While not exactly a tourist destination, Sterling City does boast a historic little hotel and that was enough to get it on my radar screen as a half-way stop on our drive from Big Bend National Park back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I was looking for a hotel with character and–as nice as Hotel Settles was on the drive down–I wanted to take a different route home just to vary things up a little. When I found a list of historic Texas hotels online, I pulled up Google Maps and eyed the location of those I wasn’t familiar with. 1910 State Hotel in Sterling City seemed exactly what I was looking for.
While not as posh nor near so big as Hotel Settles, 1910 State Hotel was nonetheless intriguing. When I called for help booking (the hotel website couldn’t book as far in advance as I was looking), I found the lady, Nikki, on the other end to be super friendly and helpful. She promised to make note and book me as soon as their system would allow. I wasn’t really all that worried about it booking up, but as long as I was making plans, I didn’t want to let the final night of our trip slip my mind…and us end up in some boring chain hotel in nowhere Texas.
Nikki was good as her word and we booked a room for the end of our trip. When we arrived, we found Nikki as nice in person as she was on the phone and in email. She showed me all around the former bank/restaurant/doctor’s office. There’s a big commercial kitchen, a game-room area with fireplace, bar (not in use at the time), and game tables. Nikki showed me where to get free coffee in the morning, invited me to help myself to snacks and drinks in the kitchen (just leave payment for things in the fridge). She showed me how we could get in a keypad-equipped back door if she had to step away and lock the front door.
Our room at the 1910 State Hotel
Our room turned out to be downright huge with one large bed and two twin beds. The bathroom was large as well. I was a little worried that street noise might be a problem, but it wasn’t as traffic slowed to almost nothing at night and we slept well. The hotel is popular with people working in the surrounding oilfields and solar- and wind-farms. There’s not a whole lot in the way of restaurants, though, and we drove back to Big Spring for dinner at favorite Lumbre (a trip necessary anyway as I’d left my credit card there on the way down to Big Bend).
Everything at the 1910 State Hotel was friendly, informal and thoughtful. Nikki was a wealth of information about the area, telling me her family had ranched there for 150 years. Her 80+ year old mother still ranched and was the one who decided to buy and renovate the hotel. She gave us a final tip as we left, sending us a few minutes out of town to check out an old bridge over a low water crossing.
Wrapping up our Big Bend road trip at the State 1910 Hotel provided just the right touch of genuine, small town Texas. And a few days after we returned, I got a nice note from Nikki, thanking me for our stay. Now that’s Texan hospitality!
In recent years, Marfa, Texas, has gained a reputation as a funky, artsy destination town. Before that, it was famous as the filming location for the movie, “Giant,” starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. (Dean died in a car crash in 1955 and the movie was released posthumously.) The cast stayed at the Hotel Paisano during filming, a -great old inn steeped in West Texas culture. The hotel plays up its connection to the movie with framed, poster-sized black-and-white photos scattered throughout.
I’d heard about the Paisano and its “James Dean Room” for years. The hotel preserved and restored the room much as it had been when the actor stayed there, with modern amenities, of course. It’s far from the fanciest room in the Paisano–there are spacious, multi-room suites, but it was the James Dean Room or nothing for me. I booked early to be sure we got Hotel Paisano’s most popular room for our stay.
The James Dean Room at the Hotel Paisano
The second-floor James Dean Room is cozy and sits above rooms with outdoor patios and fireplaces that I could see being a potential smoke issue, but we had no one below us during our stay. The bathroom is period and modest, but functioned well.
Entering the James Dean Room. Note the photos of the cast on the set of “Giant.”
The rest of the hotel is a delight with a fun bar with adjacent fireplace-warmed den, a restaurant, swimming pool, ballroom and shops. We enjoyed jalapeño margaritas at happy hour in the bar, striking up a conversation with locals who steered us to the new-as-of-November-2018 mural 5 or so miles west of town on Route 90.
Courtyard of Hotel Paisano with the bar and restaurant behind the wall to the left
The new “Giant” mural outside Marfa near the site of the movie’s filing. Music plays from Rock Hudson’s car. Oversized fun!
Marfa is a small town and we found most things within walking distance. We could see the county courthouse from our hotel room window and walked the block to see the old building and take in the view from its rooftop cupola. As retired lawyers, we like checking out courthouses when we travel and I enjoy striking up a conversation with a Texas Ranger waiting to testify before a Grand Jury.
View of Marfa from the courthouse cupola
We wandered the streets near Hotel Paisano, peering at scattered art studios and coffee shops. We had an intriguing dinner at trendy Stellina. We gave a pass to the Chinati Foundation, having seen enough of its buildings and outside artwork and photos of the inside Modern Art Museum works to know we needed no more of that. To each their own, though; David has a friend who loved it. There’s not much else to do in Marfa, save the one thing I’d heard about since my Texas childhood: Look for the “Marfa Lights.”
