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Forward :
I hope
you enjoyed the
Texas Hill Country Bats, Caves, Gems & Champion Trees - 2005 page. The following was another lengthy adventure, so once again I divided
the story up into a Part I and a
Part II. More
Texas
Roadside Attractions,
Texas Rock Collecting Sites
and Texas County
Courthouse Photos were added since this trip. Once again, I
haven't been sending out updates,
so please check here for the latest news on this site. Now on with
the story :
I had some time off between the Summer and Fall semesters and thought about what
to do. I could always go back to New Mexico and do some skiing up in the
mountains, no,
I think not.
Maybe go hit the beaches again on Padre Island, no,
that may not be a
good idea either.
As you know, I really did not find many rocks and fossils in my last adventure
except for more Devine, Chocolate Agate as Melinda calls it. More like
brown flint that tastes like dirt. But, I'm sure its good for knapping.
With my rock tumblers going full blast, I though I would check out a few sights
out west for new material. So once
again, I consulted my "Gem Trails of Texas" book by Brad
Cross and my "Rockhounding Texas" book by Melinda Crow.
Once again, you can buy them here :
The books mentioned quite a few
places in the Big Bend area in which these Texas gems can be found.
Therefore, I decided to try my luck in the areas as described in the books.
And once again, I also made it a mission to collect more Texas Courthouse
Photos, find the wild and wacky, historic and other interesting sites to be had
in the wild west, hot paradise of Texas. Oh yea, Buddy Bill and Larry will also be joining
this expedition once I get to Del Rio. Bill's still working on
his homestead at
Terlingua Ranch and needs to get a water well going but, decided to take
some time off while out there to see some of the sites. So
sit back, relax, put on your
Bob Philips hat and become an armchair traveler
once again.
Star Date
08/12/2005 - Friday
On
to Del Rio, TX :
Like I said before, I was to meet Buddy Bill in Del
Rio, but, I also needed a few more Texas County Courthouse photos between here
and there. So I decided to zigzag my way over there. It was a really
nice morning for traveling and there were quite a few of the
bikers out
also. I headed south
on the back roads to Victoria, proceeded to Goliad once again and finally
stopped in Beeville, TX, the county seat of the :
Bee County Courthouse - Beeville, TX
I had messed up the photo of the Jim Wells County Courthouse in Alice, TX and
was about to continue south again until
I looked at the map once again.
Too far. So I decided to continue west to George West, the county seat of
the :
Live Oak County Courthouse - George West, TX
Three Rivers - Petrified Wood :
To continue west, I had to take Hwy 72 in which I
would have to pass through Three Rivers, TX again. The last time I was in
this area was in my
Gem Trails of Texas, South Texas 2005 Adventure and was extremely
frustrated with finding
no petrified wood. As I headed
north on Hwy 281
towards the city, I spied a small county road named
CR 314. From the entrance to the road,
the oil refinery in town was in plain view.
I headed east on the road and stopped at the following GPS coordinates :
28°
25.498 North and 98°
10.457 West
Eureka ! Not only did I find
some
nice petrified wood in and along the unpaved road but, also some
light blue botryoidal and rose shaped chalcedony. In fact, there
was so much of it on the road, that all I had to do was
drive real slowly with the door open and pick it up off the ground.
Tilden Petrified Wood :
I finally found Hwy 72 and continued
west to Tilden, TX.
Tilden was another county seat I missed taking a photo of their county seat when
I was out here last time. Probably due to me thinking it was a
school
house from the buses nearby. But I found it again and here it is :
McMullen County Courthouse - Tilden, TX
Again, the last time I was out here on that
Gem Trails of South Texas Adventure, I tried to find petrified wood here
and came out
goose eggs. From the maps Ben and Melinda's books, it sure
did show quite a a
petrified wood field north of town off of
Hwy 16 and CR 3445
which is north of town and off of
Hwy 16. I investigate
CR 3445, but there was no unpaved roads to
explore so, I turned around and headed back south
to the Hwy 72 intersection. While heading
back south on Hwy 16,
I saw a low road cut and stopped to investigate at GPS coordinates :
28°
29.385 North and 98°
32.926 West
At this stop, I investigated
the ground and I did finally found some
petrified wood and some more of that light blue chalcedony.
