Originally Posted by robin1234

Drove to Alpine, Texas, from El Paso. We are staying in a folkloric town centre hotel, built about 100 years ago in a sort of Bavarian hunting lodge style. Temperatures are cool up here in the mountains. Went for a pleasant drive yesterday evening to Fort Davis, the observatory, and the desert ecosystems research centre (some name like that) where we went hiking and saw all kinds of interesting cacti, flowering plants and trees. Hummingbirds everywhere, I think they are ruby throated, the same species we have up in New York. Beautiful yellow flowers by the roadside every where, yellow coneflowers.

We had a spectacular heavy rainstorm yesterday afternoon. From the lush vegetation, I'd say they get a lot more rain up here in the mountains than down in the flatlands, just a few short miles from here!

Originally Posted by robin1234

Now in Fredericksburg, we went hiking for a few hours this morning at the Enchanted Rock State Park, about 18 miles north of here. Absolutely beautiful area and some great waymarked trails. We hiked up the hill - spectacular, very nice views - then hiked on a trail of about three miles through woodland & canyons etc. Saw plenty of interesting wildlife, snakes, loads of different lizards large & small, and plenty of butterflies. Most of the butterflies were new to me, the most frequent one was the dainty sulphur, a tiny yellow and grey butterfly... Plants included lots of cacti, live oaks, Spanish moss, lots of flowering plants. All in all, a very wild and attractive area. It occurred to me after we left .... no mosquitoes, no deer flies, no unpleasant insects at all..

And in Fredericksburg, I'd highly recommend the Museum of the Pacific War. Very good interpretative displays, videos etc. But they also have an entire midget submarine, several aircraft, tanks, field guns etc. on display. We visited yesterday and today, there's so much to see in there.

Originally Posted by Sugarmooma

This is just like a replay of most of the Texas trips we take, especially when we have visiting family.

Is the Japanese garden still behind the Museum? It used to be a very tranquil, peaceful area to wander around.

Glad you are enjoying some of the great places in Texas