Since the 1800’s, people have reported seeing mysterious lights floating above the prairie outside of Marfa. They’ve been attributed to everything from swamp gas to ghosts to UFO’s to reflections. There’s now an official viewing site 10 minutes or so east out of town on Route 90. A cold front had blown in the night before, but that wasn’t about to stop us. We drove out to the site, to find we had it to ourselves that windy, cold night. Pressing against a wall offering the most shelter possible, we gazed into the darkness. Sure enough we saw lights in the distance. At first, we thought it might be cars on a distant road, but then determined that couldn’t be right as the lights appeared and disappeared. Were they the Marfa Lights? I’m not sure, but maybe!
After our stay in a Roosevelt Stone Cottage in Big Bend National Park, the next stop on our week-long roadtrip was Marfa, Texas. We’d originally planned to take US385 north to Marathon. US385 parallels state highway 118 that we’d taken south from Alpine to the park. US385 had the advantage of taking us a longer and different route through Big Bend National Park to exit. The time to drive to Marfa on either highway would be about the same. That original route plan changed when I spotted a longer route that ran along the border and the Rio Grande. When I asked some of the staff at Chisos Mountains Lodge about that road, I was told it was called The River Road and not to miss it if we had the time. It would take us an extra 20 miles and an extra 45-50 minutes. We had the time, and we had a new route to Marfa.
We chose the longer, southern, route to Marfa so we could drive The River Road along the Texas/Mexico border.
The only minor downside of this route, from our point of view, was that we retraced our path back out the same way we’d come into Big Bend National Park and back through Terlingua. Oh well, after that, we’d be in new-to-us territory.
From Lajitas to Presidio (just across the border from Ojinaga, Mexico, in the map above), The River Road runs along the Rio Grande for over 50 miles. The bluffs of the Mexican Parque Nacional Cañon de Santa Elena loomed beyond the river valley to our left while the desert hills of Big Bend Ranch State Park spread out to our right. It’s ruggedly beautiful, mostly empty, country in between the few small towns. (I love the heading on the Big Bend Ranch State Park web site: “Welcome to the Other side of Nowhere!”) The River Road is in excellent shape and snakes through the landscape, rolling, dipping and rising like a roller coaster path. David loved driving it, and it was fun being a passenger, too.
A brisk wind, the aftermath of a cool front that had blown in the night before, buffeted us when we stopped to admire the scenery and take photos.
We scanned a posted map at the (west) terminus to the Rancherias Loop Trail trailhead in Big Bend Ranch State Park, smiling at the helpful note a hiker had left giving the date and location of a nearby running spring. (This point is strictly a hiking terminus and hikers must enter at the east end of the trail, pay and entrance fee and get oriented. The hike has dangers ranging from dehydration to mountain lions, rattlesnakes and bears and should be taken seriously.)
As the topography leveled out near Presidio, we saw small homes and farms on both sides of the border. We headed north towards Marfa at Presidio, not seeing much to slow us down in the flat border town. Not far north of Presidio, I spotted a herd of pronghorn, native “antelope,” just across a roadside fence. We turned around to watch them until they trotted over a rise. All in all, we were very happy with our choice to take the road less traveled.
Pronghorn on the side of the road north of Presidio, Texas
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Practical info:
There’s nowhere to get gasoline (or anything else) between Lajitas and Presidio, so bear that in mind. There is also no cell phone or internet service for most of the drive. We did pick up service from a tower on the Mexico side of the border as we neared Presidio. There’s a pull-out along the way with a few picnic tables under separate faux teepees to provide shade and a little shelter from wind.
View of Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande from the Santa Elena Canyon Trail
The goal and ultimate destination of our week-long Texas roadtrip was Big Bend National Park, one of the most remote national parks in the country. I’d heard about it all my life, but had a mental block about the distance. My loss! The park is remote…and desolate and harsh and ruggedly beautiful and vast beyond description.
My plans hadn’t included a government shutdown, and I was glad I’d booked one of the Roosevelt-era cottages in in the park’s Chisos Mountains Lodge over a year in advance since the Lodge is run by a private concessionaire and was open despite the unoccupied booth at the entrance to the park and the sign notifying visitors that park campgrounds were closed and staff was furloughed. I was happy to find the cottage all I’d hoped for, and we quickly settled in on our first afternoon, eager to get outside as soon as possible. We started with Chisos Basin Loop Trail, one of the seven hiking trails that start beside the cottages. The trail as far as we explored was well-worn and easy to follow. It had been groomed with logs and stones inset to ease the way on slopes. The view from the trailhead itself was hard to beat with the well-known “Window” at the end of the basin framing the span of desert, mountains and mesas beyond.
Trailhead near the Roosevelt Stone Cottages of Chisos Mountains Lodge
Big Bend National Park is a designated an “International Dark Sky” park and has the least light pollution of any national park in the lower forty-eight. We were especially excited about the nighttime potential of the park as a full lunar eclipse was going to happen our first night there and the weather was ideally clear. I’d brought an old Celestron “comet catcher” telescope and we set it up on our front porch to watch the event. The moon rose just beside the spectacular “Casa Grande” rock formation (looking something like a smaller relative of Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower) that looms over the lodge complex. Our view of the eclipse was perfect. As the brilliant light of the moon was slowly shrouded, leaving only a dull orange orb suspended above, out popped the Milky Way and a seemingly infinite sea of stars, looking like pinholes in the blackness above. As I gazed across the valley at the stunning sight, a shooting star swept across the sky. What a show!