Fort Duncan :
After gathering up a few handfuls of petrified wood and chalcedony, I continued
west on Hwy 72 until I
made it to
Los Angeles. Ok, ok, Los Angeles, TX that is. Which
is no more than an
intersection with rattlesnakes!
I continued
west through Cotulla, some
back roads to Carrizo
Springs and then west onto
Hwy 277. Hwy 277 took me straight into
Eagle Pass in which I was able to pick up another county courthouse photo :
Maverick County Courthouse - Eagle Pass, TX
Eagle Pass is not only the
county seat of Maverick county but, also the home to Fort Duncan. The
remains of the fort is in the middle of their city park next to their current
medical center. (They are building a new medical center outside of town
north of Hwy 277) I stopped at their visitor center and
spoke with one of
their curators there. He apologize for the disarray of the museum inside
stating they were in the process of re-organizing it. That didn't stop me,
I therefore proceeded to go on a little photo safari from there including some
photos of the weapons used to fight off the Indians :
Fort Duncan Museum,
Inside the Museum 1,
Inside the Museum 2,
Their Painting of what it Once Looked Liked,
the Adjutant's Quarters,
the Bakery,
the Commissary,
the Magazine, and
More Old Ruins
The city of Eagle Pass in maintaining this site and for more information of this
old Texas fort, please see the website link below :
Fort Duncan
Del
Rio Paisanite :
Ok, here's the story.
As a kid, long, long ago, my grandfather would take
me in the remote parts outside of Del Rio along the Rio Grande and Lake Amistad
for fishing, rock hunting and to see the Indian rock art among some of the
high cliffs. On one such trip, I found an interesting rock that looked
like fine grain granite minus the quartz among a conglomerate formation along
the Rio Grande. It was so interesting due to the hornblende being layered
or banded, that I kept it even to this day. Many, many years later, I met
Evelyn who also had such a piece in her collection. I asked where she
obtained it but, she did not remember. A couple of years later, I found
myself at Don's rock shop in in the
Lake Buchanan area and found another piece
of this mysterious stone. I asked Don what is was. Of coarse he did
not know. About a year later, I had already made some really
nice cabochons out of the piece from Don's shop and had brought it to
the Williamson County Gem and Mineral Show to see if someone could ID it for me.
I found some
ole' rock hounds who told me it was a type of granite. I
accepted that answer until I finally made it to Alpine on this trip. More
on that event later.
To continue, I was about 22 miles south of Del Rio, just north of Quemado when I
ran into
a promising road cut at the following GPS coordinates :
29°
01.931 North and 100°
38.327 West
The road had cut into
a limestone layer on the very bottom and a layer of conglomerate on the top.
This reminded me of the conglomerate formations I had investigated along the Rio
Grande as a kid. Incidentally, the Rio Grande was not that far away from
this location. Hoping to find some pieces of river polished agate, I came
across
the mysterious white fine grain granite. Some of the hornblende
was layered or banded, while some of it was not, giving the display of pepper
over white paper. I picked up quite a few handfuls before proceeding on to
Del Rio. As I continued northwest, I drove over the bridge crossing
the Sycamore Creek. It also looked like a potential area for
exploration but, it would have to wait. As I hinted earlier, I was to run into
this rock again during this trip.
More Sights of Del Rio, Queen of the Rio Grande :
Its been about 2 1/2 years since my last trip to Del Rio and there were a few
places I missed when down here last. Among the sights was
Dr. Brinkley's Mansion. Back in the 1930's,
Dr. Brinkley was one of the most successful quacks in medicine.
