prairie point

Here’s a brief account of what we did last week. It took 8 hours of driving to get there but it was worth it. Our destination was the Girl Scout Camp at Mitre Peak, site of the annual symposium sponsored by the Native Plant Society of Texas.

There were accomodations available at the camp, but we had an invitation to stay with some former college classmates who live in nearby Alpine. However there was ample opportunity to enjoy the campgrounds in between field trips and presentations in the dining hall.

At the turn of the century (the previous one) this was a Texas Ranger camp. In 1947 it was purchased by the Girl Scouts, who recently made the facilities available to the public for events like this.

One of the attractions was Fern Canyon located just behind the dining hall. During a mile and a half hike up the canyon on the first day there was a noticeable drop in temperatures. For the most part it was an easy trail but there were a few boulders to scramble over. The reward was the waterfall and pool at the top. The water comes from a natural spring. By the time it emerges from the canyon it is little more than a trickle.

One of the great rewards of these NPSOT field trips are the guides. We had the benefit of a fern expert from Sul Ross College who could identify the rare plants for which the canyon is named.

The second day we were there Tricia went with a local landscape architect on a tour of some her work while I joined a hike that started at Indian Lodge and went over Sleeping Lion Mountain to old Fort Davis. That is the restored old fort in the center medium distance, once the home of the “buffalo soldiers,” while the modern town is mostly off to the right. I did not get any pictures on this trip of Indian Lodge. It’s an adobe structure built by the CCC which is quite interesting itself.

Saturday, after an afternoon at the Chihuahua Desert Research Institute, we retired to a banquet at the famous Gage Hotel in nearby Marathon.

There were clear skies most of our stay. Sunday we were doing a little shopping in the town of Marfa when a cold front blew in. We got a little moisture and the temperatures dropped into the thirties. But by Monday when we had to leave for home it was already starting to warm up again.