Thursday, December 07, 2000
Alpine, TX - Dec 7
After leaving Deming, our next stop was Hueco Tanks SP, about 30 miles east of El Paso. They have wonderful rock art, most of which can only be seen by guided tour. We got a site there for 3 nights -- the maximum you are allowed to stay. The place is quite restricted since they are very serious about keeping away any future vandalism. We were lucky enough to find a guide to take us out both days to see some of the wonderful pictographs. Most of this art is from the Jornado Mogollon period, which is from around 800 to 1200 years ago. The art is incredibly detailed and painted in a variety of colors.We then spent two uneventful nights in Van Horn, which was just a "stop along the way" to Alpine, TX. The most interesting thing that happened to us there is that we found soy chorizo (soyrizo) at the local grocery store (for tasty vegetarian burritos).
Alpine is a lovely town of about 6000 people with a small university, Sul Ross State, and is located near many interesting places, so we planned a 4-day stay. We took a day trip through part of Big Bend NP, planning for a several week visit in the future. It was foggy all day, but in late afternoon, the fog lifted, displaying lovely views of the mountains in both the US and Mexico. We walked on a nature trail by the Rio Grande and waved at children across the river in Mexico.
Another day we visited Davis Mountain SP and the MacDonald Observatory (home to the NPR program "Star Date"). The State Park is another lovely place where we want to return and spend more time, enabling us to attend some of the "Star Parties" held 3 evenings a week at the observatory. We took a tour of the observatory and got to see two of the largest telescopes. MacDonald is the darkest (farthest from city lights) observatory in the US. Its high altitude (over 6000 ft) and lack of humidity also help it be one of the best locations for an observatory.
The nearby town of Marfa, 30 miles west of Alpine, is famous for the Marfa "mystery" or "ghost" lights. These lights appear almost every night in the desert between Marfa and Alpine. They are bright, pulsating lights that move about and seem to change color at times. No one has been able to explain what they are. The lights were first documented in the 1880s when early ranchers feared they were the fires of Indians. People have tried various ways of finding out what they are but to no avail. We went to the viewing site (off of US90 15 miles west of Alpine) and looked and sure enough! We saw them both times we went. They're not very large but quite interesting to see.
In Alpine we visited the Museum of the Big Bend, located on the campus of Sul Ross State. There are historical exhibits of local interest, and there were also two photography exhibits. One was by Diane Lacy, a local rancher, who has a degree in fine arts. She always carries her camera while out "on the range" in the mountains north of Alpine, and shoots anything that looks interesting right as it happens. She has won many awards and has been published numerous times. The other photographer was Donald Hansen, who has combined computer & camera technology to take pictures of birds in flight. He uses an ultrafast strobe to freeze the subject and can sometimes take 3 photos of a bird as it passes through the beam. The results are incredibly detailed photos of birds flying with every feather perfectly still. He and his wife do a bird banding program at Davis Mountain SP which is open to the public several months of the year.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 5:05 PM 