Dr. Brinkley perfected to goat-gland operation which cured prostrate diseases
and enhanced the patient's sexual performance. At first, a sliver of a
goat's testicle was inserted into a patient. He later advanced this
technique to a mere injection. Obviously, the state of Kansas ran him off
and he wound up in Del Rio and became one of the most successful mass media
personalities of all times through the use of an
overpowered radio antenna across the river in Ciudad Acuna with the
infamous call letters of XERF. The good doctor peddled off his books on
good health over the airwaves bringing in tons of money to the local economy.
In fact,
Wolfman Jack was quite a regular there. His house was the center
of attention with huge parties in which exotic animals were let loose like giant
tortoises, flamingos and penguins. My grandmother used to baby sit some of
the good doctors
grandkids. So, we heard all the wild stories of the good
doctor when we were kids. For more of the 411 on the good doctor in all of
his quackiness, please see the link below :
Border
Radio Quackery
Another site I missed the last time was
Round Mountain also known as Sugar Loaf Mountain and La Loma de la Cruz
or the Hill of the Cross.
The mountain
with a seemingly artificial shape
with steep
slopes has spawned many stories of buried treasure and supernatural activity.
The hill is suppose to hold "The Treasure of Montezuma", one of the last rulers
of the Aztec Empire. Due to Cortes and his conquistador buddies, the
riches of the capital city were moved here. According to one version of
the story, once a year, the mountain opens up for a short while and you are
allowed to take out what you can carry. If you take get greedy and take
too long, then you will get caught inside when the mountain closes up. You
have to wait to until the next year to get out or you die there. Therefore,
ghosts have been seen there. Thus,
the cross on top is to placate the greedy apparitions.
My last stop before meeting Bill and Larry was the San Felipe Springs Park.
The water from San Felipe Springs is the reason for Del Rio's existence.
The city built the park around a creek running from the springs in which we
would visit as kids during the hot summers there to
cool off
and play in the water. Here's a few photos from this locally
historic park :
San Felipe Springs Park 1,
San Felipe Springs Park 2,
San Felipe Springs Park 3,
San Felipe Springs Park 4,
The Picnic
Area
Well its late and the end of another successful rock collecting day, even though
it was in the south part of Texas. I now need to find Bill and Larry at
the local Days Inn and
gas up the
car for the morning. Tomorrow is more rock hunting, wild cave exploration
and another bat emergence. For more of the 411 on Del Rio and the surrounding
area, please see the link below :
Del Rio Chamber of Commerce
Star Date
08/13/2005 - Saturday
It was another early morning rise and
we all got ready for the day. I
briefed Bill and Larry on rock hunting in Sycamore Creek and we all headed out.
We headed southeast on Hwy
277 and then came to a frontage road to the right that led us to a picnic
area and a place to make our egress to the creek. Although Larry and I was
interested in rocks, Bill was more interested in Indian artifacts. Once
there, we began our hunt. Unfortunately for me and Larry, the creek only
offered river polished limestone and for Bill, no artifacts were to be given up.
After a brief lunch, it was wild caving time!
Kickapoo Cavern :
We back tracked to Del Rio and headed east on
Hwy 90 to Brackettville, TX and then
north on CR 674 until
we crossed the Kinny County and Edwards County line and finally arrived at
Kickapoo Cavern's State Park. 1:30 PM was our meeting time and we caught
up with the rest of the cavers and visited with them briefly until our park
guides, Randy and
Liz
(I wish!) arrived. Randy sure did look familiar, and after talking
with him a while we realized that this crew also supported the Devil's Sinkhole,
in Rock Springs. Yea, that's where we saw him, in the
Texas Hill Country Bats, Caves, Gems &
Champion Trees - 2005
adventure.
A quick note on the park. It is a rather new park which it is still under
development. It comprises of 6,368.4 acres which were purchased from the
Seargeant family in 1986 and was finally opened to the public in 1991 on a
limited basis. There are approximately 15 caves on the site in which
Kickapoo Cavern is one of them. The other main cave of interest is the
Stuart Bat Cave in which we will discuss later.
