Monday, December 29, 2008

Davis Mountains, Part 1

We're back from our 1600 mile loop through Texas for the holidays. The weather was pretty good although it started out frigid. A bitterly cold wind was blowing out of the north but that was okay because we had a toasty fire with family in Ft. Worth.



But then we had a long drive down to the Davis Mountains, a beautiful area of Texas near Big Bend. It's anchored by the small town of Ft. Davis, founded in the mid 1800's as a fort to protect the stagecoaches and mail heading west. It has a really interesting history. We stayed at Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park. The lodge was built during the CCC days of the 1930's and still retains a lot of the original hand crafted furniture and details.

In this blog I thought I'd show a few pictures of some of the wildlife we encountered. (When I get some more time I'll blog about the great plants down there.) Below is a common resident of the park, the javelina. They're NOT related to pigs but rather to the South American tapir and even the hippopatomus!



We also saw lots of deer. They're pretty tame in the park since there's no hunting there. I'm not sure if this is a white tail deer or a mule deer. Probably a white tail.




Way up in the mountains you can see sheep. I think these are Dall Sheep but I'm not certain. Update: I believe these are Barbary Sheep.



One of the birds I really wanted to see there was the Montezuma Quail. Once again, it eluded me. But I sure saw a lot of Pine Siskins!




Last but not least is the view from our room. Not bad, eh?



3 comments:

  1. Hi Jean, what a trip! That is a lot of miles to travel, from one who has done plenty of traveling too! :-) What interesting animals, I can't wait to see the plants though!
    Frances

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  2. ooo - I like your photo of the javelina! He looks an interesting beast :)
    K

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  3. Hey Jean,
    Your little brother bought a 1/2 cord of wood to keep your toes toasty!! I'm sure we'll have plenty the next time you visit the Texas Tundra. Glad you stopped in and had a chance to party with our friends. They all thought you were cool with your farmers market endeavors, knowledge of monkeys (I mean apes) and how to judge the perfect meatball. Of course I enjoyed our Mele Kalikimaka dance.
    xxCarolyn

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