Happy New Year! Though it feels like spring here right now, I thought I'd reminisce about the winter we experienced over the holidays. We went to one of our favorite places - the Davis Mountains. They're in far west Texas, north of the towns of Marfa and Alpine, and northwest of Big Bend National Park.

When we arrived, snow and "ice fog" had just started roll in, and it made for a less-than-ideal mini-hike, which we took immediately. Who knew that those conditions would hang around for most of our trip?

We stayed at Indian Lodge, which is located in Davis Mountains State Park. The original part of the lodge (which we always stay in) was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was established by FDR to put many young men to work, and I learned that at that time many of Texas' state parks had just been established but there was no money to build structures. So the CCC built many of the beautiful cabins found within those state parks.

For Indian Lodge, the CCC made their own adobe bricks, cut posts from the area, and built much of the furniture that is still in use today.

The cane used on the ceilings came from Boquillos Canyon, down Big Bend way.

We were there to do some hiking, see some wildlife and for me to check out the plant life. The wildlife was a bit sparse. I guess they preferred to stay warm as I did. We didn't see the usual javelinas but did see some mule deer and a few birds (canyon wren, red-naped sapsucker, mountain chickadee, towhees and phainopepla were some of the "good" ones for you birders). And we saw many plants endemic to the area.

The cholla is a very common cactus of the area.

There was a beautiful madrone tree in the courtyard of the Lodge. Though you can't really see it here, the berries are bumpy, and if you stretch your imagination, they can be said to resemble strawberries from whence they get a common name of "strawberry tree."

Madrone trees are probably more famous for their peeling bark.

I learned from a park ranger that most of the oak trees within the park are hybrids between the Emory oak and the gray oak. Interesting (in a geeky way).

Havard agave (Agave havardiana) is the common agave in the area. I saw them mostly near the bottoms of hills.

Why do we love this area so much? Many reasons - the wide-open skies, interesting high desert flora and fauna, friendly people. It seems the Wild West past is always simmering just beneath the present there. I have much respect for those who have been able to make a living out there.

It can be a hard place to live, and there was much evidence of that from the wildfires that terrified the people and ravaged the area this past spring. That's not fall colors in the photo, it's burnt trees.

But we'll be back. And if I can get a little time, maybe I'll do a post about Marfa, an interesting place!

Meanwhile in the garden, though the weather is balmy I know winter is here from the winter birds: dark-eyed junco, white-throated sparrow, cedar waxwings, tons of robins, and soon to arrive ... the American goldfinches!

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2012. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.