Final Leg

After departing the San Antonio area, we headed to Fort Davis State Park. Our plan to stop at the Seminole Canyon (site of ancient rock paintings and pictographs in caves done by Indigenous peoples some 2000-8000 years ago) was altered when we found out the area was closed for a week for 'controlled deer hunting!' But this part of the drive proved very interesting; many little ghost towns and old frontier establishments. Some of the journey around Del Rio follows the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. A very increased presence of Border Patrol vehicles; along the main hwy was a dirt road and the BP trucks drug huge tires chained together to erase footprints. Then several miles ahead and behind,would be more trucks driving at a snails pace, with their heads out the window and scouring the ditches intently.

Next stop enroute was at the little town of Langtry, home of Judge Roy Bean; another tale we recall hearing about and depicted in some cowboy movie, but brought to life at this visitors centre.  This town is one of the closest points to the Mexican border along our journey, which is separated here by the deep gorge and the Rio Grande.

Fort Davis State Park and town was the stop for the night. We got up early the next morning and before checking out, went to the state park site. We managed to spend a couple hours at this post-civil war  Fort.   We have enjoyed many historical sites along this journey; as with this one also, they are very well done.

Fort  Davis was established in 1854 on the Trans-Peco portion of the road from San Antonio to El Paso to protect immigrants, mail coaches, freight wagons and travellers on their way to California in search of gold.  It is one of the best surviving examples of an Indian Wars' frontier military post in the American Southwest.

 

Our first ever siting of a Javelina, was when we almost hit it in the campground and we were like...."what the heck was that thing"; Ugly but kinda cute, if that makes any sense !!

Next stop was El Paso Texas on the border of Mexico and New Mexico. According to Trip Advisor the number one attraction was downtown San Jacinto plaza. Guess we should send in an update...appears to be gone or under complete renovation. El Paso is the largest border town in America with about 3/4 million people, but when combined with its Mexican border city of Ciudad-Juarez and area there are over 2 million people. And the pollution was abundantly evident in the skyline!  With all due respect to the fine people of El Paso, there is not much to see!

Onto Benson AZ for 3 nights for a bit of golf and to see the Kartchner Caverns. Although we saw only one other cave on this journey, these ones are spectacular !!  They are "living caves" (still forming from and the stunning limestone continues to grow stalagmites and stalactites and other amazing formations.  The caves were discovered in 1974.  In the "Big Room" you can see the tracks used by the two men who discovered the caves.  To protect the caves, their discovery was kept secret for several years until such time as the land could be acquired by the state of Arizona from the Kartchner family.  It opened to the public as a State Park in 1999.  This is a must to visit in southern Arizona!

We headed home' to Casa Grande for a few days and now home in the great white north. Our great neighbours, Jeff & Deb Klontz, decorated our cactus in the front yard.  Looking forward to another adventure soon. Thanks for following us:)