Big Bend National Park covers 801,163 acres so we headed out by car to reach my first must-see, Santa Elena Canyon, some 40 minutes or so from the Lodge. The main roads through the park are excellent, well-maintained, and monitored by rangers for speeding and other potential issues. We saw rangers on the roads even though the park was technically unstaffed due to the government shutdown. Santa Elena Canyon slices a passage through an otherwise uninterrupted wall of stone that stretches as far as the eye can see. The Rio Grande River flows down the canyon to flatten out and take a nearly 90 degree turn at that point to flow along the massive cliff wall. We watched a couple with a canoe put in at this point, then we waded across the shallow span of a small tributary to reach the Santa Elena Trail that runs along one wall of the canyon.
The Rio Grande River with Santa Elena Canyon visible in the distance forming a passage in the long wall of cliffs
The Santa Elena Trail begins with stone steps going up several stories. Once at the top, the trail is easy and only moderately sloped, easing down to the water’s edge and back up. The vegetation is interesting, changing from the cactus and scrub of the harsh upper levels to rushes and bamboo down below. The temperature changed constantly, too: cool in shadows and near the water, warm in the sun up higher…unless a cool breeze arrived to change things again. The views back across the park (see lead photo above) from the high points of the trail and of the canyon are awe-inspiring and not to be missed.
Santa Elena Canyon (For perspective, check out the couple in the canoe.)
After hiking the canyon, we spent the afternoon exploring places along the road back towards our Chisos Mountains Lodge cottage “home.” It was fun to stop at random trailheads and archaeological sites. Our first stop took us on a hike through scrub trees along a path dotted with spoor. Clearly this trail was popular with the local wildlife. We saw cat prints, probably those of a bobcat and not of one of the rare mountain lions, a majestic and potentially dangerous animal that — along with local bears — I’d love to see from a distance only. We had fun doing our outdoorsman bit, trying to identify the telltale leavings of the native fauna. My guess is that we were seeing the leavings of bobcat, fox and possibly ringtails. (In the canyon, it had been mainly deer and rabbits.) The ruins we explored were those of early ranchers Messers Sublett and Dorgan, partners who built their homes on adjacent hills with sweeping views of the mountains and canyons.
The ruins of the Dorgan home
We stopped off at Castalon, built 1919-1920 as a never-fully-outfitted army outpost during the Mexican Revolution. It later became a trading base operated by a local ranching family from 1919-1961. Now, it serves as a park office and hosts a display of old cotton-ginning machinery as well as a store offering refreshments and souvenirs.
Castolon buildings with Cerro Castellan in the distance
All along the roadways of Big Bend National Park, we found trailheads, historical, geological and botanical signs bringing context to the world around us. There are periodic picnic tables and toilet facilities, all that we saw were in excellent condition. We found ourselves stopping constantly to take pictures and explore. Although we saw signs of animals, we saw very little ground life. We did see a fair number of birds, though, both raptors and songbirds. We were surprised, at the end of the day, to realize we had logged 105 miles on the car between our hikes and wanderings.
It’s a dry, rugged part of the world.
Although it was January, we wore short sleeves one day and wished we had shorts. Other days we needed jackets. Since the climate is so dry, it’s important to take plenty of water whatever the temperature. And, even if it does warm up during the day, temperatures can drop dramatically at night (and can vary substantially during the day as you pass from sun to shade) so layers are important. Good footwear is also important as is watching your step. The plants are often covered in serious thorns, the rocks are sharp and this is rattlesnake country if ever I saw it.
The park also offers hot springs and a myriad of other vistas and trails. The border crossing at Boquillas was closed due to political turmoil in the U.S., but is usually open; just bring a passport. It’s a small crossing point, so rowboats and burros are the order of the day.
Big Bend National Park is a state and national treasure: unique, remote, wild and harshly beautiful. I’m so glad to have finally experienced it.
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Practical info:
Entry fees to Big Bend National Park are $30/vehicle, $25/motorcycle and $55 for an annual pass. We paid no entry fee since, due to the government shutdown, there was no one to pay. I’m not sure if entry would be included with the cost of lodging, but I doubt it.
See my previous post regarding lodging. I’m very happy we booked one of the Roosevelt Stone Cottages at Chisos Mountains Lodge as they seemed to me to be far beyond anything else available at the lodge. We booked just over a year in advance, which is a necessity. We paid $163/night plus tax. Pets are allowed in cottages 101, 102 and 103 with a $50 fee, although they are not allowed on trails.
