Tinka’s been trying to get Rick to the Davis Mountains ever since their marriage. Her first visit to the area was when she was an infant, many years ago. Her family would come here every year for vacation. More about that later.
Rick, a confirmed flat lander, has resisted until now. Since we were going to be traveling back to the Rio Grande Valley from El Paso on I-10, our path carried us too close to the mountain range for any excuses to work. As we traveled east from El Paso, farmland and the Rio Grande, marked by the row of trees, were just south of us. The mountains beyond the river are in Mexico and seem to be endless.
When we travel, the discount RV park directory from Passport-America is our choice. When checking out the Fort Davis area, we came across the Historic Prude Ranch. The ranch is a dude ranch tailored to more youthful guests than us. They have two areas for RVs. We chose the one located on an upper level of the grounds, farthest from the farm animals and their flies.
We were only going to be here three nights, so we didn’t get a chance to use many of their facilities.
Here’s one of the other rigs that happened to stop by at the ranch.
The Prude Ranch has been in business for 113 years and they have operated the dude ranch for about 90 years.
Finally, Rick finds a mountain range that he likes. The Davis Mountains are entirely within the borders of the state of Texas. They were formed from volcanic action that centered close to nearby Marfa, TX nearly 65 million years ago. The rock formations and effects of erosion are magnificent. This particular rock is located near The Lodge at the Davis Mountain State Park.
The unusual vertical rock formations are everywhere.
The ridges stretch for miles.
Other rock formations are similar to what we saw in the southern California mountains and the “Texas Canyon”, located just east of Tucson, AZ.
Picnic areas, here, are integrated very well into the rough background.
From 1850 until 1875, the town of Fort Davis was the original county seat for Presido County, home of the oldest town in America, Presido. (Presidio has been continuously inhabited since about 1500 BC.)
But I digress, the counties were reconfigured and Fort Davis is now the county seat of Jefferson Davis County. The county courthouse has been maintained beautifully, with some newer facades.
The entire county has only a about 2500 people. One of them is a night police officer that thinks that 3 miles per hour over the posted limit is actually speeding.
Now, back to Tinka’s early vacations. Since before Tinka was born, her parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins would find their way to the Davis Mountains for a week each August. Their destination was the Bloys Camp Meeting where four protestant church denominations have been holding these gatherings since 1890.
Apparently, the original visitors to Bloys used to stay in tents or other temporary structure. Some sixty years ago, Tinka’s father decided to build a cabin constructed from corrugated tin. Nestled back against the boulders, it became Cabin No. 1.
Now there are about 450 cabins, still nearly all made of tin, but many have satellite TV. They seem a little extravagant for only one week per year. Permanent residence is not allowed.
Here is one of several cooking sheds that service the huge crowd.
This tabernacle houses the four daily worship services.
A monument has been erected to honor the memory of one of the founders of the Bloys Camp Meeting.
We’ll be making trips to the McDonald Observatory and also see if we can spot the mysterious Marfa Lights.
