Chisos Mountains Drive and Change in weather!

Just like Alberta, when the weather changes here it can happen quickly and with a big drop in temperature from 95F to 60F! We were planning on a desert hike today as we knew the temperatures were forecast to be cooler....so this would be the time for a desert walk!

However, early in the morning we were awakened by the noise of the wind. The high winds brought cold air and also blew lots of sand in the air. Our plan was to have a breakfast burrito at an outdoor diner and leave early for our hike. We chose not to have "sandy" burritos and headed for the park entance and the scenic drive to the Chisos Mountains and the Chisos Mountain Lodge Restaurant for brunch! It was the perfect thing to do on a windy day! What a delightful surprise in change of scenery from our previous mountain drives. These mountains have some of the highest elevation and because of their altitude and cooler temperatures there lots of trees! We were impressed with unique geologic formations, and spectacular scenery. The vegetation changes markedly over a short distance - from cacti through a zone with bushes and grassland, to fir and pine woodland. The road is quite steep and with hair pins turns with the speed reduced to 15 MPH. We were pleased when the road descended into the sheltered Chisos Basin and discovered a development including lodges, shops and camping areas. Now we know why were told that our motor homes would not fit the camps here! But we see why this is generally a popular location to stay in the park.

By the way, the Breakafst Buffet was very good and the restaurant had a great view though the sand made the background look hazy!

From 2009-02-28 Chisos Mnts

Here are some pictures of the scenery along our drive if you want to take a look.

Big Bend and Santa Elena Canyon

1. We have driven many miles to get here and have finally arrived at our 1st much anticipated destination. We are booked in at the Maverick Ranch RV Resort for a week which is in the "community" of Lajitas. This is located at the southern point between the Big Bend Ranch State Park and the Big Bend National Park. Now that we are here...where do we start as the park is big and our general knowledge of this area is small.
   Friday morning we leave early in the cool of the morning (because of the 34C heat in mid day) to the entrance of the National Park and select the Ross Maxwell scenic drive which gives us a good taste of the Chihuahuan Desert and lead us to the Rio Grande River that is the border between Texas and Mexico. There are many scenic outlooks, vistas and flowering cacti to enjoy.
   

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A highlight is the walk into the Santa Elena Canyon - one of Big Bends most scenic spots. We loved it!
We had a picnic lunch at the Castolon Visitor Centre and then completed our loop drive back to camp. We had supper at the L and D Diner where we know the food is good! Lyle cooked his Gourmet Wiener Creole (secret recipe) AND let all us win at the card game "Spite and Malice" also know as B...gg... Your Neighbour! This retirement thing is not that bad after all!

Exploring the towns of Fort Davis and Alpine

Wow the weather here is awesome! Small towns at there best: Alpine pop of 6000 and Fort Davis pop of 1100. The combination of hills, valleys, creeks and desert has provided some of the prettiest country side that we have seen on this trip. We are reluctant to leave this area. Alpine has a terrific True Value Hardware store and John was lucky enough to fit in two visits and absorb the atmoshpere. He loves hardware stores! The IGA store is very well stocked and the staff......unbelievable. There is Sul Ross University and a great Big Bend Museum that Lyle and Dorothy enjoyed. This weekend the town will be full as they host an annual Cowboy Poetry Reading Event. We're told were will be missing something very intersting.
By the way I have noticed that not all the links to websites posted are properly hyperlinked but can not fix that until I have a Stable Internet connection. At the moment I have a limited connection so who knows. Jeff is right.....we need an Air Card!
The Town of Fort Davis may be small but it is absolutely the most quaint, homey, authentic western town thatI have visited so far. It has been in the setting of several movies and I can see why.

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We are Loving it! Fort Davis, Davis Mnts and McDonald Observatory

It is spring here and the birds are noisy at 6 am and it is already 17C and going to 33C with sunshine. It is already a great day in Alpine Texas!
There is a scenic loop drive from Alpine to Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory and back to Alpine that we chose today. Fort Davis is a frontier fort that was established in 1854 to protect the pioneers and travelers on the San Antonio - El Paso road from the Apache Indians, We found the setting of the Fort very interesting, The post was located in a box canyon near Limpia Creek on the eastern side of the Davis Mountains--where wood, water, and grass were plentiful.
The canyon wall is a backdrop behind the fort and you can see for miles (the Indian's approaching) from the front, It was an unique fort to explore.