We all had parked near the entrance to the park and it was about a 2 mile trip
to the cavern. They loaded us up in
their trucks and we
took a nice scenic drive to the cave. Once on the back road, the
bees quit chasing us, I guess they were just
too busy being
bees. They weren't
killer bees,
just the
honey kind. Once parked, it was a quick
hike to the top of a hill in which the cave entrance could be found.
Including the guides, there were (14) of us who made
the decent down. Since this was a wild cave tour, we each had to
bring our own lights. One of the first attractions seen, was
old cave
graffiti made by the soldiers of Fort Clark Springs in nearby Brackettville in
the 1880's. At this point in the story, I will go ahead and present to you
the famous feature of the cavern's that you have all seen in the magazines and
TV :
The Twin Columns
Another Shot of the Twin Columns
A quick note on the previous two photos. No, I did not take them.
The first is off of the TPWD website and the second is from Laurence Parent
website. Even with (14) people all pointing their flashlights at the two
columns, there still was not enough light
to take a decent photo. I asked Randy if the photographers who took the
previous photos brought in special lighting. Of coarse they did.
My
only complaint thus far is this, even though it is a wild cave tour, please just
light up this one area of the cavern. Then turn the lights off to continue
with the rest of the tour. It is a beautiful sight and regular cameras with
wimpy flashes just not enough to bring home it's memory! After all,
they are the biggest known cave columns in the state of Texas.
Next complaint
please.
The following photos illustrate the other sights to be found in the cavern :
Close-up of the Twin Columns 1 ,
Close-up of the Twin Columns 2 ,
Wall Formations 1 ,
Wall Formations 2 ,
Illuminating Calcite ,
Me, Illuminating Calcite ,
Small Stalagmites and Stalactites ,
Soda Straws and Wings ,
The Beginnings of a Stalagmite ,
Another Stalagmite ,
Their Wishing Well ,
Another Big Column ,
Time to Leave ,
We tried getting a group shoot of all the cavers but, someone un-named couldn't
figure out
how to use my camera correctly. A few last words on the cave, be sure you wear good supporting hiking boots.
Admittedly, I did slip somewhere in that cave and came out with a bloody arm. You
are literally walking on broken rubble on the cavern's floor. Make sure
you have at least two light sources in case one goes out. (I admit one of
my lights went out but, at least I did have three light sources on my helmet.) Lastly, there is
no water out there, so bring your own.
One of the trucks over-heated and
we had to use the last of our drinking water to get it back up and running.
So I and a few others
had to hike
back. No problem, we took photos of the sights along the old dirt
road and noticed that
pinion pine trees did very well here. They produce nuts which can
be eaten and they are so smart, they know when it is
Easter
time. Other than that, it was a great tour and I highly recommend it to those looking
for something on the wild side to caving.
The Stuart Bat Cave :
We
had also signed up for the Stuart Bat Cave emergence. We were not to meet
back to the park entrance until 7:30 PM. On our way from Del Rio, we
noticed several creeks on the way out to Brackettville including Sycamore Creek
again. So to burn some time, we backtracked and explored some of those
creeks without infringing on private property. Nothing of interest was
ever found so, we had a
quick dinner at a rest stop at one of the creeks and
headed back out to the park.
