This park was spectacular and it all started with our site. We picked an end site that only had three others in use. This park park is in a little canyon partway up the mountain and is well known for both views and wildlife and we had both. They had set up a bird blind with seeds and water. We saw a western scrub jay, a couple of towhees, a bunch of pine siskins, a ladderback woodpecker, and a couple of acorn woodpeckers. These guys had covered a telephone pole with small holes, and stuffed an acorn in each hole.
Within an hour of setting up, we had several muleteer eating less than ten feet from the RV. We felt like we were in our own blind. While eating dinner, we heard something snorting. The muleteer were back and headed straight up the hill beside the RV. Alas, no roadrunners yet! The park has mountain quail, but we didn’t see them either.
In the morning we went further up the canyon to see the Indian Lodge built by the CCC in the 1930s. The view from the outside down the canyon was every bit as nice as the inside.
Next stop was McDonald observatory near Fort Davis. The van was panting by the time we reached the visitor’s center at 6700 feet elevation. We exited the van to the smell of toasted diesel. Our tour was led by a wonderful guide, Rachel. She knew her stuff and she really enjoyed what she was doing. There was a nice video followed by a live presentation. Then we got to tour 2 telescopes.
The first has a 107 inch mirror, and we were given the controls! Deb moved the telescope around and Bob moved the dome so that the opening was at the end of the telescope. They wouldn’t let us open the dome because the telescope is being used for research, so they cool the room to expected nighttime temps to prevent condensation on the lens when they are ready to start observing.
The second telescope was developed at Penn State and built by a consortium of several universities. This Hobby Eberly telescope was built using commercially available components, so it was much cheaper than most. It’s mirror is actually composed of 91 hexagonal mirrors, each a meter across, arranged in a grid like a big honeycomb. The mirrors can tilt to make sure they are all pointed at the same target. It’s tied for 5th largest telescope in the world.
The display above was outside the visitors center. It shows just how big the Hobby Eberly Primary mirror really is. Each tile is a 1 meter hexagon (10×11 meters).
Rachel said that on a clear day you can see about 100 miles. No arguments! That’s the road we came up to get here at about 4500 feet.
On the way down the mountain we were treated to the first of many views of buttes.
Elevation: 5118 feet; Wi-Fi: Yes; Cell: No; TV: No