More of Davis Mountains

This morning Matey and I walked through the group picnic area. That’s a huge barbecue in front. They take barbecue seriously in Texas.

We looped up to the very end of the Old CCC Trail and then we saw these four javelinas. What fun. Matey and I were both excited.

Yesterday the Master Naturalist recommended a drive through the Davis Mountains on Route 118, circling back around the south side of the mountains on Route 166, a distance of about 70 miles. Bud and I decided to try it, so we packed up a lunch and Matey and headed out. Unfortunately for the blog I got so absorbed in the scenery I forgot to take pictures for a while. I did take this shot of a couple of the telescopes at the McDonald Observatory.

This is coming to the west side of the mountains where Route 118 meets Route 166.

Since it skirted around the south side of the Davis Mountains I thought Route 166 wouldn’t be very pretty. I was wrong.

There were some dramatic peaks there,

and still some winding road,

as well as desert vistas.

We lucked out and found a nice picnic area to stop for lunch.

It was under the end of a rocky ridge.

We chose this shady table as our lunch spot.

The sites had these stone structures. They looked like huge stone grills, but they were cemented shut.

So no grills, but nice surroundings.

As I sat in that lovely spot and looked out at the harsh desert I realized again that people didn’t live out there,

they lived here.