I suspect that for nearly everyone reading this, these two town names are completely unfamiliar. I’d certainly never heard of them before planning this trip to West Texas. Both sit just outside Big Bend National Park, small outposts on the edge of a vast landscape.
But let’s start at the beginning. We left Fort Davis after what can only be described as a cursory visit to the fort, a true drive by. We never even got out of the car. It was already hot, and the prospect of walking through deserted barracks held little appeal.
The route to the park took us back through Alpine. In comparison to everywhere else in this area it is a major metropolis.
Once out of town, the density of traffic diminished to a trickle. If we saw two cars in five miles it was the equivalent of congestion. With wide open, often arrow straight roads, I found myself surpassing the speed limit (75 mph) frequently and needing to take it a bit slower. Plus, the vastness of the space played tricks with depth perception and often made it feel as though we hadn’t made any forward progress at all.
Every so often, a lone house or trailer would appear, nestled in the hills, or a cluster of mailboxes would gather at the edge of the road beside a narrow dirt track, with no visible dwelling in sight. I tried to imagine life here. As a city person, I can appreciate the quiet and the beauty, but the absence of people would, eventually, make me crazy.
Our first stop was Study Butte, where we pulled into the Chile Pepper Café for lunch. The place was lively, a mix of park employees, tourists, and locals. The husband and wife running it were warm and talkative. They told us they had moved here from a large city just ten months earlier. As she put it, “It was a message from God.” They clearly love their new life.
A few miles down the road sits Terlingua Ghost Town, once a quicksilver, or mercury, mining hub. When the supply ran out, the town was abandoned. What remains are atmospheric ruins and a historic cemetery. It became a quirky tourist attraction, now sometimes referred to as a living ghost town.
We didn’t do much walking around as the heat had soared to 97 degrees. We were told the Starlight Theatre and Terlingua Trading Company were must-sees. The Starlight Theater (now a restaurant) wasn’t open. The Trading Company mostly had merchandise from Mexico. Still, it is a very atmospheric place.
By that point we were hot and exhausted. We checked in to our hotel, a definite step up from our prior lodgings. We were both happy to put our feet up and do nothing.
Tomorrow Big Bend National Park.