Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

November 24, 2018

Today is overcast but warm, we quickly have coffee and breakfast then ride our bikes down the hill to the park office.  There is a guided tour of Fake Bell Shelters, the cost is $8.00 per person and there were about 20 people who signed up.  Our tour guide is a woman who offers some walking sticks.  I decide to take one since we will be walking down into the canyon and back up again.  I don’t want a repeat of the night I fell on the road in Magnolia Beach.

The path down are made of stone steps, some are big making my short legs stretch, Chris’s long legs no so much.  The cave or shelters as they are called have paintings from the Indigenous Peco’s people who inhabited the area around 2000 years ago.  This area was once a shallow sea and every now and they you can see the fossils of shells and other stuff in the rocks.  We climb up a few stairs trying not to disturb the bee’s nest in the trees to our first sightings of the paintings made by the Peco’s people.  Then we move onto the other site, where we are told to stay on the black mats as movement on the shelf will send up black dust that will eventually ruin the paintings over time.

As our tour guide tells us about the paintings I take lots of pictures before heading back up the canyon.  A very nice tour I would recommend to anyone.

When dinner is finished we take the bikes and ride up the old road trail complete with rocks and some ups and downs.  I’m able to ride most of the way through the changing trail only getting off once to ensure I don’t fall on the rocks that splatter the trail.  We make our way up to Panther lookout and stop to take a look at the view.  Across the way you can make out the pictograph tail painting of a panther in the shelter,  The view is beautiful with the canyon surrounding the river that runs down to the Rio Grande and Mexico.  We reach the end of the trail and park our bikes to continue along the Canyon Rim trail to the end where you can see Mexico across the Rio Grande.

It was a nice way to spend a day in Seminole Canyon State Park.  A little for sitting in the sun working on the tan, a hot shower, dinner and an early night.  The fresh canyon air takes is toll on us as it’s only 7:15 pm for lights out not my normally bedtime.

Seminole Canyon State Park to Fort Davis, Texas

November 25, 2018

The clouds have settled in as we wake for our morning coffee.  I take the time to catch up on my blog, Chris also until his laptop starts to act up.  Chris starts to pack up the campsite while I finish getting caught up and then make breakfast so we can be on our way.

Highway 90 is rolling hills as we plug along and make a stop in Langtry, Texas.  Langtry claim to fame is Judge Roy Bean, self proclaimed “Law west of the Pecos”.  The visitor center is large, with lots of tourist pamphlets that I pick up for our next stopover. Inside are kiosks depicting holographic scenes of the town of Lantry, Judge Roy Bean.  You accessed these holographs by picking up an old Phone receiver.

We step out back to wander around, there is a building called the Jersey Lilly Saloon and Billiard Room where the judge sold liquor at the bar and made his judgments on all types of crimes.  To the right is a cactus garden and I take the walk stopping to take pictures of the different flora of the area and region.  To the left of the saloon is an Opera House, which was actually the Judges residents.  The judge fell in love with a picture of the English actress and songstress, Lily Langtry, naming the city and opera house after her.  He wrote her often telling her about the town, unfortunately the two never met.  She arrived in her own rail coach a few months after the judge died.

Next stop was Sanderson for diesel, wow! - a high price of $3.69 per gallon, guess they can charge what they want.  We make a stop at the Frenches Grocer to stock up on at least two days of food as we are stopping at Davis Mountain State Park for two nights.

Another quick stop in Marathon to ensure we are filled with diesel for the mountains and we finally make it to the Park and pay for two nights with electricity - another state park second night coupon used for a cost of $30.

We make a walk up to the bathrooms and showers to inspect them, then continue up to the interpretive center where we run into a young couple with three children from Burlington, Ontario.  They are also making their first trip down south trying to find somewhere warm.  They will be heading west also, so we say our goodbyes and maybe we will meet in Quartzite Arizona at some point.

That night some wild pigs decide to visit us at our campsite, but I’m too late to figure out the flash on my camera or so I thought, you can just make one big one out in the background.