We're taking an auto trip that will have us spending one night in Alpine or Marfa. Hotel Paisano in Marfa looked interesting. Any advice on best one? Will of course work in a No. 1 or 2 sighting.
Try to do both towns.
Marfa's courthouse is another example from the Victorian era of great Texas courthouses.
Drive by.
If you are even halfway interested in art, or want to seriously impress friends who are, the Chinati Foundation has 15 abandoned air base buildings now a spectacular collection of Donald Judd's minimalist art. You don't have to like it to be quite impressed with it, but you might like it. Not much resembling this quantity of large art works in one place anywhere else in the world.
Maybe run thru in an hour to two to do your duty to culture.
If you don't want to spend on El Paisano, you can walk thru the lobby of the beautiful gem of a building. It's a friendly place; this is West Texas.
The Giant memorabilia displayed is quick fun. In those days the movies had real stars -- Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, even Sal Mineo. LOL. Give it 10 minutes, even with the gift shop, unless you want to eat.
Skip the Marfa Lights stop. The mysterious lights have been debunked as basically headlights on distant desert roads. Sorry.
West of Marfa, close to what's left of Valentine, TX, on the west side of Hwy 90 is
the Prada Store. A roadside display of luxury shoes and handbags in the middle of nowhere, about as far from anywhere (unless Marfa counts as a where) as you can get in the U.S. The Prada Store is the Marfa art community's idea of a joke, and it's actually pretty funny. Srsly. And I don't know of anything quite like it in the world.
Still, if you spend more than 3 minutes here I don't know why.
The
Sunset slows down as it passes close to downtown, but does not stop in Marfa. Pictures are possible, but if you want a stop and/or to see the Union Pacific crew change, that's Alpine. Remember, the
Sunset only appears 3 days a week.
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Nearby the Davis Mountains host one of the world's leading observatories. Nice tour, they even let you touch a mammoth telescope and take selfies. If you're into that stuff, it's well worth it. Very scenic drive where we saw deer, peccary, antelope, other wildlife.
Not a quick detour. Drive fast and fall off the mountainside. Allow at least 2 or 3 hours.
En route to McDonald Observatory is Fort Davis National Historic Site, a carefully restored army base of "Buffalo soldiers", the blacks sent to subdue the Indians.
Can see enuff in 1 hour, but 2 better.