Friday, March 12, 2021
Sonora, Texas to Alpine, Texas
Highlights: Lonely roads and small towns of West Texas
An hour west of Sonora, we exited I-10 onto the hilly and winding TX 290, soon reaching the Fort Lancaster Scenic Overlook. The view was outstanding! We could see for MILES and didn't see ANYONE.
Texas Highway 290
Fort Lancaster Scenic Overlook
Tom and Jana in the high desert
We continued southwest on RM 2400 and US 285 through the vast empty desert, cranking the tunes and enjoying the drive. In the remote outpost of Sanderson, where we caught US 90, we came across a little “Dee-Cor” store with a fine display of yard art.
Dee Cor store
Texas dinosaurs
Day of the Dead
Midafternoon, we reached Marathon, population 430, the closest town to Big Bend National Park's northern entrance. We'll be staying further down the road tonight in the larger town of Alpine, but first to explore Marathon!
La Loma del Chivo - No Vacancy
Experimental accommodations
Gage Gardens is a small park in Marathon owned by the expensive Gage Hotel. The Gage folks seem to own half of town, but at least they open their park to the public. It's a welcome green oasis in the dusty desert.
Privately owned but open to everyone
Well-maintained oasis
Water!
Scenic cow
Next we stopped by Post Park, a small county park five miles south of Marathon, at the former site of cavalry Camp Pena Colorado, established in 1879. A spring-fed pond makes this another nice respite from the arid surroundings.
Post Park pond
We quickly ran out of things to do in Marathon and were happy to move on to Alpine, a much larger town 30 miles further west. Alpine has a population of almost 6,000, the biggest “city” we'd see for days. We drove around town and then headed to Porter's grocery store to stock up on food and beverages for the next several days, when we'll REALLY be remote.
Wild javelinas between Marathon and Alpine
Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church
Lodging: Value Lodge in Alpine, nothing fancy but a decent deal. This is a busy time for tourists, so they'd booted out their usual road-worker clientele to make room for the spring break crowd.
Around 10:00 p.m. we drove into the desert to find an ultra-dark place to look at the night sky. Eight miles east of Alpine we pulled into a roadside picnic area and found the sky thick with stars. Wow! The wind was blowing 30-plus mph, or we would have lingered longer.
Driving distance: 282 miles
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