Day Three: A whole lot of highway
We woke up at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge Resort, had breakfast at the Bad Rabbit Cafe and hit the highway, as we needed to get back up to Carlsbad.
Marfa area
This was a long leg of the trip – mostly a driving day – so we were easily attracted to roadside distractions. How could we come all this way and NOT visit Prada Marfa?! (We’ll get back to that.)
Aside from gas and food (Allsup’s became our go-to stop on this trip), our first stop was the Marfa Lights viewing station. It’s basically a rest stop built with a view of the mysterious Marfa lights. I won’t go into detail about them, but I’ll include this photo if you’d like to read the explanation on site:
Was it worth the stop? I guess. We had to pee. It was daylight, so the mystery lights weren’t visible. Maybe if the timing were better I could have seen them, but we all know how my luck is with nighttime viewing, as evidenced by the previous night’s cloudy dark sky site.
We then followed the road in to Marfa, a charming, artsy railroad town with some beautiful architectural gems.
The downtown area had a ton of galleries and shops that were mostly open during the weekend. One of the few open shops greeted us by asking: Why are you visiting on a Tuesday?
Great question. There was not much to do here on a Tuesday. Maybe I’ll return on a weekend and see all the art.
We headed north to our mid-road destination: Prada Marfa!
It’s art. Interpret as you please. I’m happy we saw it and peeked in the windows.
On your way between Marfa and Valentine (which is much, much closer to Prada Marfa), keep your eyes to the sky as the border patrol flies a surveillance blimp in the area. It was pretty cool to watch it dipping in and out of the clouds.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Then we headed up to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where we hiked the McKittrick Canyon nature trail. I’ll admit to being disappointed. Guadalupe Mountains NP is primarily a hiking destination. We weren’t prepared for a long hike, and high desert mountains aren’t my favorite landscape. It just wasn’t for me.
This next part is where you learn from my fail. We took a detour to the Sitting Bull Falls without doing much research. At about 20 miles out of our hour-long detour, we saw the first sign informing us that the place was closed early in the week. We were enjoying the scenic drive through open range, so we decided to press our luck. We were disappointed in our quest to chase waterfalls, but the landscape and the canyon leading to the closed entrance to the falls was breathtaking and attracted a fair few van lifers along the way.
Carlsbad
We headed back up to Carlsbad, where we dined at the YellowBrix Restaurant, which had some tasty and THICK pork chops. Finally we wound up at an upscale and updated motor lodge: Stevens Inn, where we capped off our day with desserts and decaf.
Up next: Day Four: Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands
Go Back: Day Two: Dipping into West Texas