Here I am in Alpine

I'm in West Texas on business, so I took a road trip today that has ended up in Alpine. After a far better dinner than I could expect in Ft Stockton, I'm hanging by the station waiting for 2 to come in. It's only 25 minutes late, so only part of my drive home will be in the dark.

I'll post some pictures when I figure out how to make them smaller.

Alpine is an Oasis in the Big Nowhere that is West Texas!Look forward to your pics!

It's also my place of Birth and where I spent many happy Summer days with my railroading grandfather ( SP)

Alpine may be the best "things-to-see-and-do place" per capita in Texas, with only 6.000 residents. Desert and mountain scenery, a 2,000-student university named to a top 10 affordable-and-beautiful campus list, a good museum of the Big Bend, a live music scene supported by those students, tourists, and the locals, a historic restored hotel downtown, one of those fabulous 19th Century Texas Courthouses, some good restaurants, several rodeos per year, a semi-pro baseball team, and more.

My mother spent her honeymoon there in 1936, and in my day we could never get near the little town without making a stop for her. LOL.

Looking forward to your pics. We will be coming thru there on #2(19) Monday eve.

jimhudson said:

Alpine is an Oasis in the Big Nowhere that is West Texas!Look forward to your pics!

It's also my place of Birth and where I spent many happy Summer days with my railroading grandfather ( SP)

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Couldn't agree more, Jim [being a former Texan myself]. Sul Ross College is located there IIRC. I used it as a gateway to Bend National Park.

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.

Palmland said:

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.

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#1 and #2 stop in Alpine, they don't in Marfa! The Paisano Hotel is where the cast and crew of "Giant" stayed while making the Movie. Its been remodeled and is upscale/pricey! Lots of fancy Cafes/ coffe E shopes etc in Marfa, its a trendy artist/ Santa Fe type place.

Alpine has lots of chain Motels and Mom and Pop places plus the old Railroad Hotel,The Holland, across the street from the Amtrak Depot. Recommended.

Alpine is a lot prettier town with more to do and also has a direct Highway to Terlingua and the Big Bend! Generally Alpine prices are much more reasonable than Marfa!

There is an old time Tourist Motel called The Antelope Lodge on the Western Edge of town that has cabins with kitchens and is really popular. You might want to Goggle it and see what you think!

Is the Japanese Sushi joint next to the Amtrak station still there? I get a kick out of finding Sushi in the middle of west Texas; around this next of the woods that is considered fish bait or cat food. If I could take the cat with me, then I could take him there if we have a long stop

Thanks for the info, Jim. We'll make reservations at the Holland. Definitely more of a 'real' town than Marfa. We enjoy all things western and this is certainly more in that category. Guess we'll just have to suck it up with the train noise across the street! Of course we will have just come from the LaPosada in Winslow.

We were so far ahead of schedule on the Eagle that we sat there for about an hour and a half. When we left three people were left behind,I got to see port o lets on wheels,A first for me...but I enjoyed the stop.If in a car that way I will stop by again.

Palmland said:

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.

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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.

++++++++++++++++

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.

Woody, great info on greater Marfa and Alpine. Based on your comments and Jim's, we added a day to our trip. It's a long drive from Winslow and we're going to split it somewhere in southeast NM, probably around Las Cruces. That allows us to a have a leisurely breakfast at LaPosada, always a treat, and get to Marfa by noon the next day and Alpine for dinner and overnight. This is the last leg (after a Dallas stop) on our return after spending a couple weeks in CO. I am also crossing off an item on my bucket list - the SS Badger. We'll take a circuitous route west from SC.

Great idea to break up the Looooong haul across the Desert Palmland!( Las Cruces is about an hour from El Paso on I-10) And the breakfast @ LA Posada is a real treat, always nice to be @ a Harvey House!

As Woody said, a visit to Marfa if you're passing through isn't a bad idea, you can have lunch,( Trip Advisor had the top 25 Joints in Marfa) and as he said, visit the Lobby of El Paisano and then walk up Highland Avenue a couple of blocks to the Presidio County Courthouse, the view from the Dome is a good one!

When you get to Alpine, a couple of ideas for Dinner are the Cafe @ the Holland Hotel ( the Lobby Bar is a good one too) and Riatta,( named for the Ranch in Giant) an excellent Steak House.

