ABOUT THE PLACE

This is about a 7.5 hour drive from Austin, but it's one of many good places to visit out in West Texas. This park is really beautiful and has many, many miles of hiking trails. I think if you added them all up it would be close to 20 miles. When I camped at this park, I did a special hiking trail called the Limpia Creek trail. You need to check in at the ranger station to get into this area. The hike is about 8 miles round trip if you just go up to the scenic overlook and then back down, but there's also another branch that takes you into a canyon, and that'll add a few more miles.

The camping sites are nice, however, not very tranquil at all. The camping area parallels the main park road which gets a lot of traffic, so you'll be woken up at 7:00am as cars, trucks, and motorcycles start to leave. Additionally, the Indian Lodge in the park has A/C compressors which kill the silence you would expect in such a remote location. Instead, you hear that constant hum all night long. There is a lot of wildlife here. We had deer come up to our campsite all the time. At one point, a very domesticated buck (a 10 pointer!) came right up to our campfire and hung out with us for a while. At night the skunks and javolias raid your campsite, so be sure to put any food back in your vehicle before you go to sleep.

If you don't want to camp, there is the historic Indian Lodge at the park. I forgot to go in and check it out when I was there, but I've heard is really nice and rustic. Probably worth checking out.

There is a lot to do nearby. The fort in Fort Davis is definitely worth checking out. They've got several furnished buildings that are really interesting to check out to see how people lived back then. The hospital (what remains of it) is also very interesting. Just 13 miles up the road is the McDonald Observatory. This is a must-see stop. They've got tours and star parties at different days/times of the week. Check with the park to get information on their schedules. Balmorhea State Park is only 40 minutes away down a very scenic road. Not much to see at Balmorhea except for the springs. Definitey worth a stop in the summer to cool off. If you're up for a day trip from the park then you can drive about 2.5 to 3 hours to Carlsbad Cavers up in New Mexico. Be sure to get there by 2:00pm in order to get into the cave, and note that there is a time zone change during the drive.