West Texas Addendum

WEST TEXAS ADDENDUM

We left Big Bend but not west Texas- instead we moved to the beautiful Davis Mountain State Park for a few days. From there we visited the town of Marfa, Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory.

We camped under a large live oak tree. This park also has several stone structures from the CCC era (including a lovely lodge in the southwestern architectural style).

The state park is just up the mountain from the historic Fort Davis. The fort dates from the mid 1800's. It was a stop for wagon trains on the road from San Antonio to El Paso heading toward the California goldfields. Some of the first Buffalo soldiers were stationed there.

Marfa,TX

We stopped in Marfa a couple of years ago to tour the installations of sculpture @ the Chinati Foundation. For more information on Chinati go to this link: https://chinati.org/programs/exhibitions
We returned this year to see the new installation by Robert Irwin called Dawn to Dusk.

We were not supposed to take pictures inside the installation (but of course Shelly did). It's housed in a U shaped building where one walks through the space proceeding from light to dark or from dark to light depending which side you enter from. A minimalist concept that uses shadow and light very effectively. (Robert Irwin also designed the sensory garden @ the Getty Museum in LA)

Mike and Donna hadn't seen the Donald Judd 100 raw milled aluminum sculptures so we visited them as well.

After a day of culture we relaxed at the Planet Marfa beer garden.