Postcards from Alpine...

Mural on the side of a building in downtown Alpine

Sunsets are beautiful here!

Here it is, the first week in June and we have been in Alpine for 6 weeks now.  Most of the boxes are unpacked and we are starting to feel settled.  But until last week, we really had not spent that much time in Alpine.  Between trips on the weekends to visit my parents and a weeklong excursion to San Antonio for annual doctors’ visits, we hadn’t spent more than 4 nights in a row here.  This week, we broke a record and can now claim 8 nights in a row!

Until a few days ago when this crazy 100-plus degree heat wave set in, it had been so pleasant in Alpine.  The days were in the high 80s and low 90s, but many days there were afternoon rains and the evenings were wonderful.  We would walk out our front door every night around 8:00 and take a long sunset stroll.  The temperatures would have dropped into the low 70s by then and the wind was cool and light.  Most nights we were able to turn off the A/C and sleep with cool breezes and the sound of far-off thunder and train whistles as we drifted into dreamland.  A couple of mornings I woke with the blanket over my head.  I had gotten chilled during the night!

Large petroglyphs in Seminole Canyon at the Fate Bell Shelter

Close up of one of the petroglyphs

Some of the smaller petroglyphs

On our way back from San Antonio a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site for a little camping trip.  (We drove Silver to San Antonio because we had a few plumbing issues and wanted to have her checked out while our doctors were checking us out.  I am happy to report that we are all fine now.)  Anyway, back to Seminole Canyon…  I remember visiting the petroglyphs in the canyon over 25 years ago, long before this remote and rugged area became a state park.  Now there is a great campground and guided tours of some of the petroglyphs.  Much of the park has archaeological sites from ancient native cultures that lived in the area.  The geology is interesting too, not to mention all the unique desert plants.  

View of Seminole Canyon from the Fate Bell Shelter

Shaman art overlooking the canyon

Exposed fossils in the Devil's River Limestone at Fate Bell Shelter 

The long skinny shell is a Turritella, an ancient sea snail.

Unfortunately, that weekend was the beginning of the unseasonably hot weather we are now experiencing.  The sky turned hazy and our views of picturesque Seminole Canyon and views into Mexico were not very clear.  We took a guided tour of some of the petroglyphs with a wonderful guide from the Witte Museum in San Antonio. The Witte will be offering more hikes to other petroglyphs later this fall and we plan to return.  We loved the park and will be going back to hike more when it isn’t so hot.  At only a 3-hour drive from Alpine, that shouldn’t be hard to do.

There are many art galleries in Alpine,

far out in West Texas...

We’ve been taking little excursions around the city and have managed to locate most things we need.  Alpine has 3 grocery stores, one of which specializes in organic foods.  There is a farmer’s market open on Saturdays, a recycling center, a couple of hardware stores, many restaurants and food trucks, a brewery, a movie theatre and a yoga studio located upstairs in the old Granada theatre.  Alpine also has an airport, a hospital and an Amtrak station.  Ride the train and come see us! 

Amtrak station in downtown Alpine

Lots of trains besides Amtrak come through this small town

We have been trying to find the historic homes and buildings in the area and learn more about Alpine’s history.  Even though David and I grew up in West Texas and took many trips to the Big Bend when we lived in Odessa, we never spent much time in Alpine.  So, we never knew that Alpine used to be called ‘Murphyville.’  

The historic Holland Hotel

The rooms are furnished with antiques and historic photographs are on display.

One morning we had breakfast downtown (about a seven-block walk from our house) and afterward took a self-guided walking tour of Alpine.  We learned that Murphyville was a campsite for cattlemen until railroad workers and their families created a tiny town of tents in the 1880s.  For five years the little settlement grew into a dozen houses, three saloons, a hotel and rooming house, a stable, a butcher shop and even a drugstore which housed the post office. After such a dazzling spurt of growth, the townsfolk petitioned to change the name of their little community to Alpine.  Growth was very slow for Alpine until Sul Ross Normal College (now Sul Ross State University) was opened in 1920.  When Big Bend National Park was opened in the 1940s there was another spurt of growth. Today the town has a population of about 7,600 people.  It is by far the smallest place David and I have ever lived.  

I made this photo standing on our front porch after a crazy thunderstorm.

We've had some serious little storms and this one scared us a bit with all

the runoff so close to our house.  That's a trash dumpster being swept away! 

We are trying to ride out this heat until July when we hope to take off for a bit in Silver.  Today it only got to 92 and that was a relief.  But I am afraid the break in the heat is only going to last a few days.  Most likely we won’t do a lot of exploring of West Texas in this heat, but perhaps I will review the area food trucks.  We will take little day trips to Ft. Davis, Marfa and Marathon and it is still fun to eat even if it is hot. 

Dad and mom with her Mother's Day roses.

She felt well enough to go to church.

If all goes well with my parents we will head out to New Mexico and Colorado for 4 – 6 weeks in July.  Yay!  There will be some ‘on the road’ this summer.  We sure do miss our Maya, but in our hearts we will always be “On the Road with Maya…”