We didn’t mean to spend a week traveling the long lonely highways of West Texas. The tentative plan to get through all of Texas went something like this: take four days, go to Rice where the Casita manufacturer is located, maybe go to San Antonio, then to El Paso, then into Arizona. On our trip to Rice, we were supposed to get a new door installed (because we destroyed ours, which is a different story for different time), but things didn’t turn out that way. We did end up leaving Casita with a new door, the only catch being that it wasn’t installed. On the atlas we searched for a nearby state park where we could plug into electricity and install the new door ourselves. Oh, life on the open road can be cruel. That’s how we found Lake Whitney State Park.
Lake Whitney is a 23,000-surface-acre reservoir in Texas Lakes and Prairies Country. When we got there, there were a number of campsites to choose from. The woman at the main office suggested a spot, “the BEST spot”, right on the water. When we turned into our loop, not another RV was in sight. We set up camp, Kenny jumped in the water, Annie chased skipping stones, and that night we fell asleep to the sound of lake water lapping at the shore. So we stayed another night. A different woman checked us in the following morning and commented, “Oh, that’s a good site.” That day, we installed the new door and read the state parks brochure, where we saw the picture of a pool filled with crystalline blue water surrounded by desert mountain peaks. So on the third day, we cashed in for a Texas State Park Pass and headed west toBalmorhea State Parkwhere one of the world’s largest spring-fed pools was waiting.
Balmorhea State Park
We pulled into Balmorhea after 5:00 pm as snowflakes started to fall. Thankfully, they were of the southern variety - small and spaced as far apart from each other as towns on a Texas highway. The pool closed at 6:00 pm. We setup camp, sat down, looked at the clock, and with 20 minutes to spare, decided to change into our bathing suits and take the plunge.
Built by the CCC in the late 1930s, the 1.75 acre v-shaped pool is fed by San Solomon Spring. The pool maintains a temperature between 72-76 degrees year round and reaches a depth of 25-feet. To say the water felt warm on this crisp winter night would be a lie, but it did feel warmer than jumping into, say, a river in January. We only shivered in the water for a few minutes, but decided to stick around for another two days to enjoy the water as the temperature rose into the upper 60s.
The next day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. When we got to the pool, a class of scuba divers were suiting up. We put on our snorkeling goggles and slid into the warm water instead of taking the algae-lined steps. Clouds of small Comanche Springs Pupfish and Pecos Mosquitofish swam in the clear water. Both species are endangered, due in part to the drying up of desert springs. Coot feet paddled overhead and turtles swam to the deepest depths. Kenny jumped and jumped and jumped from the high dive.
On our last day, we took a day trip 30 miles south to Davis Mountains State Park to exercise our dog and our Texas State Park Pass.The woman at the main office gave us a thorough tour of the trail map, and before we decided which trail to take, we decided we would need to return to Davis Mountains.
That day, we hiked the loop from the Skyline Drive Trail (2.6 miles) to the connecting Old CCC Trail (1.7 miles). From the Skyline Drive Trail Overlook, we took in the expansive view of the Davis Mountain and were reminded of home in Western Colorado. Shining against the desert peaks a few miles away sat the Indian Lodge, an impressive white adobe hotel built by the CCC in the 1930s. And through our binoculars, high up on a hill 20 miles west, we spotted the McDonald Observatory telescopes.
Davis Mountains State Park
The next day, after taking one last swim, we said goodbye to Balmorhea and headed to Davis Mountains State Park for a two night stay. And, because we don’t do anything in much of a hurry these days, we got there in the afternoon and took the Montezuma Quail Trail (.58 miles) to the Indian Lodge Trail (1.37 miles) and drooled over the closed pool at the Indian Lodge.
The following morning, we suited up for an 8-mile hike in the state park’s primitive area, which is across the road and requires an access code from the main office. After spending most of the winter in the foreign moss-covered hills of Tennessee and Mississippi, it was refreshing to hike on hot sand and breathe a little deeper climbing toward 5,700 feet.
In West Texas: Part 2, we'll travel to the McDonald Observatory, Marfa, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park!
| |
|
