Ft. Davis and the McDonald Observatory

Ok, so the title is a bit misleading. We made reservations for the evening sky viewing at McDonald Observatory, hoping to take the scenic loop north of Marfa since we couldn’t get to and from Big Bend National Park. We had planned to visit Ft. Davis National Historic Site, then Ft. Davis State Park to do a little hiking continue on around the scenic loop and end at Mc Donald observatory for the evening program. That all fell apart after visiting the historic site. The State Park was full and you couldn’t purchase a day pass. We thought, “ok, no prob”, we’ll head on around the scenic drive and see if we can get into the observatory early. The day tours of the observatory were also sold out and I could only get a reservation for one for the evening program, but had hopes that we could talk them into letting Scott go, too. On the way, though, the sky turned “foggy” is the only way to describe how it looked, but it was really “dusty”. The wind was so fierce it was blowing sand into the air and turning everything white. We had a wonderful picnic across the road from the entrance to the observatory (which was closed) while waiting, then realized that if they cancelled the program, we wouldn’t know because we had no cell service. So, back down the mountain we headed and sure enough, as soon as we got within range, got a message that the evening program was cancelled because of the wind. It was still a good day and we enjoyed the fort, the drive and the picnic. Hope you enjoy the pictures!