Heading to Big Bend National Park from Davis Mountains State Park, we made sure to make time for a stop-off in Terlingua, a former mining town known primarily for its eponymous chili cook-off (actually two cook-offs these days which take place on the first weekend in November). I’d heard about the Terlingua chili cook-off for decades and am the proud owner of a cookbook of championship recipes from the original event. The chili cook-offs draw upwards of 10,000 people to a tent- and camper-filled party in the desert. According to the town’s event calendar, Terlingua has also instituted a couple of lesser cook-offs including one for black-eyed peas and another for dutch ovens. Barring cook-offs, Terlingua is a desolate little town. I didn’t expect much, and a cook-off-less Terlingua turned out to be less than that. Oh well, all travel destinations are not created equal. If you’ve got the time, the turnoff to the Terlingua “Ghost Town” is about 5 miles west of Hwy 118 just north of a main entrance to Big Bend National Park. If you don’t have the time, no worries.
Terlingua has developed a sort of funky, artsy reputation, but it is mostly a motley collection of ramshackle buildings; an old cemetery full of broken crosses and beer bottles; mobile homes, cheesy teepees, and the like serving as tourist accommodations; and a few small businesses and eateries scattered across a rocky desert.
We made a quick swing through the one main store (not remotely tempted to buy souvenirs), peeked in the ramshackle old jail and walked across the parking lot to view ruins of early settler buildings that constitute the “ghost town,” all of which took 20 minutes or so. The Starlight Theater, a well-known spot recommended to us was closed at lunch time, so we headed to nearby guesthouse La Posada Milagro for lunch. We ate outside on their porch, enjoying the view of the mountains of Big Bend in the distance despite the unsightly clutter of Terlingua. My chicken quesadilla was actually very good and my husband liked his big chicken salad sandwich, too. The service was friendly and we were welcome to provide our own beer.
Post lunch, we made a short trip through the dirt roads of the town towards AirBnB teepees in search of clear inflatable domes that serve as rental rooms offering views of the starry skies abounding in this remote part of the world. (My cousin had sent me an article about these new additions to Terlingua, and we were mildly curious.) We found the turn-off to the domes which sit just over a small rise from the teepees with a sign asking us to go no further if we weren’t guests. Oh well, the search was nothing but a lark anyway.
Terlingua Cemetery
Our last stop in Terlingua was the cemetery, as ramshackle as the rest of the town, but interesting nonetheless. Most graves are marked by rough board crosses although some are more elaborate and the cemetery is still in use. Typical Mexican skeleton-themed candles and trinkets decorated many graves along with flowers, beads, beer bottles and other mementoes.
All in all, I’m glad we stopped off in Terlingua just so I could see it for myself since it was such a short detour on our way to Big Bend National Park, but I can’t think of a reason to go back.
Located in the Davis Mountains near Fort Davis, Texas, the McDonald Observatory is a research and education facility of the University of Texas. The observatory offers “Star Parties” to the public Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year which are bookable online for a reasonable fee. While the observatory web site states that Star Parties often fill up months in advance, the permissible group size is large and I found 100+ spots still available several days before our Friday night reservation. Our January 17 date no doubt had something to do with the lighter crowd, but we chose the time of year deliberately to avoid crowds…and the sweltering peak-season temperatures in our ultimate destination, Big Bend National Park.
We were excited at weather forecasts predicting clear skies for the night of our Star Party, but that excitement turned to concern a couple days prior when we woke to find the forecast suddenly calling for high winds up to 45 mph. Yikes! Not what we had in mind, especially on a cold mountaintop at night. I immediately called the observatory and was able to change our reservations to Saturday night. It turned out to be a good thing that I called so quickly: Despite all those vacancies showing earlier, a sign on the door as we entered the visitor center Saturday night stated that the party was now fully booked. I talked to fellow Indian Lodge guests later who had been turned away.
With the restaurant at Indian Lodge closed, we decided to eat at the StarDate Café at the Observatory. As recommended in the email confirming our booking, we arrived an hour early since we wanted to eat before the Star Party. It’s a good thing we did, too. We snagged the last table and were able to get our dinner order in just before the line grew long and wait time jumped to 30, then 40 minutes. The café stays open for the first hour of the party, so guests arriving after us could come back to the café to eat during the party, but we were happy to eat and be done with it ahead of time. I slipped into the ladies’ room while we waited to pull on a pair of silk long underwear, an extra layer I was glad to have later as temperatures plunged outside. (I’d been worried it would be overheated in the cafe, but it was actually pretty chilly inside when we arrived.) The café opens to a large terrace with views of the observatory domes and quite a few tables that would probably be great in the summer or a mild winter day, but were out of the question for dining on a January night.
Right at 7pm, observatory staff announced the beginning of the Star Party and we were instructed to go outside to an open amphitheater for an orientation lecture.
Pre-viewing introduction at the outdoor amphitheater. Those stone benches are cold!
