I went to Balmorhea with the Scubadillo Dive Club (local Dallas club). About 15 us took the 8+ hour journey (500+ miles) from Dallas. Most of the group decided to camp while I figured that it was going to be hot and all being Labor Day weekend and decided to get a room at the Valley Motel in Balmorhea. For $25 dollars a night, shower and bed, what the hell! The owner of the motel is a real treat; ex-marine from Mass. This guy will tell you like it is.
Like I said, most of the group decided to camp there at Balmorhea State Park. The only problem with the camping sites is the lack of trees. The sites pretty much consist of rocks and more rocks. The weather was quite nice. It got hot on the thermometer (90+ degrees), but with the constant wind and dry Texas climate, it felt like it was in the 80's. At night, being the desert and all, it got down in the 60's. Very nice for being in the hottest part of the summer. Balmorhea State Park also has some cabins, but you need to reserve in advance.
Every Labor Day weekend, the town of Balmorhea holds a town festival. Not a big festival by big city standards, but for the local folks, this is a big event. At the town square, several Tejano bands were playing. On the street corners, local farmers were serving up border food. Yumm!
Saturday night, the group decided to go sight seeing. Located about an hour away is McDonald Observatory. The observatory offersviewing of a few of its telescopes. McDonald Observatory is located just west of Ft. Davis in the Davis Mountains. Yes there is mountains in Texas. Be sure to bring your jacket, it can get very chilly at night. When we were there, it got down into the 50s/40s. This trip ended up being quite a story. We drove to McDonald Observatory in three cars, mine, Muscles, and the group van (most of the group left Dallas in a 14 passenger van). About 2 miles away from the observatory, while climbing a hill, the van broke down (transmission went out). Haha. Tom and I ferried the group to the observatory leaving the van on the side of the road. We tried calling the rental place for the van, but they were closed for the night. This was not fun. This meant that Tom and I had to ferry the group back to Balmorhea (at least two trips, about 45 minutes each way). Mark Degan & I saw our side trip to see the Marfa lights falling apart. Mark got a little drunk and was somewhat upset about this prospect. Ended up that a group of UT interns said they would ferry the group back to Balmorhea in their BUS in exchange for a case of beer. Beer uuuhhhh.
That was all Mark and needed to hear, so we bolted to see the Marfa lights. Mark and I jumped in my Blazer and we were off. Marfa is located about 30 minutes further south of Ft. Davis. Just outside of town (East), on an old Texas highway we drove in search of the lights. In the middle of no where, we found dozens of cars parked on the side of the road. We found the location. Now what about the lights. What were the lights anyways? Turns out there are some mysterious lights that float off in the distance over the desert. No one knows what the lights are or how they come to be. They appear for a few seconds and then disappear. Cool. Check it out if you end up around Marfa. Yes they are real. Be sure to bring a jacket as it gets chilly at night.
The next day Mark and I found out that the UT students negged on their word and only drove the group to Ft. Davis. With Tom Muscle having the only truck, he ended up having to ferry the group in several trips back to the camp site (this took a couple of hours and took till 3am).
On Sunday, I took another side trip. This one was to the Guadalupe National Park several hours to the north. Guadalupe Park is neat if you like hiking. Located here is Mckittrits Canyon (very scenic). A short drive further west are the salt flats. I never knew that Texas had salt flats, now I know. Back in the late 1800's, there was actually a war over the salt flats.
Here are some more pics from the Balmorhea trip:
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In all, the trip was a lot of fun. If you are interested in diving something different, check it out.
Note: pictures taken from video camcorder and digitized using Snappy.