Patrick Denker/Flickr Creative Commons
Happy Summer everybody! The heat and the humidity have truly rolled in to stay. I mean it’s been so darn humid I’ve been thinking about bringing a change of clothes with me to work. So naturally one’s mind drifts to less humid areas…and one of my favorite in Texas is Alpine!
Alpine, TX is the county seat of Brewster county which I delight in reminding people is 500 square miles BIGGER than Connecticut. It’s so big you could fit Delaware in there three times over. Matter of fact I reckon you could have a fire the size of Delaware in Brewster county and never even see the smoke. Ha! But back to Alpine.
Alpine is a wonderful place to use as your home base for exploring the Texas Big Bend country. It has a population of around 6000 (which is almost half the entire population of Brewster County) which means it has all the amenities you’ll require. From Alpine you can head south into the Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park (which naturally is bigger than the National Park), the “ghost town” of Terlingua, Lajitas, and on into Mexico if that’s your thing.
Or you can head north up to Ft Davis and see the old cavalry fort, eat some absolutely deeeeeeeeeee-licious Tex Mex, or visit the McDonald Observatory. If west is more your thing, why then Marfa is your place! You can check out the quirky art scene it’s got happening, there’s a permanent fake Prada shoe store out in the middle of the desert for example. Kind of like a shoe version of Cadillac Ranch. And of course there are the famous Marfa Lights. Head out there some evening and see if you can spot them. There is a dedicated viewing area right there on the highway.
This portion of West Texas is particularly beautiful this year because of all the rain, so if you think of desiccated, dusty, and dirty when you think of W TX…you’re occasionally right. But not this year. The creeks and rivers are running, the vegetation is beautiful. AND IT’S NOT HUMID.