The initial lecture was brief after which we were invited to either go straight to the ten telescopes set up in the viewing park or remain for a more detailed lecture on constellations. We sat in the back to get ahead of the exiting mob and opted to go straight to the telescopes. We were glad we did. The speaker advised us that the domes which house the largest telescopes are particularly popular, so we headed to those first before more people arrived. We quickly made our way through all ten scopes, moving on if a line was long. There are telescopes of all sizes and shapes. We were there the night before a full moon, which reduced the visibility of the stars and constellations so more than one telescope was focused on the moon, the most powerful taking in just a portion of the moon and bringing its craters and peaks into sharp view. Another telescope that took in the entire moon was so bright that I had a dark after-image in one eye for at least ten minutes! Other telescopes were focused on the brightest stars since others were drowned out by the brilliant light of the moon. Still, it was cool to see things like the cloudy nebula in the sword of Orion and a pair of bi-colored twin stars. Overall star viewing was a little disappointing because of the extremely bright moon, but it was still fun and we had a full lunar eclipse to look forward to the next night in Big Bend National Park, so it was hard to complain. We were just finishing up at the last telescope when the lecture let out and a big crowd streamed into the viewing area and we realized we had had no idea what a long line was. I counted several lines that had quickly ballooned from 5 or so people to 22 or more.
Using one of the more unusual telescopes in the viewing park
The visitors center remains open during the Star Party so people can warm up, get refreshments, etc. A short film runs in a loop the entire time, there’s a gift shop, toilets and a child-friendly small museum.
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Practical info:
Cold is a real issue at the McDonald Observatory as temperatures at the observatory elevations (6300-6800 ft) can be much colder than below and the approximately 2-hour Star Parties take place mostly outside. Wear layers, hats and gloves, and the observatory encourages viewers to bring blankets which can be left in cars and retrieved if needed. Blankets or long coats are extra nice for sitting on the cold stone benches in the amphitheater. The Star Parties take place at the Rebecca Gale Telescope Park at the observatory and do not use the research telescopes higher up the mountain. Those telescopes are available on “special viewing nights” scheduled periodically throughout the year.
Prices for Star Parties are $12/adult; $10/military, 65+, and UT staff and students ; $$8/child 6-12; and, free for children under 6. Make reservations online for Star Parties, Twilight Programs, Day passes, Solar Viewings and special events.
The StarDate Café is located on site and serves sandwiches, quesadillas, tacos, snacks and drinks. The observatory recommends Star Party guests arrive an hour early if planning to eating there since crowds can be large.
Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park; the original adobe received a gleaming coat of white paint in last summer’s remodel.
Deciding where to stay during our much-anticipated McDonald Observatory “Star Party” came down to a historic hotel in downtown Fort Davis or Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park. Highly recommended by friends, closer to the observatory, located within the state park where we wanted to hike, and newly refurbished as of summer 2018, we opted for Indian Lodge.
Built to look like a multi-level pueblo village, Indian Lodge opened to the public in 1939. The lodge boasts a big two-fireplace den/game room, a lovely pool and a restaurant with hit-and-miss opening hours. Our room on the upper level had windows on two sides and a now-blocked adobe fireplace in one corner. The ceiling consisted of large beams and twigs. Just what I had in mind!
Indian Lodge guests are welcome to build or stoke a fire in the “den” and make use of the games and tables.
Our first afternoon, we used the trailhead at the end of the parking area nearest our room to access the Indian Lodge Trail. The 1.5 hour hike along the ridge offers sweeping views back down to the valley where the lodge sits on one side and far beyond on the other side to where we could see the mountaintop observatory domes in the distance. High winds up to 45mph whipped across the unprotected ridge. We’d been scheduled for a “Star Party” at the observatory that night, but managed to change it to the following night to avoid the windy weather passing through. We returned to the road leading to the lodge via the Montezuma Quail Trail. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department provides excellent trail maps with photos. The lodge restaurant was closed that night so we drove into nearby Fort Davis for Mexican food at Cueva de Leon, a casual spot that’s been in business for decades and was on a list provided by the lodge. The place is nothing fancy (in keeping with the rest of Fort Davis), but solid and traditional. It’s BYOB and we picked up a 6-pack of craft beer at the small shop across the street. The food brought back memories of similar restaurants of my childhood.
On the advice of the super-friendly lodge staff, we drove up to begin a hike on part of the Skyline Scenic Trail at the top rather than hike up along the switchback road. Views from vehicle-accessible lookouts are nice as was the hike, but it is very close to the road.
Indian Lodge boasts a nice pool…but it was way too cold in January for us to try it out.
Back at the lodge, we made use of iron tables and chairs on a terrace we shared with two other rooms for lunch-with-a-view before heading off to spend the afternoon in the town of Alpine (a 35 minute drive from Indian Lodge). We enjoyed leisurely following a brochure-guided walking tour of the historic town, stopping near the end for a spelt chocolate chip cookie break at a clearly-popular Taste and See Bakery.
Nighttime was reserved for the McDonald Observatory Star Party that I’ll write up in my next post.