For Breakfast the next morning, the Oak Tree Inn, on Highway 90 East in the left out of town past Sul Ross University on the Hill) is where the UP and Amtrak crews stay. The Cafe is a Diner in a Street Car, with Breakfast similar to an IHOP or Denny's, but better!

Have a ball and let us know about your trip, were envious!

I am surprised Marfa is not a Sunset stop though I imagine to make it one would be a multi-year process.

Palmland said:

Woody, great info on greater Marfa and Alpine. Based on your comments and Jim's, we added a day to our trip. It's a long drive from Winslow and we're going to split it somewhere in southeast NM, probably around Las Cruces. That allows us to a have a leisurely breakfast at LaPosada, always a treat, and get to Marfa by noon the next day and Alpine for dinner and overnight. This is the last leg (after a Dallas stop) on our return after spending a couple weeks in CO. I am also crossing off an item on my bucket list - the SS Badger. We'll take a circuitous route west from SC.

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Las Cruces is cool. The Organ Mountains east of town were recently made a National Monument by Obama. Try to catch the view of their spectacular straight-up rock layers as the sun sets.

Very near is Old Mesilla, dating from the Mexican era with a town square that looks like the set of a cowboy movie, except it's the real deal. Drive to it and walk around the square, maybe a 20-minute detour off I-10.

The El Paso train station architect was David Burnham, famed for Union Station in D.C., but in a completely different red-brick style. There's a semi-abandoned Harvey House inside, opened for tours from time to time, but I don't know the schedule.

The campus of the University of Texas at El Paso, UTEP, is another nothing-like-it-in-the-world places. The wife of the first dean 100 years ago was reading a National Geographic article about Bhutan, a sort of Shangri-La tucked in between Tibet and India. She talked them into doing the first buildings in the style of the Bhutanese monastery-fortresses: massive sloping walls, bands of colored tile below the roof line, overhanging tile roofs, carved and painted wooden beam ceilings, etc. The dean's wife was right. The style fits in with the Southwestern/Mexican regional style, but is different, and now beloved by the town's 85% Mexican-American population, and the Anglos too, LOL. Again, nothing like it in the world, Not even Bhutan has so many big Bhutanese buildings in one place (not all as authentic as others, but a harmonic whole). Take the I-10 exit for UTEP or the Sun Bowl. A drive thru or around a few campus blocks could take 15 minutes.

Then take Mesa or Oregon Sts thru downtown (not much of one remaining) and turn right on Paisano to the train station. Downtown detour could take 10 minutes.

Bonus Berlin Wall: The train station is just off Paisano St., very near the post-irrigation trickle known as the Rio Grande. The border is lined with rows of high fences topped with concertina wire and guarded by Border Patrol cars, Paisano St itself, railroad tracks, steep bluffs, Interstate 10. And still they come. You can gaze across the river and understand why people risk arrest or even their lives to get from there to here. Rejoin I-10 at the next intersection. Detour time 15 minutes max.

You could see more in El Paso (Fort Bliss, desert warfare training center, largest base in the US) but it's a big country and a long trip already!

I'm jealous of you visiting La Posada, the last great railroad hotel, designed by Mary Colter. I recently beefed up and smoothed up her Wikipedia entry and learned what a magnificent woman she was.

OlympianHiawatha said:

I am surprised Marfa is not a Sunset stop though I imagine to make it one would be a multi-year process.

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It WAS a Sunset stop...back in the 1960s.

Woody, you should write travel guidebooks! thanks. I am very fortunate to have a mother in law in Scottsdale, AZ giving us an excuse to recover at LaPosada for a day or two every year. We might get two visits this year with a plane/train trip planned in November.

OK, here are some pictures from last Saturday (7/18) evening of the station and #2 coming in around 8:50 PM. There are some nice murals in the waiting room, and a spiffy new platform that mostly accommodates the diner, sightseer lounge, and the coaches. Sleeper passengers boarded from the grade crossing, or, in the case of the first sleeper, from trackside. I didn't notice whether the first sleeper was a transdorm or not. There appared to be only 2 sleepers. I'm not sure whether this included the Chicago sleeper that goes on the Texas Eagle in San Antonio, or whether that sleeper is attached at the end of the train. They still had a Heritage baggage car. There was a decent crowd of passenger (10-20) waiting to board.

