Escape to Texas Mountains

Working from home is overall pretty great, but there's nothing to do after the end of the work day. All planned and thought-about summer vacations have been cancelled. The one hobby I have is going to a movie theater, and they have all been closed since March. I stay indoors except to get groceries, get takeout, or replenish cat food and litter. 

It all makes me feel even more stir-crazy to get out of dodge. Even though it was just six weeks ago that I roadtripped to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the absence of everything else in my life exacerbates my need to GET OUT. The need and desire to feel and experience something beyond the four walls of my apartment, but also being safe and not risking infection of myself or possibly others. It is indeed a strange time. 

So on a whim I booked a room at the Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park for Sunday night. I did this Friday night. Because there are no rules during a pandemic (other than actual rules like physical distancing, wearing a mask, etc.). 

Mountains aren't prevalent in Texas. At least that's how I feel as someone that grew up in Idaho and Utah in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. And I always miss them, in an abstract way since I'm not an avid hiker or anything. So finding these mountains, just a six-and-a-half-hour drive from Austin felt like finding gold. 

All I wanted to do was escape my apartment and clear my head with pretty views, sunsets and sunrises, and some stars. I got all of that in spades. I spent the day sitting on a rock overlooking a valley. I watched birds (even though I know nothing about birds), listened to the wind, saw some deer foraging for food, and watched the mountain slowly be enveloped by shade as the sun set. 

Then everything was swathed in the magical glow of magic hour, and suddenly everything was evocative, beautiful, transcendent. Trees and cactus and rocks were beautiful masterpieces of elegance and purity. Then the star came out, and I spent at least an hour gawking at the majesty of the Milky Way and nighttime sky. 

I got up very early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Everything looked gorgeous, and I spent the morning hiking around the area and taking pictures of cactus. I even ran across a group of wild pigs. Check out all my photos here. 

I then headed out to Marfa, because it seemed like if I was already out this far in west Texas I might as well hit up Marfa and see the famous Prada art installation. But what I'll always remember is the amazing fried chicken sandwich I had at The Water Stop (and the very pricey pillow I bought at a gift shop). 

These plants were everywhere, and they definitely gave a feeling of an other-worldly place. Aliens, maybe? ;)