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Practical info:
Reservations are available at Indian Lodge via the Texas Parks & Wildlife web site. Book well in advance, especially for holidays. Free wi-fi is available in the den and lobby area, but did not reach to our room (or any of the other rooms that we heard of). We did not have cell phone reception in the lodge (which sits in a valley) although staff cheerfully offered me use of their land line to follow up on a missing credit card. We did get enough signal for texts and some emails (and so probably calls as well, although we didn’t try) on high points of our hikes. There is a coffee maker in the room, but no fridge or microwave. Staff let us use the full-size fridge in the dining area for food we’d brought in ice chests. Our 1-queen bed room cost $259.60 for two nights ($230 + $29.90 tax). Camping sites are also available to reserve.
Trails in the park are well-marked and fun to hike although the ones within walking distance of the lodge and camp sites are not super extensive. There’s a 75-mile scenic loop for driving that has other trails along the way. A bear was spotted on one of these the week before we arrived. We saw small birds and hawks, but no large animals on our hikes, although there are bear, mountain lions, javelina and deer.
The elegant lobby of Hotel Settles in Big Spring, Texas
I’m super excited about our upcoming week-long Texas roadtrip. As a native Texan with roots going back to the days when Texas was an independent republic, it’s high time I got myself to one of the state’s most iconic, unique and remote treasures, Big Bend National Park. I reserved one of the park’s coveted Chisos Mountains Lodge cottages a year ago and crossed my fingers that the weather would cooperate when the allotted time rolled around. A government shutdown didn’t even cross my mind back then. Fortunately, although Big Bend is a national park, the park is open, if unstaffed, and the Lodge is run by a private concessionaire, so we’re still a go. On our journey, we’ll also take in other Texas classics including a “Star Party” at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains, a stay in the “James Dean” room at the Paisano Hotel in Marfa and lots more.
Driving straight to Big Bend would take us about nine hours from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and what fun is that? I wanted to break up the trip, but a first glance at the map showed the Midland-Odessa area to be a likely spot and those light-on-charm oil towns did not exactly inspire. When a little research showed outrageous prices for low-end chain hotel/motels in the area, I looked for alternatives and was thrilled to discover the historic Hotel Settles in nearby Big Spring. The photos looked charming and surprisingly posh and the price was great in comparison to the Midland-Odessa options. We had our first stop!
Big Spring boasts many remnants of the past, like these old gas pumps (with Hotel Settles in the background), in varying states of repair/decripitude.
The 15-story, 150-room Hotel Settles opened on October 1, 1930. The hotel was built by Will R. and Lillian Settles, following the discovery of oil on their ranch. At the time, it was the tallest building between El Paso and Ft. Worth. The Settles only owned the hotel for two years, being forced to sell it when the Great Depression hit and their oil profits fell.
The following years saw a succession of owners. The hotel’s restaurant, the Settles Grill, boasts of famous guests during that time including Elvis Presley, Lawrence Welk, and President Herbert Hoover, as well as Jerry Allison, a Big Spring native and drummer for Buddy Holly and The Crickets.
Although the Settles Grill looked good, the menu at nearby Lumbre appealed more to our personal tastes and we enjoyed a truly excellent meal there: seared tuna steak on lightly sauteed veggies for me and skewers of 8 big, bacon-wrapped shrimp and fish tacos for David.
Big Spring suffered heavy loss of businesses during the oil bust of the late 70’s and the hotel closed its doors in 1982. Over the next decades, the property fell into a derelict state until the local community began a preservation effort. A native of Big Spring bought the hotel in 2006 and invested $30 million in its historically-minded renovation. The original Grand Ballroom was fully refurbished and other rooms restored and given names honoring their regional history. Fascinating photographs throughout the hotel show pictures from Big Spring’s cattle ranching, railroad, and oil boom years as well document the amazing restoration of the hotel. The only negative to this comeback story we heard was from some locals we met at quirky Desert Flower Art Bar (a cool venue offering some of the only craft beer in town along with Texas basics like Shiner beer plus a selection of wine and liquor): Apparently, the Hotel Settles owner (a Fort Worth neighbor of Ross Perot) used no local labor in remodeling the hotel. Very disappointing to hear!
Buildings in Big Spring are a mixed bag
Wandering around town, we found an interesting mix of buildings from the early 1900’s (and a few from the late 1800’s) in various states, many clearly abandoned and in ill-repair, others renovated or in the process of being so. Money has obviously been spent recently in some restoration and Big Springs reminds me somewhat of a Fredricksburg wannabe, a town in decline trying to reinvent itself as a tourist destination. With charming old buildings, an infusion of new bars and restaurants, Big Spring State Park and nearby Midland-Odessa oil business, Big Spring has assets to work with.
Practical stuff:
I booked Hotel Settles seven weeks prior via an Expedia flash sale which got us a 1-queen bed room for $109.95 ($97.30 plus taxes & fees of $12.65). A quick check of Expedia a few days prior showed all 1-queen bed rooms sold out and the cheapest remaining room (a 2-queen bed room) offered at $254+$33.02 tax & fees=$287.02! A few moments after that Expedia search, the Hotel Settles web site showed only an “historic suite with parlor” available for $224.00 + $29.12 taxes & services= $253.12. When I checked in, the lady at the front desk was on the phone quoting similar prices to someone who understandably declined to book. It pays to plan ahead and keep an eye out for sales!
