Originally Posted to Quora
Alpine Texas, Elev. 4,475 ft
I have been fortunate to spend large portions of my life living, working, and playing in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, the Rocky Mountains of the Intermountain West, and the wonderfully remote parts of Texas. The Adirondack Mountains which is where my family on both sides dates back to the 1830’s was where I spent much of my younger life. What an incredible place to grow up hunting and fishing,bskiing, canoeing, hiking, cycling, and watching an Olympic-bound older cousin training at, what was at the time, the only bobsled course in the United States, Mt. Van Hovenberg, just outside Lake Placid where the 1936 and 1980 Olympics were held. I then left for the bigger mountains of Colorado and the West just after graduating from college. I’ve done rough calculations and, from what I can guess, I’ve taken over 40,000 photographs. Of those, I would anticipate that half were of my adventures to wild places and communing with wild things. I just turned sixty-four but have been forced by a quickly deteriorating spine to dial things back such that I am no longer able to take the long road trips which were my life’s blood until just a few years ago. But I had a good, thirty-year run in Colorado and went on countless adventures throughout Colorado and into New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. I am in the daunting process of going through them but will post some of those photos in written pieces to come.
About thirteen years ago, my younger wife landed a wonderful job in Texas and, since I was much closer to the putting a cap on my career, I joined her to come to where we now live in rural Central Texas, about an hour s drive equidistant from Austin and San Antonio. The closest I can get to my Colorado mountains and the Colorado Plateau is by driving the seven hours to what has become my favorite place in Texas, the Big Bend Region and Big Bend National Park (BBNP), roughly two hours south and west of El Paso. This is a very remote area of the United States, with some of the darkest night skies anywhere in the world. All part of the Chihuahuan desert which extends across the border and the Rio Grand deep into Old Mexico. I’ve spent considerable time roaming the area and backcountry camping in BBNP where I’ve hiked many a mile and enjoyed the last of my mountain biking and trail running days. In February of 2014, I made my first trip to the park and camped for six nights, seeing just four people on my daily hikes and rides. Heaven on earth! What a wonderful break from humanity and all things touched by man. It felt pristine and wild and was still largely undiscovered by the throngs of people I’d grown accustomed to seeing in other National Parks throughout the American West.
Central Adirondack Mountains, Ausable Valley Floor from the Family Homestead and the Ledges on Ebenezer Mountain (Rising from Behind the Family Homestead)
I would go on to make numerous trips to West Texas and the Big Bend region. Here are a few highlights:
Images from Fort Davis State Park Near Marfa and Various Locations in and Around BBNP. The last Photo is of the Chisos Mountains and Mount Emory. At Almost 7,825 feet, it Stands as the Park’s Highest Point, 2,000 feet Above the Valley Floor. The Rio Grand, Which Marks the Park’s Southern Boundary and Border with Mexico is at 1,875 ft.
Most of my travel to the Big Bend Region has been a solitary endeavor. While dogs are allowed, there are enough restrictions that it hasn’t been worth bringing them along. For me, having grown accustomed to sharing wilderness experiences with my dogs, this by itself is a difficult pill to swallow, but Big Bend is a Natural Park and such park restrictions are put in place for good reason. Plus, having a dog along for a long run or hike in 100+ degree heat with virtually no water to be found simply wouldn’t be a good idea, extending well into foolhardiness.
On one trip (Christmas of 2018)), my wife and dogs joined me for a West Texas excursion to the town of Marathon, an historic oil boom and railroad town, located roughly 90 miles north of BBNP. We’d rented a two room Sears and Roebuck catalog bungalow and used it as our base of operations. Though from San Antonio, she had never been to the Big Bend region, so I had the pleasure of showing her the sights. This included daytrips into BBNP and exploring the towns of Alpine, Fort Davis, and Marfa. Some of you may be familiar with the area around Marfa as it was the primary filming location for the film epic “Giant” featuring a young and beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson. But I fell in love with the less traveled and much less populated town of Marathon, where we were staying. When I wasn’t in the backvountry on previous trips, I stayed at the historic Holland Hotel which had been build during the 1930’s. But the only hotel time we spent on this trip would be having New Year’s Eve dinner at the historic Gage Hotel, in Marathon, another grand hotel from the same period, the heyday of the oil boom, cattle ranching, and the newly built railroad, which, back then, was the primary means of travel between Houston, College Station, San Antonio, Austin, and Alpine.
View to the North from the Town of Marathon, TX
The Historic Gage Hotel in Marathon. Texas
The Historic Holland Hotel, Alpine, Texas
To me, whenever I’ve taken a road trip to some remote location for another sort of adventure getaway, I attempt to mix in a couple of days on the tail end of that trip and stay at some historic hotel to clean-up, get a good meal, and some much needed rest before the return trip home. I have a number of favorites in Colorado. Victorian Grand Hotels which were built between 1880 and 1930 during the mining boom when these now resort towns were in their heyday. In West Texas, the Holland and Gage Hotels have served as my newfound favorite places to stay.
Needless to say, the Big Bend Region draws a lot more people now than it did during my first stay in 2014, but when compared to other National Parks in the country, it still feels relatively wild and it is not difficult to find places that are off the beaten path. I’ve spoken with several park rangers and within the National Park system, Big Bend has long been considered the crowned jewel for its rugged and remote nature and relatively few park visitors. Many senior rangers put in for it as their final assignment and remain in the area after retirement. It is, by any measure, one of the most priestine, beautiful, and wild places remaining in the American West.
Note; More recent photos were taken using a Sony Xperia I IV smartphone. The associated camera technology and capabilities are top tier.
Older photos were shot with an HTC M7 or a Motorola Edge (3rd Generation), phones also known to have superior picture taking capabilities.
