(2025 Balloons and Beyond Ep 14)
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Our Palo Duro Canyon hiking travails ended and we continued southward through Texas for more than three hundred miles. We transited the oil fields near Ft. Stockton and Midland, and continued to Davis Mountains State Park.
McDonald Observatory – Eyes on the Skies
We toured nearby McDonald Observatory, a noted astronomical observatory that sits atop 6790-foot Mount Locke. The observatory’s research telescopes are part of the University of Texas at Austin and used to research a wide variety of topics and projects.
The Otto Struve Telescope, with its 82-inch mirror, was dedicated in 1939. At the time it was the world’s second largest telescope.
The 107-inch Harlan J. Smith Telescope was completed in 1968. We toured the large observatory building that houses the Smith telescope. Our guide raised and lowered and rotated the telescope and explained how celestial objects are targeted and astronomical data is collected.
The 390-inch Holly-Eberly Telescope atop nearby Mount Fowlkes was completed in 1996 and is one of the largest optical telescopes in the world.
The telescopes at McDonald Observatory have been used to find planets orbiting around other stars, track the rotation of individual galaxies and conduct dark energy research.
Desert Views
Davis Mountains State Park includes a short scenic drive that leads to amazing views of the rugged Texas mountains to the southwest. Beyond the mountains are Big Bend National Park, Rio Grande River and Mexico.
We postponed our visit to the Big Bend area due to the US Government shutdown in October-November 2025 and hope to visit the area in our upcoming 2026 travels.
From the Davis Mountains, it was almost 1400 miles home – 600 miles across Texas and another 800 miles to Florida. We continued the long drive east on US 90, past tiny remote communities and across mountain ranges and dry canyons. We followed a lonely train track for miles where hundreds of empty rail cars were parked.
No Gas Pumps, No Brisket. What Kind of Buc-ees Is This?
In the middle of nowhere, we zipped past a small building where we spied a sign displaying the iconic Buc-ees Beaver logo!
We backtracked to see what it was all about.
A sign indicated the tiny, single-door cinder block structure was the world’s smallest Buc-ees. It pokes fun at consumerism, similar to the faux, non-functional Prada store in Marfa, Texas, about 50 miles west on US 90.
It turns out that some things aren’t bigger in Texas. And we were disappointed this Buc-ees location offered no restrooms or beaver nuggets.
Law West of the Pecos
Around mid-day, we stopped at Langtry TX, a remote town near the Rio Grande River that was home of Judge Roy Bean, who enforced ‘Law West of the Pecos.’
That evening we camped at Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site, known for ancient rock art drawn on canyon walls. We’ll share more about Seminole Canyon in our upcoming series.
Continuing Home
Continuing east, we had lunch with my brother and his wife near San Antonio, and then spent several days in east Texas near the Big Thicket Swamp. The contrast of arid west Texas around Palo Duro Canyon and David Mountains with the swampy Big Thicket bayous in east Texas is amazing.
We arrived home after a final night on the beach at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park on the Florida Panhandle. It was a nice end to our Balloons and Beyond late summer adventure!
Texas Critters
Balloons and Beyond Recap
We camped 64 nights for an average of $18.97 per night and drove 7633 miles across 17 states.
Fuel was our biggest expense. Lowest paid was $2.09 (Flying J, Gulfport, MS), highest paid was $3.69 (Shell, Salida, CO).
Take the LONG Road... 