I have moved all geocoins I am selling to eBay. User ID: duncanresourcegroup
~DuncanClan
drg@duncanresourcegroup.com
Friday, May 29, 2009
A Southwestern Texas Adventure
Travel log: We left Big Spring, TX with a truck load of camping gear, a couple of GPS receivers, two dogs, two kids and four or five days free to explore the southwestern side of Texas. We had a couple of goals in mind when we left that included crossing off a few more counties on our geocaching Texas County Challenge (check out the map for updated counties), exploring the Woodward Ranch and finding out what those Marpha Lights were all about.
We camped at the Balmorhea State Park. I was pleasantly surprised with this small state park. Its natural spring that feeds millions of gallons of fresh, cold spring water to a swimming pool that boast turtles, catfish and a number of other fish including the pupfish, which is endangered and this state park is one of the only places in the world you can see them.
Camping here was pretty good. It is West Texas, it was hot and the wind blew…a lot. Our tents survived and we found the Balmorhea State Park a good base camp for the week’s adventures.
Woodward ranch and the search for red plume agate was quite an adventure. We drove through Alpine and showed up to the ranch around noon. We spent about five hours kicking rocks and poking around. We were actually pretty successful, finding many small “fingerlings” and one significant find that when cut right could bring two or three thousand dollars to the “adventure fund”!
On the fourth day we explored the Davis Mountains State Park and finished off the daylight hours cooking up a pot of spaghetti in the picnic area. As the sun began to set, we headed for Marpha to check out these mysterious lights. Well, there not kidding. It really is a modern day mystery. Read more about the Marpha lights and our adventure there in this article, The Marpha Lights: A Modern Desert Mystery.
We did quite a bit of geocaching, rock kickin’ and swimming. Texas has a lot of hidden locations that should be marked on any adventurer’s maps. The desert, away from city lights is always amazing at night. We had the moon set around 5 am one morning when the Milky Way was bright and visible. There were jillions of stars and universes to contemplate until the sun began to peek up, marking another hot day full of fun and exploration!
We camped at the Balmorhea State Park. I was pleasantly surprised with this small state park. Its natural spring that feeds millions of gallons of fresh, cold spring water to a swimming pool that boast turtles, catfish and a number of other fish including the pupfish, which is endangered and this state park is one of the only places in the world you can see them.
Camping here was pretty good. It is West Texas, it was hot and the wind blew…a lot. Our tents survived and we found the Balmorhea State Park a good base camp for the week’s adventures.
Woodward ranch and the search for red plume agate was quite an adventure. We drove through Alpine and showed up to the ranch around noon. We spent about five hours kicking rocks and poking around. We were actually pretty successful, finding many small “fingerlings” and one significant find that when cut right could bring two or three thousand dollars to the “adventure fund”!
On the fourth day we explored the Davis Mountains State Park and finished off the daylight hours cooking up a pot of spaghetti in the picnic area. As the sun began to set, we headed for Marpha to check out these mysterious lights. Well, there not kidding. It really is a modern day mystery. Read more about the Marpha lights and our adventure there in this article, The Marpha Lights: A Modern Desert Mystery.
We did quite a bit of geocaching, rock kickin’ and swimming. Texas has a lot of hidden locations that should be marked on any adventurer’s maps. The desert, away from city lights is always amazing at night. We had the moon set around 5 am one morning when the Milky Way was bright and visible. There were jillions of stars and universes to contemplate until the sun began to peek up, marking another hot day full of fun and exploration!
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