Texas Trip: Fort Davis and Hiking the Davis Mountains


On our second day on our trip within our trip, we headed a half-hour north to Fort Davis, Texas. Fort Davis is named after an actual fort and our destination for the day. This is a view walking down the long covered porch to the main office. Across the parade grounds, you can see the smaller, individual buildings that housed the soldiers and support staff.




According to the U.S. National Park Service, the fort is the oldest fort in Texas and played a key role as a frontier military post and it protected people as they traveled on the San Antonio-El Paso road on their way to California during the Gold Rush. You can read more about its history here.




Like many other old military forts I've seen over the years, they are often strategically placed. Fort Davis is no different as it is positioned next to the Davis Mountains. Ahead of me, you can see my daughter walk the trail to the Post Hospital, which is located behind all the personal quarters.




The rocky Davis Mountains loom over the old hospital.




A display inside the hospital




The office of the Post Surgeon.




After we walked through the hospital, we headed into the Davis Mountains to hike. We took the Hospital Canyon trail to the top.









A view from the top!




After we reached the top, we connected with the Scenic Overlook Trail and headed back down to the Fort from that route. Overall, it was only a few miles but the switchbacks and lack of shade definitely made it a bit more challenging than you would expect. I was glad we were there on a cooler April day - as opposed to July!

After our hike, we utilized the picnic area within the park and had a picnic lunch (of course) before heading back to the Antelope Lodge. Like I mentioned in the last post about this trip, this entire area only comes alive Thursday-Sunday. Since we were there Monday-Wednesday, there were so many things that were closed that would've been nice to have visited, such as the Old Overland Trail Museum, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, Museum of the Big Bend, and a few towns with the neatest shops and art museums. Yes, even those were closed Mon-Wed. Regardless of what we didn't get to see, we still got to visit some neat places and it was a fun trip. 


I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, and I'll have a new post up on Saturday.
 






Comments

Popular Posts