Our room is charmingly redone with excellent bedding and the old bathroom “chicken wire” and subway tile restored. The space is on the small side, typical of this era hotel, but well appointed with Keurig coffee maker, plenty of outlets, flat screen tv and a/c. My only quibble would be with the a/c rumbling to life and blowing on the bed during the night, but that’s a problem I find with lots of hotels. There was fairly loud music going on downstairs last night in the Pharmacy Bar, but we could hear nothing upstairs. Electronic keys are required for the elevators, and rooms feel very private and secure.
One of the many great opportunities afforded us while cat and housesitting in Edmonds, Washington, is the chance to observe the local marine life. Taking it a step further, Edmonds also hosts the only whale watching boat service in the Seattle area that runs through December, Puget Sound Express. Being whale enthusiasts, we made an outing with Puget Sound Express a top priority when we arrived for our 5-week housesit in Edmonds. With the luxury of being able to walk to the marina where PSE’s two whale watching boats moor, we watched the weather forecast and booked the first sunny, calm day. We chose a weekday hoping for a smaller crowd and had no problem booking a couple of days before, probably because mid-October is off-season.
Whale watching is always a matter of chance, but we really lucked out: Within 10 minutes of pulling out of the marina, we sighted the first humpbacks in the Sound between Whidbey Island and the Kitsap Peninsula. The highlight of the day, though, came when our captain pulled us up to wait facing a huge flock of seagulls feeding on the surface. We could see at least 2 humpbacks heading for the flock and the naturalist aboard told us the whales were coming to feed. The first that arrived, swam under our boat then swam upward into the flock to “lunge feed” just in front of us, its huge head out of the water, jaws closing on food. Seagulls scattered an swirled in every direction. Spectacular! I’ve gone whale watching before, but this was a nature documentary moment.
After that, we sped out to the Salish Sea, spotting sea lions on channel markers along the way and the occasional harbor seal. In the Salish, we spotted two pods of orcas hunting and socializing. We snapped photos of them with Mt. Baker providing a picture-perfect backdrop against a blue sky. What a day!
Orcas in the Salish Sea with Mt. Baker in the background
Although we could have ordered sandwiches, chips and a drink from Red Twig, a cute eatery a couple of blocks from our condo in Edmonds for $15 apiece, we packed our own sandwiches. (The strange and very handy hardware/grocery/deli hybrid Ace Hardware store on the corner of 5th Ave. and Walnut St. in Edmonds makes great sandwiches for half the price. They’re enormous, too. Half a sandwich is more than ample for me.) We were glad we brought our own when we saw the sandwiches provided: On generic sandwich bread, not what we’d expect from Red Twig. One lady we talked to was very disappointed. For $5.50, you can buy a ceramic “bottomless” mug offering refills from the galley of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. – Heavenly, after getting chilled standing outside watching whales. The ride in the speedy Chillkat (40mph+!) was surprisingly smooth and I was never in any danger of spilling a drop.
All in all, we were really impressed with Puget Sound Express, its boat, naturalist, captain, everything. The price is $135/adult and $85/child for a 4-hour whale watching excursion. The only glitch came pre-trip with some confusion over the meeting place as Puget Sound Express Whale Watching has two boats, the Puget Sound Express and the smaller (and faster?) Chillkat. We arrived early and waited by the Express behind Anthony’s where an email told us to go, but finally had to call when no one showed up. It turned out we were supposed to be further down at Dock D for the Chillkat. The lady on the phone was not clear on where we should be either and kept trying to send us in the opposite direction, but we finally found the right spot and boarded. (Someone told us the Chillkat is the boat they takeout on weekdays; no idea if that’s accurate.) We pulled out right at 9:32am and were back at 2pm. To book the tour we took on the Puget Sound Express website, click “Tours” in the drop-down menu at the top then “Guaranteed Whale Watching Tours,” then “Seattle Whale Watching Tours.” The guarantee is that you’ll get to go again if no whales are spotted, a good offer for visitors who can make use of it. PSE also offers tours out of Port Townsend on the Kitsap Peninsula as well as multi-day and bird watching tours.
Downtown Edmonds in the Bowl: corner of 5th Avenue and Main Street
As I mentioned in my last post, we’re spending five weeks cat and housesitting in Edmonds, Washington, a beautiful little town on Puget Sound just north of Seattle. Since our arrival in Seattle in late September, we’ve been blessed with one of the most spectacular autumns imaginable. The trees are on fire in shades ranging from bright yellow to deep burgundy and the skies have been unseasonably clear. We’ve been told Edmonds can get crowded in the summer–and no wonder, it’s got lots to offer in the way of charm, but it’s been delightfully crowd-free during our stay save for a blow-out, family-friendly Halloween street party.
