2007/02/22
Davis Mountains
After one last walk around the golf course, we packed up the trailer, loaded the dog into the truck and headed for Davis Mountains State Park. As we drove along a high plateau I commented to Ed that this was finally the Texas I’d pictured in my mind after growing up watching westerns. There was more grass and less cactus, more plains and less desert.
The main reason we came to the Davis Mountains was to visit the McDonald Observatory but now that we’ve seen the state park and brochures for the area we realize that there is a lot of other things to see and do here. There is a large population of mule deer in the park, a lot of different birds and by the smell a fair number of javelinas though we haven’t actually seen any. Javelinas have a musky smell much like a skunk.
![](http://www.agnew.biz/travel06/070222%20CRW_0652.jpg)
The visitor center at the McDonald Observatory. The 10 meter by 11 meter telescope is in the dome at the top of the photo ---- now that's one big telescope (4th largest in the world!)
![](http://www.agnew.biz/travel06/070222%20CRW_0657.jpg)
One of the many mule deer in the state park.
The main reason we came to the Davis Mountains was to visit the McDonald Observatory but now that we’ve seen the state park and brochures for the area we realize that there is a lot of other things to see and do here. There is a large population of mule deer in the park, a lot of different birds and by the smell a fair number of javelinas though we haven’t actually seen any. Javelinas have a musky smell much like a skunk.
![](http://www.agnew.biz/travel06/070222%20CRW_0652.jpg)
The visitor center at the McDonald Observatory. The 10 meter by 11 meter telescope is in the dome at the top of the photo ---- now that's one big telescope (4th largest in the world!)
![](http://www.agnew.biz/travel06/070222%20CRW_0657.jpg)
One of the many mule deer in the state park.