As we
got back to the park, we met up with a few other bat watchers and then met
Ranger Knezek. Ranger Knezek told us a little more about the park his
administrative relation to the Devil's Sinkhole folks in Rock Springs. In
fact, he was responsible on the TPWD side of the filming of the
Nissan Exterra
commercial produced at the Devil's Sinkhole site. He then told us
they spent a week out there filming for 15 seconds of air time. More like
One week of having fun. Due to the controversy over that commercial shoot,
the sinkhole was finally fenced in. Once again, the few bad apples spoil
it for all. We were then led to a
parking area and from there, proceeded to walk up a paved trail to the
bat observation area which over-looked the
Stuart Bat Cave entrance. Then a little after 8:00 pm, the bats
began their
emergence from the cave. The bats were of the Mexican Free-Tail
species and did perform their counter clock-wise tornado effect but, only in the
cave itself. According to Ranger Knezek, this was due to the
small opening of the entrance to the cave. The photos below
document the emergence for that evening :
Bat Emergence 1 ,
Bat Emergence 2 ,
A Hawk looking For Dinner ,
The Hawk Getting his Dinner ,
More Bat Emergence ,
And, the Hawk Going Back for Seconds
(Or was that another bat close-up)
It was a good emergence. The bat's pups were flying now making the show
last a good 45 minutes. One other thing nice about this particular site is
the fact that once can get very up close with the bats like at the James Eckert
Bat Cave in the Mason County area.
It was soon dark and time to leave.
My last comment is that one should take it nice and easy on
CR 674 while driving at
night. The road has
no shoulders,
steep grades and lots of curves.
It is a lonely road and the only others out there are the border patrol for
help. So remember,
this is God's country.
Star Date
08/14/2005 - Sunday
On to Marathon :
It was another early morning and we headed out west
on Hwy 90. We passed through the
Lake Armistead National
Recreational Area, another border patrol station, the
Seminole Canyon State Park, the
Pecos River Overlook Site 1 and the
Pecos River Overlook Site 2,
Judge Roy Bean's little town of Langtry, (Don't
Know if that little town was ever sold?) and arrived in Sanderson, the
county seat of the :
Terrell County Courthouse - Sanderson, TX
We continued onward and reached Marathon. A few sites to visit while there
include the following :
The Historic Gage Hotel
The Gage's Restaurant
The Gage's Restaurant Photo Shot from last Sept. 05' from Texas Highways
Magazine
Johnny B's for Ice Cream !
The
Marathon Agate Field :
After our brief photo op of the city, we then headed south
on Hwy 385, which will take you to
Big Bend National Park.
Unfortunately, this was no trip to the park. However, after passing
another border patrol, we only got as far as 10 miles out of town and
stopped a a rest stop for our first true Gem Trails of West Texas stop.
The GPS Coordinates for the rest stop are as
follows :
30°
03.985 North and 103°
16.466 West
The rest stop, was described in Melinda's Rock Hounding Texas book, and
describes a site for Chrysoprase. Chrysoprase is a translucent apple green
gem. I assure you, there is no Chrysoprase here. Yes, there is a lot
of green agate but, no Chrysoprase. However, this agate is really
nice and comes in a multitude of colors. It reminds me of that hard,
colorful Christmas candy that you see during that season of the year. Due
to the colors, I would like to call it
Southwestern Christmas Candy Agate. We picked up
quite a bit of this tasty candy before heading back to Marathon. I
can't wait to start tumbling it. This is a good site and I do recommend it
to fellow rock hounds out there. I've been out to this desert area several
times now, but never have I seen it so
nice and
green.
Hen Egg Mountain Petrified Wood :
We were soon back on the road again and continued
west on Hwy 90.
As soon as we hit Alpine, we then traveled south on
Hwy 118 which would take us to Big Bend, NOT!
No, no, were on another rock hunt. We pasted
Ord Mountain to our east and then
Cathedral Mountain to our west. We then past Terlingua Ranch which
is where Bill and Larry would eventual wind up at to work on Bill's new
homestead. We continued south for a total of 56 miles from Alpine and soon
arrived at an unmarked county road at an intersection. This unpaved
road, was actually marked as
North County Road and it is supposed to end in the Terlingua area off of
FM 170 or the Old River Road.