The condo we’re in is in a lovely, well-secured building, although it’s hard to imagine needing security in this picture-perfect slice of Americana. The building opens onto one of the two main streets in “the Bowl” of Edmonds that dips down to the waterfront. Tree-lined, with a fountain in the middle of the intersection, pretty old-style buildings, this part of Edmonds reminds us of some idealized Mayberry. We’ve spent our days exploring the many boutiques, restaurants and coffee shops lining the blocks around us and walking to the water where we like to plant ourselves on a long, L-shaped concrete pier to watch the ubiquitous fishermen and people crabbing off the pier and the ferries shuttling between Edmonds and Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula. We take binoculars to scan the water for harbor seals, waterfowl and a bald eagle that has staked out a perch atop the mast of a particular sailboat in the yacht club marina, sometimes with a fish fresh-plucked from the Sound. Yesterday, we joined a small group at the end of the pier watching orcas swimming across the Sound, some so close to the ferry leaving Kingston that it was stopped for a while to let the orcas pass. I saw these magnificent sea mammals breach four times, leaping out of the water to fall back with a huge splash. What an unexpected treat! (See why we’re never without binoculars around here?) The Olympic Mountains provide the purple-blue backdrop to the peninsula and Mt. Baker looms off to the right up the coast. Gorgeous!
Salmon wind vane art on the jetty by the main pier with Mt. Baker in the distance
Edmonds hosts all sorts of events throughout the year. There’s a free monthly art walk every third Thursday, 5-8pm with local artists displaying their works in various shops and cafes. We just missed an annual writers’ conference the first weekend in October that I would have loved to have attended. The Halloween bash I mentioned was tons of fun with over-the-top costumes on children and adults and music playing on the main circle. Nearly every establishment on the two closed-off streets handed out candy. The local theater had a free “haunted theater” and distributed bags of popcorn afterwards. The bakery handed out donut holes. A local church offered free coffee and hot chocolate. The local history museum hosted a for-pay haunted house. There’s a holiday market scheduled to open and more throughout the year. Find a calendar of events on the Visit Edmonds website.
In addition to all the above, the Edmonds beer scene is pretty impressive for such a small town. There are two local breweries, Salish Sea Brewing Company (downtown and offering food as well) and American Brewing Company (a taproom), Brigid’s a great bottle shop offering local craft beer, and Gallaghers’ Where-U-Brew, a spot where you can brew your own beer or sample the house brews. I’ll see if I can’t get David to do a post on those soon. A local husband and wife own a craft spirits distillery by Brigid’s called Scratch Distillery that offers tastings and workshops where you can blend and take home custom spirits. Gin is their thing, but they’ve branched into vodka and whiskey as well.
Sunset view from Anthony’s Homeport in Edmonds
We haven’t found a bad restaurant in town, but can particularly recommend classic Anthony’s Homeport which faces the yacht marina and gets a great view of sunset over Puget Sound. We hesitated to try Mexican restaurant Las Brisas because we get plenty of that in Texas…but we don’t get halibut ceviche or halibut fajitas. Awesome! For cocktails, it’s hard to beat tiny, Paris-inspired Daphne’s. A single bartender mixes classic drinks while maintaining a constant banter with patrons perched around the bar, the only seating save for two small tables. Daphne’s seems to host a never-ending party. We hear chatter and laughter from Daphne’s whenever we walk by, day or night. Although we’d stuck our heads in a couple of times, we didn’t give it a try until last night. I loved the sidecar, a 1918 Ritz Hotel in Paris concoction of brandy, Cointreau, lemon juice and a twist. David opted for a “corpse reviver” from the Savoy Cocktail Handbook circa 1930: Gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc, absinthe, lemon juice and a cherry. Delish!
There’s an extensive scuba diving park just off Bracket’s Landing Park beach by the ferry dock offering walk-in dives. There is also an excellent whale watching company, Puget Sound Express, that offers year-round boat excursions. We had an incredible day with them watching humpbacks (including a nature-documentary-worthy lunge feeding episode) just 10 minutes out into the Sound and orcas in the Salish Sea. I’ll post about that separately.
Oh yeah, travel guru Rick Steves calls Edmonds home, too. His headquarters is on 4th Avenue North where visitors can book tours, borrow travel books, view videos and do a little shopping for travel gear. He’s a popular native son, philanthropist and vocal proponent of legalizing marijuana.
Our sole criticism of Edmonds is the noise. Between trains, the ferries, seaplanes, trash and recycling pick-up, and amazingly frequent lawn care involving leaf blowers and hedge trimmers, this town needs to do something about the noise pollution. It’s really out-of-keeping with the clear care taken to keep the town immaculate and inviting. Nevertheless, Edmonds is more than worth a visit if you’re in the area and an easy drive from Seattle. It’s also a good base to visit the Kitsap Peninsula by ferry, take Boeing’s impressive Future of Flight tour in nearby Everett, take the ferry from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island, and many other local attractions. There’s only one hotel in the Bowl, the Best Western Edmonds Harbor Inn, and a few AirBnB apartments, but the Bowl is undoubtedly the charming heart of Edmonds.
