kimber_garrett

I've been on a mission for the last 10 years to take my picture by every courthouse in Texas. In March or April, I'll be traveling to West Texas to get the 6 or 7 courthouses on the way to El Paso. Any points of interest along I-10 that should not be missed? We'll be taking a detour through Alpine, as well.

Note that I'm a native Texan and have serious experience with "major" tourist attractions...we're looking for more local or "native" hangouts. Thanks in advance!

tomfuller

In 10 years how many have you visited of the 254?

spirobulldog

My very favorite things to do in West Texas are hiking Guadalupe Mountains and doing the two wild cave tours offered at Carlsbad. You may have seen Carlsbad, but to really see it, consider one or both of the wild cave tours. Only 8 people per week get to see each one. I like Big Bend too. Maybe Balmorhea State park, if you haven't been there.

We ate at a place in El Paso called D'Lox- that we thought was pretty decent for El Paso. I have a hard time finding a good spot to eat for such a large city.

WhereAreWe

Which 6 or 7 are you going to visit? Are you going to Fort Stockton, Fort Davis and Marfa as well as Alpine?

Spring time is nice. I'd say detour to Big Bend because you aren't that far away when you're in Alpine but it's super busy during Spring Break, so depending on your exact dates you might have trouble finding lodging if you go there. Terlingua/Study Butte are pretty eclectic.

If you are going to Marfa and Fort Stockton, maybe the best route is to go south on 385 when you get to Fort Stockton. That'll take you to Marathon, then you'll go west on 90 to Alpine and Marfa, then north on 67 to Fort Davis. That would be a decent scenic route. I think Marathon has some little shops and art galleries too.

Fort Davis National Historic Site is pretty cool. There's also Davis Mountains State Park and the McDonald Observatory by Fort Davis. Marfa is pretty well-known for its arts scene. Balmorhea State Park is right along your route. Monahans Sandhills State Park is not too far off your route and there is a courthouse in Monahans.

Have you heard of the Marfa lights?

kimber_garrett

@tomfuller: I've gotten about half of them (I've been doing college/finding a career in those 10 years, so I haven't been able to devote the time and money to it. Now that I'm "established" I will probably tour many more in the summers).

@spiro: D'Lox is an awesome name and we'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

@WhereAreWe: Thanks for the feedback! We're hitting F.S., F.D., Alpine, Van Horn, El Paso, Pecos, and somewhere else I can't recall at the moment. We were going to hit Marfa since we're both artsy, but I haven't heard of Marathon and will check out that way. I have heard of the Marfa lights (!), but unfortunately we'll probably be in Las Cruces by nightfall. It might be worth the extra night if it's really as mind-blowing as everyone says it is!

WhereAreWe

Are you planning on doing this all in one day? That's fairly ambitious if so and I don't think you'd have much time to make other stops.

kimber_garrett

We're taking 2-3 days. I know we won't have time for Big Bend, but I feel fairly certain we could make a few stops in 3 days.

spirobulldog

White Sands are worth a couple of hours, just a bit north of LC.

WhereAreWe

Ok, it was just hard to tell how much time you had. And when you said you were going to hit Marfa but would probably be in Las Cruces by nightfall I was picturing a marathon day of hitting the courthouses, jumping out for a pic and then taking off again.

I'll be in Big Bend and area for 9 days at the end of this month. I've actually never driven into Marathon, just turned left on 385 and headed to Big Bend without going into town. But this time I need to hit up a bookstore there so I'll look around and give you my opinion when I get back.

I presume you've heard of the Chinati Foundation in Marfa?
http://www.chinati.org/index.php

I agree that Big Bend is out of your way. The park is so big you'd need several days just to hit the highlights. But if you feel like making a detour, head south from Marathon to the national park, then west to Terlingua. From there you can either head north to Alpine, or continue west along the Rio Grande to Presidio and then north to Marfa.

Terlingua is a quirky little town, you would want to stop at La Kiva for sure. It's pretty well known to anyone that visits Big Bend, but that's not a lot of people so I think it probably avoids the category of major tourist attractions.
http://www.lakiva.net/
http://ghosttowntexas.com/index.html

The drive from Terlingua to Presidio along the river is very scenic.

Just to give you an idea of approximate drive times: The Fort Stockton-Terlingua-Presidio-Marfa route is almost a 6 hour drive. If you skipped Presidio and just went to Alpine after Terlingua, it's about 4.5 hours. Fort Stockton to Alpine via Marathon is about 1.5 hours.

