This document outlines an itinerary and provides logistical details for a Texas road trip from March 20-23rd. The trip will begin in Houston and travel to Fredericksburg, Kerrville, El Capitan, Fort Davis, and end in Big Bend National Park. Key points emphasized include packing light with one backpack each, meeting early at 9:30am in Houston to begin the drive, and highlights of the destinations along the route which feature German culture, peach orchards, scenic rivers, hiking trails, historic military sites, and stunning desert landscapes in Big Bend.
2. KEEP IN MIND BEFORE THE TRIP
• ONE BACKPACK PER PERSON ONLY FOR
CLOTHING AND TOILETRIES (SPACE IS
LIMITED)
• WAKE UP EARLY!!! WE SHOULD LEAVE
HOUSTON AROUND 9:30AM
• BRING TWO PAIR OF SHOES (CASUAL AND
SNEAKERS)
• WE WILL ALL BE MEETING AT ONE LOCATION
AND LOAD IN THE VAN. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE
A RIDE THAT EARLY MORNING.
3. Fredericksburg
•
•
3hrs 42min from Houston (238mi)
Fredericksburg, Texas, is located in the
Texas Hill Country, 80 miles west of Austin,
and 70 miles north of San Antonio. Home to
a thriving German community,
Fredericksburg, Texas welcomes visitors
from all over the world who want to
experience the beauty of the Hill Country,
and stay at a romantic Hill Country Bed and
Breakfast!
Gillespie County produces 40% of all the
peaches grown in the state of Texas.
Roadside stands line many of the roads
leading into Fredericksburg, Texas,with a
major concentration along Highway 290
between Fredericksburg and Stonewall and
along Highway 87 South. The peach season
in the Texas Hill Country runs from midMay through the first week of August in a
normal year. Several orchards offer pickyour-own. The Hill Country Fruit Council
produces a listing of its members in a
brochure entitled Fredericksburg Stonewall
Peaches
4. Kerrville
27min from Fredericksburg (25mi)
• Next stop is Kerrville, which you
can reach by looping around on
Highway 16 or cutting straight to
it on 173. Stop for a meal at Billy
Gene's Restaurant (1489 Junction
Hwy.; tel. 1 830 895
7377; www.billygenesrestaurant),
known for its chicken-fried steak
and its views of the Guadalupe
River. Then check in at the Inn of
the Hills (1001 Junction Hwy.; tel.
1 830 895
5000;www.innofthehills.com),
with such amenities as live
country music and an Olympicsize pool. Next door is a family
sports center with a 16-lane
bowling alley, so pack your finest
bowling shirts.
5. El Capitan
6hrs 13mins from Kerrville (431mi)
• Guadalupe Mountains
National Park is the world's
premier example of a fossil
reef from the Permian Era.
The park is known for its
extensive hiking and
backpacking opportunities in
one of the nation's most
pristine wilderness areas.
Birding, history, and many
other opportunities to learn
and have fun await visitors in
this hidden gem of West
Texas.
6. Fort Davis & Davis Mt. Park
2hrs 27min from El Captian (140mi)
• Fort Davis is one of the best
surviving examples of an Indian
Wars frontier military post in the
Southwest. From 1854 to 1891, Fort
Davis was strategically located to
protect emigrants, mail coaches,
and freight wagons on the TransPecos portion of the San Antonio-El
Paso Road and on the Chihuahua
Trail.
• Davis Mt. Park - Activities include
camping, sightseeing, nature study,
picnicking, hiking, backpacking, day
and overnight equestrian use,
mountain biking, and interpretive
programs. Attractions include
scenic drives, two scenic overlooks,
and 4 miles of hiking trails.
7. Big Bend National Park
1hr 40min from Fort Davis (95mi)
•
•
•
The rocks of Big Bend are a complex lot. Two seas,
one after another, flowed and subsided in the
region hundreds of millions of years ago, leaving
thick deposits of limestone and shale. The present
mountains, except the Chisos, uplifted along with
the Rockies, roughly 75 million years ago. Around
the same time, a 40-mile-wide trough—most of the
present-day park—sank along fault lines, leaving
the cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon to the west and the
Sierra del Carmen to the east rising 1,500 feet and
more above the desert floor. In the center, volcanic
activity spewed layer upon layer of ash into the air
and squeezed molten rock up through the ground to
form the Chisos Mountains some 35 million years
ago. Molten rock also cooled and hardened
underground later to be exposed by erosion.
Big Bend's topographic variety supports a
remarkable diversity of life, including 1,200 plant
species—some found nowhere else in the world.
People have passed through this terrain for at least
10,000 years. The human pageant in historical
times has included Apache, Spanish
conquistadores, Comanche, U.S. soldiers, miners,
ranchers and farmers, Mexican revolutionaries, and
international outlaws and bandits.
