Nov 12, 2007

Fort Davis, Texas and McDonald Observatory

Looking for a logical overnight stop on our trip from Guadalupe NP to Big Bend NP, we decided to stop in the little town of Fort Davis. There were two factors favoring the selection of Fort Davis: (1) the Fort Davis National Historic Site, a post Civil War frontier Fort; and (2) the McDonald Observatory, which some people had noted as an interesting place to visit.

The Fort Davis National Historic Site was a short and pleasant visit. It reminded us in many ways of our visit to Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming, as both represented frontier military posts primarily designed to protect settlers traveling westward. The Fort Davis Site had fewer restored buildings than Fort Laramie but its visitor’s center had a nice exhibit on the Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed there. The Buffalo soldiers were African Americans recruited by the Army to man several of these frontier forts during the post Civil War era. They distinguished themselves in their service, although many of their accomplishments were overlooked or unreported to more recent times. Fort Davis had two other notable benefits: (1) they played various bugle calls over the loud speaker to give visitors a flavor for some aspects of life on an old military base; and (2) as an NPS site, Fort Davis gave Jo another stamp to her NPS passport.

As it was too late in the day to visit the McDonald Observatory, we returned to our campsite at the Davis Mountain State Park. This was our first exposure to a Texas State Park, and it certainly lived up to all of the positive things we had heard about Texas State Parks. The campsites were spread out so that each of us could have fine views of the surrounding hillsides rather than having to look at other campers. We were also surprised at the large number of mule deer wandering around in the campground. We had at least 5 or 6 deer wandering up to check us out while we were setting up our camper. When they finally realized that we were not going feed them, they eventually wandered over the adjacent campsites in the hopes of handouts. Later that afternoon, in driving through the part to visit the Adobe Indian Lodge, we passed several Javalinas, small, ugly pig-like animals who wander around in the park. Jo was excited when she saw two adults and one baby Javalinas along the side of the road, which she jumped out to photograph. A nearby camper then pointed out a whole family of Javalinas grazing in the underbrush on the other side of the road. She eagerly dashed across the road to take more pictures of these ugly beasts. We wondered if we would have ever seen the Javalinas if our friends Rick and Ann had been with us since they repeatedly tell us that they are jinxes who are never able to see the wildlife that others can find.

Thereafter, we took the “Skyline Drive” to the top of one of the nearby peaks to enjoy the sunset. WOW!!!! There were quite a few clouds in the sky and they all seemed to catch the light from the setting sun at different points in time, so we were constantly looking around in different directions to see which portion of the sky was now showing beautiful pinks and oranges and red colors for the 30+ minutes that we were able to enjoy this beautiful, prolonged sunset. We both agreed that this was one of the most beautiful sunsets we had ever seen and was certainly the most unusual sunset in that it was a virtual 360 degree visual experience as the setting sun reflected off clouds at various points of the compass.

The next day we went up early to the McDonald Observatory so that we could look at the exhibits prior to the first tour of the day which was schedule to start at 11:00 am. McDonald Observatory is an astronomical site operated by the University of Texas. It is situated on top of one of the highest peaks in the Davis Mountains and claims to be one of the best locations for astronomical observation in the U.S. because of the very low levels of light pollution – except for the small town of Fort Davis, there is NO human activity for miles and miles which could interfere with astronomical observations. It turned out that the o observatory offers a host of tours and activities, and David was so excited and interested in what they were offering that we signed up for all of them. In addition to a fine exhibit in the visitor’s center, we were given a two hour tour which included two of their large telescopes. One of these was a traditional telescope, 106 inches in diameter, incased in a long tube which could be positioned to point anywhere in the sky. The other telescope was a newer, larger one of a totally different style of construction. Instead of one big reflecting mirror at the base of the telescope, this telescope had 90+ small mirror panels which were constantly adjusted to focus the incoming light from distant stars. And instead of a tube to enclose the telescope, this merely had a lattice work or steal supports connecting the mirror at the base with the reflecting mirror at the top of the telescope. It certainly didn’t look like any telescope we had ever seen, but apparently it performs its intended functions.

Since the next program was not scheduled to start until the Twilight program at 6pm, we returned to the campground for the afternoon. We went by the interpretive center at the campground because we were told that foxes frequently came by to drink from the little waterfall there each afternoon. Unfortunately, several deer decided to spend the afternoon grazing outside the center, and that seemed to keep the foxes away. We did, however, have the opportunity sit there and look through the plate glass window at the dozens and dozens of birds of different species who flocked to the bird feeders which were set up behind the interpretive center. We left when they closed the center but later learned that the foxes eventually turned up less than 20 minutes after we left.

We returned to the McDonald Observatory at 6pm for several hours of informative tours explaining how to use star charts to look for constellations in the sky as well as a “Star Party” which allowed us to look through 7 or 8 different telescopes focused on different Homer’s Comet, stars, star clusters, and the Andromeda galaxy. Because of the great observing conditions on the mountaintop, we also able to see a satellite crossing the sky and several shooting stars (oooops, we were told not to call them shooting stars but instead to call them meteors since we were in at an astronomical observatory). While looking at the comet and the various stats through the telescopes was enjoyable, the most fascinating observations we had were to look at the Pilates (the seven sisters) using first a pair of high powered binoculars and then looking at the same formation through a telescope. The guide who was giving this demonstration used these two instruments to show how narrow a field of vision one gets when looking through a telescope as opposed to the wider field of observation permitted using binoculars. This persuaded us to save the cost of buying a telescope (and finding some place to keep it in our RV), but we pledged to buy a good set of binoculars so that we could enjoy looking at the stars, as well as other sites as we continue on our Great Adventure.

That night, while David was outside the RV, trying to find the best spot for cell phone reception, he saw some shapes moving through the darkness near our Big Sky. When he turned the flashlight on them, it turned out to be a small family of Javalinas looking around for food. The leader of the family was one UGLY, MEAN, UGLY looking brute who did not seem at all fazed by having a flashlight shine in his face. Boy were we glad we had not left any food outside or even the barbeque, as no telling what that ugly brute would have done to it. The next morning, we mentioned this episode to a fellow camper who we had met the night before at McDonald’s Observatory. When we indicated that this was our second exposure to Javalinas here in the campground, he expressed his jealousy because he had been looking in vain; both here and at Big Bend National Park, for an opportunity see what these Javalinas look like. David was more than willing to have let him enjoy the benefit of seeing those Javalinas, especially that mean, ugly brute from the night before.

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