If you’ve ever visited Big Bend or drove through west Texas, you’ll come across Alpine, Texas. I spent a week there hiking and kayaking at Big Bend. While there, I explored a few other things. It’s a good place central to many different locations you’ll want to see while you’re in that part of the country.
Alpine, Texas
The city is one of a few small frontier towns remaining from the glory day of the western mining and expansive cattle ranching. There is little on the way into town and little to see after you leave it. Hundreds of miles protect it from any sign of typical commercialism, and in this way, it is perfect.
Alpine is a small town with about 5,000 residents at an elevation of 4,475 feet. It has an attractive climate. In the springtime morning, temperatures might hover in the mid-40s before rising into the upper 80s and dropping again in the evening.
There is little rain; instead, there are clear nights and stars a short distance from downtown. This part of west Texas is known as an International Dark Sky Community. Alpine, Texas, sits just 90 miles north of Big Bend National Park and the Mexico border, and their primary industry is tourism coming and going from the park. There aren’t many lights out that way.
But there are a few other things you can see and do in and near town while you’re there.
Midweek Mercantile & Music Fair
If you visit Alpine through the end of May, you’ll also be able to enjoy the Midweek Mercantile & Music fair. Each Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., the city hosts an event between Avenue E & Holland Avenue with shopping, food and music.
There are local vendors with arts, crafts, baked goods, food trucks, live music, and dancing at the visitor center. It’s lively west Texas fun.
The Hancock Hill Desk
They say thousands of travelers have climbed the hill to find the desk. I was one of them.
In 1979, a few Sul Ross College students carried the desk to the top of Hancock Hill overlooking the city. On the way, I saw four different hikers and asked each of them for directions to the desk. Each one got me slightly further than the one before. The first one told me to look for the gate, the second a Jesus statue, the third a TV antenna and the fourth a few bikes in a tree. You can’t make this stuff up.
Sure enough, along my journey, I saw each of those things. And then there it was. Sitting on a rock face looking out over the hilltops at the highest point in Alpine. A metal desk and chair. In the drawers were notebooks and I, like many before me, wrote a message for the people of the future.
Everything you read online will say the hike to the desk takes 20 minutes. If you’re a marathon hiker with psychic senses, that might be true, but for me, it took two hours roundtrip, so plan accordingly.
The Museum of The Big Bend
The museum features a timeline of the entire Big Bend region’s natural and human history and cultures. From the Native Americans to the Europeans and Spanish rule until today. They have a full-scale replica of the Texas pterosaur. It’s the largest known pterosaur fossil and was found in Big Bend.
The Museum of the Big Bend is behind the Sul Ross State University campus. Entry is $5.
The Alpine Historic Tour
Alpine, Texas, was a campsite for cattle ranchers in the late 1800s before it was a town. The town grew slowly, and many of the original buildings are still in place. The few local hotels and restaurants provide maps highlighting the various historic structures so you can do a walking or driving tour.
Marfa, Texas
You can drive about half an hour to the nearby town of Marfa. Like Alpine, it’s not very big, but it has the basic requirements to be called a town: a small grocery store, gas station, a few restaurants and a few churches.
This town is hipster and more trendy than Alpine, and they’ve hosted concerts and festivals, which put them on the map. Even Beyonce has been to Marfa.
I didn’t see them, but there is a viewing platform between Marfa and Alpine where they say you can see mysterious orbs known as the “Marfa Lights” floating through the night.
Prada Marfa
Prada Marfa is a permanent art installation on Highway 90 about 30 minutes past Marfa in the middle of nowhere. The artists Elmgreen and Dragset installed it in 2005 as a pop architectural land art project.
It looks like a real Prada store that you might find on Rodeo Drive, but it’s all fake. The merchandise inside is real, but there are only the right shoes, and the purses are cut out on the bottom, so there’s little value in stealing them.
Marathon Target
Like Prada Marfa, Marathon Target was an art installation that sits about 15 miles outside of Alpine in between it and Marathon. I say it was because, sadly, the only remains of it are a concrete stump and some fake flowers left in memory. Nobody is sure what exactly happened to Target. One day, they say, it was gone as mysteriously as it appeared.
Big Bend
Drive 80 miles south of Alpine on Highway 118 and enter Big Bend National Park, 1100 square miles of desert mountain wonderland.
You can also visit Historic Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory, home to the world’s third most powerful telescope within an hour’s drive.
Read more stories about Texas here.
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