Hiking to the Highest Point at Davis Mountains State Park

We had reservations for a three-night stay here at Davis Mountains State Park, and our second day's plan was to take the hike to the highest point in the park. Surprisingly, we had to get a special pass code to unlock the gate to the little-used section of the park across the highway.

We started the hike in the dry creek bed, which had a curious yellow covering.

It looked like old blankets were draped over the brush around the dry creek bed. It took us a while to figure out this unique fibrous layer. It was a matting of dried moss that was left over from a wetter time. It doesn't look like this creek bed has seen water for a while.

The trail included lots of switchbacks that literally stretched for miles. Mark noticed that we could knock off a couple miles if we started up this steep section of the mountain on our own. He's legendary at bushwhacking between two points and making his own trail. Denisa is legendary at following him based on the "whither thou goest, I will go" portion of our wedding vows. Once again,  following Mark was the right thing to do.

Once at the highest point, we found a nice bench to relax and enjoy the view of the Davis Mountains surrounding us.

We also found the mountain-top log book in the metal box behind a rock. We signed the log, right after an unusually large number of hikers from last week's spring break crowd.

The hike to the bottom included no short cuts, but we stopped for some of the views. We had some beautiful blue-sky weather to enjoy this hike.

When we got back to the canyon floor, we changed from hiking through the cactus to hiking through the golden grass.

We finished the hike at the seep, where a little spring provided moisture. These cottonwood trees that can only survive in this desert if they have their feet near a constant water source.

We normally wouldn't take a picture of a cottonwood tree just leafing out, but we've been in the desert for weeks. We were obviously hungry to look at something green. Mark is leaning against that tree like he's tired. We're glad that he suggested the successful short-cut up the hill earlier, because this hike stretched to over seven miles by the time we got back to the pickup.

As we finished this short blog on the hike to the highest point at Davis Mountains State Park, we had to stick in some more bird pictures. Denisa had been hanging out at the two bird blinds at the park way too much, and had taken way too many pictures of way too many birds. We didn't have any television or phone signal here in the park, so watching birds was her entertainment here. You can scroll through the next pictures if you want, or we'll just see you next time when we take the best hike in Fort Davis.

Thanks for making it through all those bird pictures! You deserve a medal! With all their colors and unique characteristics, Denisa thinks they are another of God's wonders.