On Sunday, I amused myself with a 400-mile road trip that went from Fort Stockton to Carlsbad Caverns (whwere I stopped and toured the caverns), past Guadalupe Mt. (withe ruins of the old Butterfield Mail stage station -- imagine riding in a stagecoach for 25 days to get from St Louis to San Francisco, with stops only to change horses and eat. Apparently the coaches were designed with seats that converted to beds. And it cost $200 (in 1858 dollars) So consider history and don't complain too much about the current Amtrak accommodations. Fron there, I drove to Van Horn and ate dinner at the restored Hotel El Capitan (which is identical in design to the Hotel Paisano in Marfa.) Then I drove the 110 miles back to Ft. Stockton on I-10. I can't imagine I'd do such a trip in the northeast, but then, you can't speed along at 75 mph on a 2-line country back road in the northeast and still be observing the speed limit.

Nice pics and Roadtrip, thanks for sharing!

As for the Sunset Ltd/Texas Eagle, the consist has a Bag Car/Transdorm/#2 Revenue Sleeper/Diner/Sightseer Lounge/(2) #2 Coaches/#422 Cutout Coach and the ##422 Revenue Sleeper on the rear. The #422 Coach and Sleeper are switched out in SAS to the Texas Eagle #22 for the trip to CHI.

I find it odd that Alpine would call itself "Gateway to Big Bend National Park" seeing it is over an hour away from there.

printman2000 said:

I find it odd that Alpine would call itself "Gateway to Big Bend National Park" seeing it is over an hour away from there.

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In west Texas, that's like being right next door! (There's not much between Alpine and the park entrance except a lot of scrubby desert, well, it's grassy for the first few miles from Alpine until you drop in elevation.) Speed limits on 2-lane state highways are typically 75 mph, and the speed limit on I-10 is 80.

Also Alpine is the closest and Last vestige of Civilization on the way to the Big Bend!

And as MARC Rider said,distances are vast in the Big Nowhere of West Texas!

People drive 80 Miles to go to the closest Wal-Mart in Ft. Stockton!

Correction on the I-10 speed limit. It's been raised to 85 on the western portion. And you know what? Somebody always wants to go faster that you are at 85!

Palmetto said:

Correction on the I-10 speed limit. It's been raised to 85 on the western portion. And you know what? Somebody always wants to go faster that you are at 85!

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Where did they raise it 85? I've driven the whole road between San Antonio and Van Horn. The 80 mph section begins somewhere west of Junction, and I don't remember seeing any 85 mph signs anywhere. And there's only about 125 more miles west from Van Horn into El Paso, and I would imagine that they might slow down the speed limit as you get near El Paso.

Thanks to all who recommended stopping in Alpine rather than Marfa. The Paisano hotel in Marfa was very nice but a bit too gentrified for the area. However the bartender there gave us some great tips on Alpine (he had worked at most of its bars and restaurants). But, Alpine was just great and we are planning to return for an extended period to check out Big Bend NP and of course the minor league baseball there - the Alpine Cowboys in an independent league. We also faded before trying the highly recommended Railroad Blues bar that gets going after 10pm with good bands (blues, C&W, rock) from all of west Texas. The Holland Hotel was perfect and was exactly what we wanted after spending too many nights at chain hotels: historic building with a comfortable lobby, patio, bar and restaurant. We thought the food in the restaurant there was even better than LaPosada. A new chef did great things with our food. He was from Holland, no less, and met his wife, GM for the restaurant, while working on Holland-America line. Of course when they heard of the opening at the hotel they had to come. Don't stay on Holland St (front of the hotel) if train noise bothers you as there is no quiet zone. Trains blast through with horns going but earplugs are provided. Saw a few trains changing crews there. Seemed to be mostly westbound. Loved the wide open spaces of the this high country. Great town and even has a very good book store. Unfortunately No. 1/2 weren't running the day we were there.

And west Texas speed limits are 80 for the Interstate and 75 for the local roads. Watch out of the occasional cows.