Friday, January 11, 2008 - Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis TX

Untitled, Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis, Texas, January 12, 2008

Spending the morning in Marfa

What a disappointing experience my visit to Marfa, Texas and The Chinati Foundation turned out to be. This is not my kind of place. My reactions are a contradictory mix. The town is being transformed into an art object and commercial art destination. It's architecturally quite an attractive town and what is being done is well done but it seems to me to be too controlled, too contrived, too cold. I hail from Columbia County, New York which is in the midst of an art renaissance of its own and is also seeing its county seat, Hudson, transforming into an art destination, but in a less structured way that I find quite appealing, warm and friendly. Marfa is too tightly structured for me. It's my impression the town has been taken over by Judds and Judd interests. Most of the buildings on the street before the county courthouse have been painted and the windows blanked out on those that are not yet developed in a unified theme that seems to indicate a common ownership and thrust of development.

Marfa, Texas, January 11, 2008

For some reason the Museum is purposely hard to find - there are no street signs to guide one there and once found the entrance seems to invite one not to enter. Why? The museum is open for tours only and there is no guidance to signing up.

I was offended enough by all this that I left town in a short while.

An afternoon and evening at McDonald Observatory

From Marfa I went north to Fort Davis in search of a campsite at Davis Mountains State Park. Driving up I realized I became aware I was approaching the McDonald Observatory, home of Sandy Wood's StarDate radio shorts I've heard all these many years. Road signs and observatory domes above the horizon were a big help here. An internet search turned up their website and got me thinking I might sign up for their Twilight and Star Party programs tonight. Later in the afternoon, I went up to the observatory.

This was such an enjoyable experience I decided to grab the opportunity and signed up for the observatory's usually sold out 36" Telescope Special Viewing Night tomorrow night.

Night camp

Davis Mountains State Park Campground, Fort Davis TX

This is a nice, well maintained campground with level gravel sites with electric & water, and some with full hookups
There is good biking on the park roads and hiking trails in the hills
Good Verizon cell phone service - Access is via Extended Network, roaming
No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service is slow
Find other references to Fort Davis
List the nights I've camped here
Check the weather
Reserve a site
Get a Google Street View and a map

Crayfish Chimney

Late one afternoon I sat upon my camera case beside the path where it wound through the darkest part of the woods, down near the pond, and watched a crayfish building his "chimney," the land entrance to his underwater tunnel. He had just started to work above the ground when I first arrived. He came up through the moist black earth, carrying a ball of it between his two enormous fighting claws. Using the claws as hands, he spread the soil around the hole to form the base of the chimney. He then backed down the hole and after several minutes came up with another armful.

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