Thursday morning we only had a few hours to go to reach Marfa. We drove to Balmorhea and stopped to take pictures of the desert and grab lunch at a roadside burger shack.
We also stopped along the way in Fort Davis, “the highest town in Texas”.
We reached Marfa in the afternoon and wandered around the small funky art town, checking out stores and galleries.
We drove out to Valentine to witness the famous Prada art installation – and also saw a blimp that monitors drug trafficking!
Then we checked into our rental house, Casita Gonzales, and enjoyed a glass of local wine before heading out to dinner at Cochineal, where I had the best cheese soufflé ever!
That night we viewed the unexplained Marfa Lights – I'm not sure I'm a believer, but we sure saw something...
Friday the plan was to head across the border to Ojinaga, but unfortunately the road from there to Big Bend was closed and Mexico was just too far out of our way. So we stopped in Alpine and discovered Jack-Assic Park and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant instead.
Then we stopped a Woodward Ranch to buy some rare red plume agate for Clay before arriving to our final destination of Terlingua, where we stayed at the Chisos Mining Company Motel.
We were eager to head into Big Bend National Park, and our first hike was Grapevine Hills Trail, to see the “balanced rock”.
We then headed over to Chisos Mountains Lodge, where we had dinner and discovered our tire was flat! After Dan put the spare on, we checked out “The Window” and then went back to the hotel.
Saturday morning we had to wait around for the tire repair shop to open. So we had breakfast at Kathy's Kosmic Kowgirl Kafe.
We made it into the park in the late morning and finally got a glimpse of the Rio Grande on our first hike, into Boquillas Canyon. Mexicans would swim, canoe, or ride horses across the river to leave souvenirs for tourists to buy (and money jars of course). Unfortunately I left my cash in the car. When we got into the canyon we took a dip in the water and watched people climb up and down a long sand dune slide.
After that we headed across the park to hike into Santa Elena Canyon. There was a big sandy beach at the beginning of the trail and it was a lot cooler than our morning hike.
Saturday night we had a delightful dinner at Starlight Theatre (venison burger for me, antelope for Dan) where we listened to a live musician cover Willie Nelson tunes. Then we wandered around the ruins of Terlingua Ghost Town and grabbed beers at La Kiva, an underground “cave” bar.
Sunday was our final day and we did a half day rafting trip in the morning with Far Flung Adventures. The water level was low so we just got to float along and check out the scenery while our awesome guide Hatter rowed the raft. We stopped for a picnic on the Mexican side of the river, and Dan was excited to be able to say he's finally been to Mexico!
All in all we had an awesome adventurous trip!
