The Davis Mountains, the second highest and the most extensive mountain range in Texas, are a relatively young series of mountains that formed around 35 million years ago during a period of strong volcanic activity in the American West.  The mountains extend approximately 60 miles and feature the fifth highest peak in Texas (Mount Livermore, 8378 ft. ASL) and the second most prominent peak in Texas (Baldy Peak, 3918 ft. of prominence.)  The Davis Mountains are a kind of oasis in West Texas, receiving twice the yearly rainfall of the surrounding desert due to uplift and condensation of westerly winds.

Davis Mountains State Park is nestled in a box canyon to the south of Highway 118, about four miles northwest of the town of Fort Davis.  The park was constructed by the CCC and established as a state park in the late 30's, and it features well-outfitted tent sites, RV facilities, and the 39-room Indian Lodge.  The tent camping sites in the park are nice, but the ones near the end of the canyon tend to get a lot of ambient light and noise pollution from the Indian Lodge, which spoils the experience somewhat.

The Greenstone brothers and I gathered at Brian's house early Thursday morning and loaded our gear into Brian's SUV for the 8-hour trek out to West Texas.  We stopped briefly in Junction for a Tex-Mex lunch and arrived at Davis Mountains State Park around 5 PM.  After setting up the tents and preparing dinner, which for me consisted mostly of opening the jar of peanut butter, I decided to hike up the ridge to the southeast of our campsite and watch the sunset.  From the top of the ridge, I had a fairly clear view of the desert to the southeast, and I could barely see the observatory peeking above the ridgeline to the northwest.

We awoke Friday morning to light drizzle.  We had intended to do a long backcountry hike in the Limpia Canyon Primitive Area across the highway, but the rain picked up right as we were about to start down the trail.  After some discussion, we decided to scrap the day's plans and instead take a side trip up to Carlsbad Caverns, since Brian had never been there and I hadn't seen the cave in 20 years or so.  We made the three-hour drive up to Carlsbad through what has to be the flattest terrain on the planet, stopping briefly in the bad part of Pecos for a picnic lunch.  We arrived at the caverns only a few minutes before 2 PM MDT, when (unbeknownst to us) they close the natural entrance, so we had to hoof it down the walkway to make it inside the cave in time.

We spent about two hours taking a whirlwind tour of the natural entrance route and the Big Room, the latter of which hadn't yet been opened the last time I visited the cave.  We left Carlsbad late in the afternoon and took a slightly more scenic route back to camp, stopping briefly at the Guadalupe Mountains to check out the camping facilities and then in Van Horn for dinner at Chuy's.  From the looks of things, Chuy's is one of the few remaining restaurants in Van Horn;  it features decent Tex-Mex and an unhealthy obsession with John Madden.

The skies had cleared by Saturday morning, so we decided to do the Limpia Canyon hike that had been postponed from the day before.  There are supposedly two ways to get to the trailhead-- a primitive hiking trail that crosses the creek once and a jeep road that crosses the creek three times.  We were trying to avoid getting our feet wet and chose to go along the footpath.  Bad choice.  The foot path quickly disappeared after the creek crossing, leaving us to bushwhack for an hour or so trying to find the trail.  We finally ended up back on the jeep road and followed it the rest of the way to the trailhead.  The trail ascends 700 feet over about 4 trail miles, revealing distant views of the McDonald Observatory off to the northwest, and it finishes with a spectacular aerial view of the park and Fort Davis to the south.

We made a brief supply run into Fort Davis, stopping for a quick stroll through the Fort Davis Historic Site.  Upon returning to camp, we ate dinner and showered and headed down the road to the observatory.  McDonald Observatory is located at the top of Mount Locke, 6800 ft. ASL and about 13 miles northwest of Fort Davis.  Due to its remoteness, elevation, and strict county ordinances governing outdoor lighting, McDonald Observatory is the darkest place in the continental U.S.  It hosts star parties three times a week, during which visitors are treated to an outdoor planetarium show and a telescope tour.  During the show, an observatory spokesperson conducts an in-depth and humorous seminar about the various visible stars and constellations simply by pointing at the sky with a high-powered beacon.  Then the two smaller dome telescopes and some amateur models are aimed at various stellar objects, and the visitors are allowed to look through each in turn.  On the particular night we were there, the moon was out and rather bright, but we still had a spectacular view.