrees and ever after sunset, it stayed close to 100.  But it was a dry heat!  A little Texas humor there.  Natalie and I arrived at the Old West Stables inside the park at 10am.  For $35 each, we got an hour long 3 mile trail ride with a guide.  And it was only us, so it was like a personal tour!  The guide was great and the horses very gentle.  Natalie rode Rocky and I rode Hoot.  We had a great time riding.  Unfortunately the pictures I took on my phone didn't transfer to the computer right and I lost them.  So we just have our memories from that morning.  I highly recommend this stable.  After we were done riding, we went to the Visitors Center which has exhibits about the geology and animals of the canyon.  They also have a free viewfinder for looking at the Lighthouse formation.  We picked up 2 books of activities and questions for the kids to participate in the Junior Naturalist Program.  Most State Parks and National Parks have these types of programs and the kids have loved them.  It is an opportunity to learn more about the park, earn patches or badges and a certificate, and feel a real ownership of that park. Such a great way to sneak in a little education and reinforce conservation.  The boys hiked up and made it almost the whole way before Patrick started feeling woozy from the heat.  But it was the longest and hottest hike he has ever done.  We went to the Trading Post for ice cream before returning to the cabin for the afternoon.  We went to the bath house for showers and had an impromptu lesson on venomous spiders.  While the boys bathroom was bug free, the girls bathroom was well stocked with creepy spiders.  We identified black widows, brown recluse, and fiddleback spiders.  The others we did not know, but they looked unfriendly.  So we used the one bathroom stall that didn't have a web from the toilet seat to the wall and took fabulous cold showers (which were spider free).  We spent the afternoon taking naps and playing in the air conditioned cabin till 5.  We needed to map out our route for the drive to Carlsbad the next day, but had no data coverage in the canyon.  So we drove the 8 miles or so to the town of Canyon.  They have an interesting looking natural history museum in town and it is only 12 miles south of Amarillo.  After getting the route and filling up the gas tank, we headed back to the park for the Chuck wagon Dinner.  The amphitheater is the home of the Texas Show.  This outdoor musical is in its 47th season.  The stage is open air and the backdrop is the canyon walls.  It seats about 1200 and was about 1/2 full on the Thursday night we were there.  The chuckwagon dinner was very good and a good deal at around $45 for our family.  Usual Texas BBQ: brisket, sausage, ham, beans, coleslaw, white bread, pickles and onions, and cobbler for dessert.  It came with Tea, Lemonade or water.  The dining area was at covered picnic tables brightly painted with the Texas flag and close enough to hear the band playing.  They had a gift shop, a country band, and misters to fight the still 105 degree heat.  The play didn't start till 8:30, so we drove back to the cabin after dinner to do some packing.  We knew we needed to get an early start if we were going to make it to New Mexico and then down to Davis Mountains SP.  The show was great.  The storyline was similar to the musical Oklahoma.  There was a tribute to America afterwards with fireworks, water cannons, riders on horseback and lots of singing.  The kids loved it!  The next morning, we stopped at the Visitors Center again to turn in their Junior Naturalist books and get their patches. 
Palo Duro is an amazing park and even in the summer, there is lots to do.  Hiking and riding is best in the morning.  Plan your trips to town for the afternoon.  No mosquitoes, but there were lots of biting flies. We did see one scorpion at night outside the cabin, so keep all your shoes and gear inside.  We heard coyotes, saw a few birds including the Mississippi Kite which looks like a small hawk, and a neat looking green lizard.  The show is a must see and the dinner is worth the money.