This truly is a Scenic drive and we pulled off the road at rest stop and it was the Perfect Picnic Place!


North of Fort Davis located on the highest point in Texas is the McDonald Observatory
which is America's only world class telescope open for public viewing. The stunning scenic drive to the top of the mountain was as fascinating as the telescope. We now know more than we need to know about the complicated construction of telescopes and can hardly wait for family dinners to unload all this data! :-) We also now know that we should not go into darkened theatre style rooms after a picnic lunch even if the information is riveting! Every day we learn something new!

El Paso to Alpine Tx Monday

It was an early Monday morning with a 7:30 appointment at a Diesel garage for an air brake check. Taking your Motor "Home" to a garage is different from dropping your car off. We are without accommodations! I followed in the car and after dropping the RV off we went to Starbucks for a latte and a muffin. This is good. The Starbucks is located in an outlet mall and we have nothing to do but wait and no where to go! Oh well.....we'll have to shop! And.....no Wal Mart handy! It is a great day!

We are on the road at lunch time and it is a great day for a drive east. It is an easy drive even on Interstate 10 as the truck traffic is light. Since we need to head south we turned off on #90 and the drive is very quiet and interesting. By four o'clock we are now at Alpine, Texas which is a delightful little town that begs to be explored. http://visitorcenter.alpinetexas.com/
We can only stay here till Wednesday as they are full for the rest of the week. They have an event this weekend: "Cowboy Poetry Reading".
We are booked in at Lost Alaskan RV and you have to been here to appreciate the setting and the friendliness. The mountain backdrops, the pine trees, the spacious site, clean facilites, star gazing area and the people all contribute to make this a Five Star RV Campground. There are so few lights that checking out Venus and the Big Dipper is automatic. A local nearby attraction is the Marfa Mystery Lights (seen on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries), and John and Dorothy went to see them.
The internet reception is awesome here. What a treat as this is a first since we left home. most of my blogging has been early morning hours (4 - 6) to get enough bandwith to upload photos.

Wow! A Great Sunday Country Drive!

Loop drive North to Las Cruces, NM to White Sands, Alamogordo, NM back to El Paso.
Have you ever been on a drive where you wondered: "Are we there yet?"
Sure you have! We seem to being running into that from time to time. The scenery was interesting and the "Organ Mountains" were recognizable because they do somewhat resemble Organ Pipes but we Albertans are spoiled by the grandeur of the Rockies from Banff to Jasper and most others are diminished by comparison. We are used to more variation on our mountain scenery and get restless too soon.

From 2009-02-23 El Paso to White Sands

What do you think?

From 2009-02-23 El Paso to White Sands

From 2009-02-23 El Paso to White Sands

The description for White Sands National Monument reads: Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and created the world's largest gypsum dune field.
It does not prepare us for this:

It was STUNNING! We were humbled! We loved it.
After playing in the sand we continued on and stopped at Alamogordo sand had a great supper at Chilis.
This was a great day!

El Paso Texas Feb 20 - 21

Arrival on Friday evening and then a Saturday morning shopping trip to Camping World. We are at Mission Hill RV Park on the south side and Camping World is on the far North.....about the distance from Red Deer to Wetaskiwin. http://www.missionrvparklp.com/
Lyle was shopping for a new bed as he needs more comfort for his back. He was in Luck! They were on sale! Good for Lyle! We toured Historic Downtown El Paso and found that the shopping area was not as tourist friendly as we were comfortable with and did more of a driving tour vs the walking tour that we planned. We had thought of going on a trip to Juarez but were informed that the "Cartel" had been active in El Paso and tourists were being advised not to go. The bridge between the two cities had been closed a couple of times in the last week. Hum.....not too safe.
That explains all the Border guards on our drive in...the drug cartel has been busy! El Paso is a city of 650,000 while the Mexican border city is 1.500.000. Very Interesting!
http://www.ci.el-paso.tx.us/visitors.asp
http://www.juarez-mexico.com/

Expect the Unexpected! We were looking for a late lunch stop and drove by quite a few well know name restaurants and missed interstate turnoffs so ended up in a "questionable" neighborhood but peeked into a couple establishments.....we were in an "adult" area (better for Pat & Daune) so continued on. We walked into "Chih"au and received fantastic hospitality, great service and wonderful Mexican food! http://www.chihuatacos.com/ We'll try this one again!