And you'd probably want to make at least one or two stops in the park, but obviously you don't have a lot of time for that. I just mention all that in case you want to make that detour, and if not you can file it away for some other time.

Like I said, I'll be there in a couple weeks and I'll check back into this thread with any ideas I have. My itinerary is very loose right now, I may or may not hit Marfa, Alpine and Fort Davis but for sure will stop in Marathon.

Are you going to Del Rio or have you been there? Langtry to visit the old Judge Roy Bean saloon/court? I realize that's not an official courthouse and is somewhat of a tourist attraction but it would be kind of fun to add it to your list.

kimber_garrett

@Where are we: You are awesome. Your facts are better than Texas Escapes and Ghost Town Texas combined!

If it were up to me, I'd go during spring break (I'm a teacher) and spend the entire week taking in the sights of West Texas (I've never been farther west than Kermit), but my travel partner doesn't have that option, so we're just doing the highlights. But I've heard awesome things about Terlingua, and I'm willing to cut out some other parts to take the detour.

Have a safe trip and keep us all informed!

kimber_garrett

P.S. I believe I've been to Del Rio, asleep in the backseat of a car on the way to Mexico. I plan on hitting many of those counties around the border this summer and will send out another "information please" post around then! Thanks!

WhereAreWe

Ok, I'm sitting in Fort Davis right now almost at the end of my trip. I spent a night in Del Rio, then drove through Langtry to Marathon, spend a week in Big Bend, then almost a full day in Alpine and now Fort Davis. Here's my thoughts:

I don't think there's much in Del Rio to get excited about. People seemed somewhat incredulous when I said I was visiting, until I said I was just staying there overnight. My main reason for going there was to visit Seminole Canyon State Park on my way to Big Bend. The Fate Bell tour in Seminole Canyon was nice but will be very hot in summer.

Langtry was dead. The Judge Roy Bean museum was interesting enough if you have reason to drive that way. Not sure I'd go out of my way to visit again though. Cell phone coverage from Del Rio to Sanderson was virtually non-existent, same from Sanderson to Marathon.

Marathon is really not much. I expected a lot more but struggled to spend 2 hours there. And part of that time was spent sitting in front of the public library using their wifi signal....there are a 2-3 galleries, a few cafe/restaurants and a bookstore. And a small museum. I would not make any sort of detour to go there if you don't have a good reason to.

Alpine was a pleasant surprise. I visited the Museum of Big Bend on the Sul Ross campus - spent about an hour there as it's not very big, but it is really a nice place to learn about some history of the area. Then I wandered around the downtown area and visited 6-7 galleries/studios. Some were great, others not so much. Catchlight is a cooperative of 14-15 artists (woodworking, painting, jewelry, textiles, pottery, etc.). I was impressed with the quality, totally did not expect some of that stuff in Alpine. I spent about an hour there looking and talking to the artist who was there that day. I went next door to Gallery on the Square which was a definite step down in quality. Kiowa Gallery was somewhere in between. Nancy Whitlock's gallery/studio was very nice, I spent an hour there talking to her and looking at her paintings (and one video she made). Red Door photography was closed - I looked through the windows at the photos, very nice but it's a really small space with maybe a dozen or so on display. From there, I visited Deborah Allison's studio/gallery - she is a very good portrait artist who also does a bit of landscapes. She was working on a portrait in the front room while I looked around. She recommended I go down to the Open Range gallery, she gave them a call to make sure they were open and I drove over. It's primarily Western art, so more of an old-style cowboy feel to a lot of it but also more contemporary stuff.

I did not go to Marfa. The consensus among the Alpine artists I met is that Marfa is more of a transient/hipster kind of art scene. The sense I got was the Alpine art community was primarily people who made the decision to put down some roots in the area, whereas Marfa tended to be people who moved there to get a start, then moved to a bigger city after a couple years. I think the art probably reflects that, I would suspect Marfa tends to the more edgy type of scene. Alpine is a more traditional.

Fort Davis has a nice national historical site, a state park and Mcdonald Observatory. There is a gallery above the old drugstore but it really isn't anything special.

If you have any questions let me know, I'll try to keep an eye on this topic.

kimber_garrett

@WhereAreWe--once again, you've saved the day. I'm glad you had a great trip, and thanks for all the info!

ChristieP

IMHO, the only thing worth seeing in Del Rio is the Whitehead Memorial Museum and Seminole Canyon. My in-laws live there and I get dragged down there at least once a year...