Tales of West Texas

With September fast approaching, Darrel and I realized we had not taken a summer holiday together. Early in the summer Darrel took a brief trip to the UK and Emma and I went to Orlando, but the three of us had not escaped Austin together. A family trip was called for, and we decided to go west. Emma and I had driven through that part of the state last summer with my Dad, after a trip to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. We had spent one night in Marfa, and had really enjoyed the area. Darrel hadn't been to that area of Texas, so we decided to go.

I found a place to stay on-line that looked nice and remote - Chinati Hot Springs. We decided to spend 3 nights there and then 1 in Marfa at the Thunderbird Hotel. Emma, Dad and I had stayed there last summer and enjoyed it. I got a rental car through Priceline, and we were all set.

Day One

Because this damn state is so friggin' big, we decided to leave bright and early. Well, early anyway. It's not so bright at 4:30 in the a.m. We were up at 3:30, packed everything, had not nearly enough cups of coffee, threw Emma in the car in her nightgown and were off.

We hit I-10 around sunrise and Emma woke up shortly after that. She brought out the video camera and shot some road footage as Mummy drove and Daddy slept.

We had made the decision to drive through Big Bend National Park on our way to the hot springs, since we had never been there. This added several hours to our drive, but it was worth it. Before we got to the park, we stopped in Marathon for lunch. There's a nice old hotel there called the Gage, and they had great courtyard and refreshing-looking pool.


Back in the car and on to Big Bend. Darrel took the wheel and I took the video and still cameras. Emma became grumpy and bored in the backseat.


Wishing we could spend more time there, we stopped briefly in the park to stretch our legs, and then were off again toward Terlingua. We stopped in the Terlingua Ghost Town, so that Darrel could take a few photos.

And we got an uncomfortable pic of the three of us.

The road from Big Bend to Presidio, which is the last "big" town before our hot springs destination follows the US-Mexico border. From parts of it, you can see the Rio Grande. It's a very scenic drive, but also slow going for the uninitiated. It seemed to go on forever.

A short stop in Presidio to gas up and we were on the home stretch - the last 30 minutes of which were spent on a gravel road winding through the hills. We finally reached our destination - 13 hours after leaving our casa on Corona Drive. So very worth it.

The place is very minimal. If you are looking for creature comforts, this is not the place for you. We did have our own little cabin with a/c and a shower and tub on the little fenced-in patio. The shower and tub used water from the hot spring, which was nice.

There is a communal kitchen that is equipped with everything needed for meal-making, except food and drinking water. Luckily we brought both, so we were all set.

It had a nice deck where Emma enjoyed watching the ants.

We unpacked and jumped into the pool. It sat on a hill, affording an amazing view. The owner of the place said the pump was not working, so it was a little green. OK, it was more than a little green, but it was 104 out there dammit.


After dinner, we enjoyed the silence and darkness, and Emma crashed. Darrel and I followed after a brief dip in the hot springs-filled hot tub that was a few steps from our door. A long day of driving ended sitting in nice, warm water staring up at the stars. Not a bad first day.

Day Two

I woke before the other two and went for a short walk. The sun had just risen and it was lovely and cool.

We spent the day doing lots of nothing. We went for an early hike in the desert, and Darrel took some great photos.


Emma found a frog on our shower/patio.

We had a visit by one of the resident hound dog puppies, Lefty.

We made the long trip back to Presidio for the essentials - more water, milk and beer. Other than that, we swam, ate, explored the creek bed, swam some more, ate again, and slept. I love holidays.

Day Three

We went for an early morning walk down the creek bed. Emma was fascinated with the tadpoles.

And we stumbled across a stone head.

We swam some more and spent some time in the hot tub.

A storm blew in during the late afternoon. It cooled things down quite a bit, and actually included some hail. We were in the kitchen, which has a tin roof, and it was like we were under attack. Wish we had gotten some audio of that, it was crazy.

We made it an early night, since we were leaving early the next morning to head to Marfa.

Day Four

We could have happily stayed at the hot springs for many more days - Emma wants to move there, she enjoyed it so much - but we had reservations at the Thunderbird. We said goodbye to our cabin, the tadpoles, dogs and green pool, and headed north.

We got to Marfa too early to check into our hotel, so we wandered around town a bit - had coffee, lunch and explored the top of the courthouse.


We checked in after lunch, and Emma and I immediately jumped into the lovely, non-green, pool.


After our refreshing dip, we rented some bikes from the hotel and rode around town for a bit.

After a bit more swimming and much-needed showers for all, we had dinner at the restaurant in the Paisano hotel and headed out to see the infamous Marfa lights. Emma, Dad and I had seen them last year, and were lucky enough to catch them again. No video or still photos of them, but we saw them, I promise. They still looked a bit like car headlights off in the distance, but were cool nevertheless. There was an annoying woman there who insisted on describing every movement of each light in a very loud voice. I came close to asking her to shut the hell up, since she was ruining it for the rest of us. Darrel thought she was a perfect candidate for alien abduction.

We retired early, preparing ourselves for our long journey home.

Day Five

The journey home was much shorter. We left Marfa at about 8:30, and were back in our driveway at 4:45-ish. We stopped in Alpine for breakfast, resolving to spend more time there on our next trip to the area. We then headed to I-10 and drove and drove and drove. Emma documented part of the trip back.


All in all, a very enjoyable trip. We all had a great time, and came back rejuvenated. I do feel that we could have spent another 3 weeks out there and still not been able to see and do all that we wanted. Darrel wants to head east next time we go somewhere, but I need more desert-time.

Many more photos can be seen on my Flickr page, and more videos are on Vimeo.