Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis, Texas
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ~ James 4:4
What a difference a day makes!
The sun came out and it climbed to a high of 55⁰ and only a slight breeze every so often. It’s time to climb! We attacked (well, ‘attack’ may be too strong a word 😊) the Montezuma Quail Trail and connected with the Indian Lodge trail for a distance of approximately 5.5 miles and an undetermined elevation change. Let’s just say, we climbed a lot. And just when we thought we were done climbing? We climbed some more. It sure was a gorgeous day with spectacular views, though!
And along the way, we came upon some big-horned mountain goats! They’re brown; not like the big-horned sheep you’ve seen butting heads on TV. Later in the day, once we stopped for our lunch break, we talked so some Park volunteers and they told us they’re Aoudads aka Barbary Sheep. There seems to be some debate as to whether they’re goats or sheep, and they’re not native. In fact, they were imported from Africa; brought here by some rich guys who released them to be hunted. Well, they weren’t all hunted down and they proliferated, and now the Park is full of them and they don’t really want them, and the big-horn sheep that were native are all gone. But they were fun for us to discover!
Too bad we’re not carrying a professional camera with a ‘wildlife’ zoom on it!
it’s power lines. : )
You can also see our coach from here.
You can see a lot, for a long ways from here!
Brad was up here too. : )
And Jeannine. I was the only one to abstain. : )
It looks bigger from up here than when we were level with it.
Near the end of our hike, we saw three more goats – two adults and a baby – but they were too far away for pictures.
We continued to watch them until we couldn’t see them anymore.
It wasn’t a long stop.
They were moving fairly fast, plus they blended right into the hillside.
This is where we met the volunteers who told us about the Aoudads.
“The better to hear you with, my dear!”
Next on today’s agenda was a trip back to the Observatory to get in on their 2pm, 2 ½ hour guided tour. Our guide was Saoul; pronounced like Raul – as in Raul Julia, you may know him as Gomez Adams from “The Adams Family” movies? Anyway, Saoul’s a fairly recent graduate of the University of Texas with a Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy and a second one in Spanish. We could certainly tell he loved his job! He was an excellent, interesting and very knowledgeable speaker.
Before we began the physical part of the tour, Saoul presented a short lecture – complete with fun facts and pictures.
See the little white ‘flare’ about 1/3 of the way up?
That’s a solar flare.
And it’s as tall as 4 Earths stacked on top of one another!
FYI – that’s about 31-and-a-half THOUSAND miles!!
but what I found really interesting?
Each of those gray gravel-looking pieces are the size of the State of Texas!
I checked. Texas measures 790 miles by 773 miles.
By comparison – Ohio (because that’s where we’re from) is 220 miles by 220 miles.
What I DO remember is that these are not stars.
There were only 4 or 5 of those.
They kinda look like stars with their 4 shafts of light
coming from north, south, east and west, like the one on the bottom center.
The rest? All galaxies!
Time to hit the road and visit a couple of the telescopes. They have a shuttle available, but most of us drove ourselves so we could spend as much time at the top as we wanted, and leave when we were ready.
Inside the telescope area, Saoul shared interesting information about how it all works.
After he seemed to be finished, he unexpectantly asked for a volunteer from our group of about 20. I stepped up and got to move the telescope with just the flip of my thumb! Later, Brad moved the entire dome, and then Blaine got to bring it all back to the starting point. Fun-tastic!
Probably trying to figure out in his head how it all worked. : )
Next we all drove over to the telescope we visited the other day. Since we were already there, we didn’t take any more pictures, but everyone else got to watch them move it on those ‘air hockey’ pads. : )
And doesn’t that dome remind you of Epcot? : )
Time to go. We were getting hungry!
Burgers for dinner at The Drug Store. That’s the name of the restaurant we visited tonight. It used to be the local drugstore/hotel, established in 1913. Now it’s a restaurant/‘50s style’ soda fountain/6-room hotel. We talked to the GM for quite a while after we were done eating. Nice guy who’s committed to making this place (new ownership for about a year now) a success. Shouldn’t be a problem. The food was excellent. The bathrooms were a little strange though! 😊
That’s what you do first, then you go up to a counter in the back and order.
They bring your food to your table.
I can’t speak for the men’s room, but ours?
As soon as you opened the door, there was a raised
platform with three toilet stalls.
And individual shower curtains to pull across. lol!
Thus ends yet another blessed day!