Hem Egg Mountain was to the north east of us. The GPS
Coordinates to this intersection are as follows :
29°
28.558 North and 103°
31.755 West
This site was discussed in both Brad's and Melinda's Texas rock collecting books
and petrified wood was to be found. The books state that from this point
and through 5 miles we would find plenty of petrified wood. The road was
quite rough and
we only ventured about 2 1/2 miles. No petrified would was ever
found. Off the road in some of the volcanic areas, we did find some nice
chunks of maroon agate. The road consisted mostly of limestone and
sandstone. In fact, we did find a lot of banded sandstone and
some sandstone that looked like wonderstone. In the following
photograph, some of the agate we found is in the middle of the top row and the
bottom row is the banded sandstone.
Hen Egg Mountain Rocks
We were disappointed in this site. No petrified wood at all. Like I
said, the most interesting things we found out there was banded sandstone,
however, I can see why it could be mistaken for petrified wood to to the
layering and different colors of the sand. Perhaps Brad and Melinda never
made it out here and they just took the word of someone who did and really
didn't know the difference. We gave up on this site and made our way back
to Hwy 118. At this point, we really weren't that far a way from Study
Butte and Terlingua and decided to travel a few miles further south to see the
sights and gas back up and stock up on
other
necessities.
Terlingua Creek Rock Hunting :
We entered the Study Butte area and drove west on the Old River Road and crossed
the Terlingua Creek. Soon, we came to
La Kiva, a really cool watering hole, to our south. We pulled in
but, they were closed. However, the parking lot/RV area gave us perfect
access to Terlingua Creek which was another site discussed in Melinda's book.
According to Melinda, agate, petrified wood, and fossils could be found here.
We began to
walk the creek both
upstream and down. We did find a
huge chunk of petrified wood that was highly agatized. It was so
big, that no one wanted to carry it back up. Besides, it was so big, my 12
pound tumbler barrel couldn't handle it. And then, to my surprise again,
we found quite a bit of that strange fine grain granite as seen in
the middle row of this photo. The GPS Coordinates of this site are
as follows :
29°
19.615 North and 103°
33.184 West
Study Butte & Terlingua, TX :
Enough rock hunting, let's take a look around.
We left La Kiva and continued west on the Old River Road. Soon we came to
the ruins of the old Terlingua ghost town starting with the
old miner's cemetery. From the late 1880 through World War II,
Cinnabar ore was mined and refined here for Mercury. Unfortunately, the
health hazards of Mercury were not known at the time and thus led to many of the
deaths of the miners. But, at least they did have some interesting
graves and first rate housing.
The Beer
Grave,
The
Candle Grave,
Terlingua Ruins 1,
Terlingua Ruins 2,
The Mine's
IT Director and
Terlingua Ruins 3
Eventually, we found the other side of that unmarked county road from our
attempt to find some petrified wood,
at this location, it is named Solitario South County Road. We were
in no mood for another bumpy drive so we continued on passing
Ms. Tracy's Cafe, a good stop for some java in the morning and
Far Flung Adventures with whom I used on a canoeing trip down the Rio Grande
River three years ago. Another good adventure company out there is
Desert Sports for mountain biking, hiking, camping,
rafting and other adventures. We finally made it to the
Starlight Theatre, but there were no performances occurring at the time,
therefore, we paid a visit to the dangerous gift shop known as the
Terlingua Trading Post. They sometimes have interesting rocks,
minerals and fossils for sale and I wound up buying
a cool cave helictite found in a Mexican cave across the river and a
nice hunk of agate for tumbling which came from Cathedral mountain which
we passed earlier on our way down here.
It was beginning to get a little late in the afternoon, but we had one more stop
to make, the
Many Stones Rock Shop. Now that I have a 12 pound tumbling barrel,
my new projects with tumbling is to tumble huge chunks of agate and other stones
in their natural form as opposed to making spheres and eggs. I found Ring
Huggins, the proprietor of the shop, and told him about my new project. He
picked out for me a huge chunk of Sagenite, a form of agate from the New Mexico
and Arizona border.
It looked great. For more information on the above
mentioned sites, please see their websites from the links below :
Ms. Tracy's
Cafe
Far Flung Adventures
Desert Sports
The
Terlingua Trading Post
Many Stones Rock Shop
We left Ring's place,
gassed up again, headed north, passed
Bee Mountain and back to Alpine once more.
