Texas camping

Was just thinking about one of our camping trips to the Davis Mountains, out by Fort Davis in west Texas. We were originally going to Ruidoso, NM, but there were forest fires up there, and they had closed the forests there - we were at a shop, and a lady there suggested we go to the Davis Mountains.. so off we went, back to Texas. (After a side trip to White Sands, and Carlsbad Caverns)

We set up the tent, and had a great time there, the campground is really nice. There is a set-up there from the CCC in the 30s, up by the campground, but not part of it. We stayed in the far end of the campground as you drove in - away from the trailer section of the grounds. The first night was fun, we got into the tent..and heard some noise. Looked out of the tent, and there was a RACCOON with one hand digging into the cooler, and the other hand holding a polish sausage, eating it. I swear he had a big grin on his face. Tried to shoo him away, he was having none of it. That cooler was his! Hubby got out of the tent and finally chased the raccoon away, put the cooler in the truck cab, locked it up, and came back to the tent. Early the next morning, we looked at the truck, there were raccoon pawprints all over around the handles of the truck on both sides.

The second night was just as interesting. Earlier that day, we had gone to Fort Davis, and did a tour of the fort, and rode around the area just sightseeing. There were pronghorns in the area also. We bought a large watermelon from a truck along a road also, for after dinner. That evening, as we were zipping up the tent after the firefly show, a skunk came around to the table pad, sniffing and licking up where the watermelon juice had dribbled. Shook keys at the skunk, it just looked at us, and started walking TOWARDS us! we zipped up the tent and just stayed in. We could hear it walking around and snuffling for about 1/2 hour, then it moved onto the next tent site. Little snot!

The next day we just hung around the campsite, and walked around the campgrounds. Talked to a lady over in the trailer section, the night before when we had our skunk, she heard what she thought was a large pack of dogs - she looked out of her trailer - it was a pack of javelinas. We saw those when we were camping down in Big Bend, but they did not come by our tent up in the Davis Mountains. There were deer up there at the campsite though, we got some good pictures of them in the afternoon.

Another place we camped, on the way to Big Bend, the year the comet was out - I don't recall which year that was - we camped on the other side of Kerrville - by a river, a state park - right off I-10. It was home to a turkey refuge- you could hear them in the underbrush as you walked along trails, and you could go fishing or tubing in the river. We camped in the primitive area, and late at night we were out watching the comet and all the stars, away from our tent and our table - where the cooler was - and we looked behind us - the whole table was COATED with raccoons! they were swarming the cooler.. so we went over there, scared them away, and then looked behind us again, where we had been, and they were over there, watching us to see when we would move away from the cooler. That was the last year we used the small tent with the girls, 2 adults, a 9 year old and a 7 year old in a 3 man tent just does not work! We ended up not camping in Big Bend in the Chisos Mountains, as there was a mountain lion seen within the week quite a few times, and we didn't want the kids to become the next victim, so we went out of the park, and camped, went back into the park during the day.

We've camped up in the Guadalupe Mountains, up on the border of Texas/New Mexico, that was fun - except the youngest was afraid of porta-potties, and that was all that was available by us, unless we wanted to walk quite a ways to the shower area. That year I felt bad for a tarantula. Boy Scouts had the large campsite at the end of the road by us, and they had cornered one on a bush in their site, and were throwing water on it and poking it with sticks. We went hiking on several of the shorter trails in those mountains.

Now that the eldest has moved out, and the youngest is 16, I'd like to go camping again, back to the places we've been before. They're higher in elevation, so they're cooler than it is here on the coast. Come to think of it, the last few times we've been camping, it has been at the Texas Renaissance Festival, up in Plantersville, we go up Friday night, stay overnight, go all day Saturday, and then camp again, and come home Sunday. But that's another post for another day - later on this year after we go again :P