Alpine, TX :
One of the first things one notices as you arrive into Alpine is the
Sul Ross State University. Keep in mind that the first big
building you see at the school, also houses the
Museum of the Big Bend and is well worth the time to explore. Above the
school on the hill, you will also
see the School's initials. But, that's not the only big initials
around here. The folks in the city did not want to be out done by the students,
so they found their
own hill to decorate.
Of coarse the first thing I
wanted was that photo of the :
Brewster County Courthouse - Alpine, TX
We continued our auto tour through the city and passed by another famous old
West Texas historic hotel,
the Holland Hotel. Our tour of the city ended with the dangerous
Ocotillo Enterprises'
Books and Rocks Shop that draws you in and takes your money for
souvenirs, just like the Terlingua Trading Post. We went in and explored
the
rock shop area and I asked the proprietor to show me some rocks that
were indigenous to the local area. I was shown some of the Balmorhea Blue
Agate which they sold by the ounce. (I guess it really is
becoming a rarity.) We were going to hit Lake Balmorhea the next
day in search of the famous Balmorhea Blue Agate. I wanted some to help me ID
anything we found out there, or in case we didn't find any of the blue agate at
all. I also picked up a huge chunk of Snowflake Obsidian.
(Another project for my 12 pound tumbler barrels.)
I gathered up my rocks and then, I was shown a rock that they call here,
Paisanite! My God, this is that stuff those ole' rock hounds
in Georgetown called a form of white granite and that I had found south of Del
Rio the day before yesterday and in Terlingua creek just a few hours ago.
The lady stated that it is only found in this area of Marfa and Alpine. I
described all the other places I had found it including some found in the Toyah
area west of Pecos. She seemed upset to find out I had found it in other
areas and was proud to have samples of a stone only found in this one area of
the world (Like Llanite near Llano, TX). We
didn't want to make her any more upset than she already was from our sad news of
their sacred rock not being so indigenous after all, so we left.
Ok, let's take a little geological break for a moment.
There's an old ancient volcano that erupted 35 million years ago between Alpine
and Marfa in which the locals call Paisano Volcano and is now a collapse
caldera. As Darwin Spearing explains in his
Roadside Geology of Texas book, the volcano's
lava was composed of a very light color Rhyolite which is a very fine-grain
version of granite. The Rhyolite is fine-grained since it extruded to the
surface and cool very quickly so that no large mineral crystals had time to form
as opposed to granite which cooled very slowly below the earth's surface.
Therefore, over time, the creeks and rivers in the area deposited that material
to the Rio Grande which in turned tumbled polished it to the Del Rio and
Terlingua/Study Butte areas of the state. Though, that really doesn't
explain how I found some of that stuff near the Toyah/Pecos region. Mr. Spearing, any
thoughts?
For more information on the above sites, please see their websites listed below
:
Sul Ross State
University
Museum of the Big Bend
The Holland Hotel
And,
The Books and Rock
Shop
From Alpine, our last stop of the day was Fort Davis. We headed north on
Hwy 118 and past some
interesting volcanic formations as we drove to the city. (The
formations kind of remind me of the same formations Chad and I saw in New Mexico
last Spring) Just
before we entered town, we found the
old ruins of the Musquiz ranch from long ago. The Indians ran the
settlers off, but, the army took it over a few years later to rid the area of
the Indians and bandits who took refuge in these here parts as the story is told
on this here
Texas Hysterical Marker. Fort Davis at last. Time to chow down,
brush
my teeth and
rest up for tomorrow's adventure. I better set the
alarm clock.
I warned you about the length of this adventure. Go ahead and take a break
now. Go to the fridge and
grab a soda
and come on back for :
Part II, Of the Gem
Trails of West Texas 2005.
So
until next time, take care and I'll see
You, on the road!!!
Francis
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