Our first stop in Texas was the town of Texarkana (TXK), a twin city with Texarkana, Arkansas. TXK sits on the western side of the Texas/Arkansas border. Our purpose in stopping off in TXK was to purchase a new tire for Maria’s bike as she had suffered a tire destroying flat on our previous ride in Little Rock.
We had not planned on stopping in TXK and therefore knew little about the town other than its twin city status. When we entered the downtown area to access the bike shop we were caught off guard at how run down the town appeared. The streets were largely deserted and many of the buildings were dilapidated and vacant.
A quick online inquiry revealed that TXK has one of the highest crime rates in the U.S. and a poverty rate of 25%. As another indication of the problems the town is experiencing we found that while the bike shop was open for business, the entrance door is locked at all times and customers are only admitted after stating your business. When we brought Maria’s bike in for repair we could not help but notice that all of the shop’s inventory of bikes were chained together!
This is one of the few towns where we really felt uncomfortable and decided not to poke around other than taking some photos of street art we had passed on the way into town.
In lieu of burgers, we found a bbq joint about thirty miles south of TXK in Atlanta, Texas. The Texas BBQ was very rustic, but we would have to say the bbq was pretty dang tasty!
Atlanta, Texas was named after the city in Georgia as a number of the settlers arriving in 1871 were from the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad in the same year was a boon to the area’s main economic activity – timber (the piney woods of East Texas) as it allowed the efficient transport of lumber. The town also benefited from the discovery of oil in 1935, which greatly helped the town survive the Great Depression.
About two hours south of Atlanta sits the town of Nacogdoches. The town is considered to be the oldest town in Texas – having by founded by the Spanish in 1779. What is now the town was a Caddo Indian Settlement from approximately 800 A.D. until the early 1700s when the Spanish arrived and began building missions, displacing the Caddo.
While Nacogdoches is considered the oldest town in Texas, the bigger claim to fame is The Battle of Nacogdoches which started in 1835 and was a precursor to the Texas Revolution. At this point in history, Texas was part of Mexico, although there were many settlers from the United States residing there in addition to the Tejanos. One of the major issues the U.S. settlers had with Mexico was over slavery. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 and the U.S. settlers were dependent on slavery for their economic prosperity. Eventually, Texas seceded from Mexico (Remember the Alamo!) and was an independent republic for just under ten years. Texas was admitted as a state in 1845.
Today, Nacogdoches is an attractive town with a well preserved downtown brimming with mercantile establishments and red brick streets. The economy that once depended heavily on cotton, timber and tobacco now is centered around the Stephen F. Austin State University which brings 12,000 students to the town.
Always looking for bike trails and with several days until our camping reservation at Mustang Island SP, we detoured slightly inland to the town of Spring, which is located just north of metro Houston. The area is densely populated and covered with the usual urban/suburban sprawl that we tend to avoid. However, the trail looked interesting, and it is billed as the longest urban forested greenway in the United States. We are really glad we opted to check it out. It was a lush oasis in the middle of a crowded metro area.
After spending two days cycling on the greenway we departed Spring for Mustang Island SP (MISP) which is located a short distance from Corpus Christi. This was our first stay at the Texas shore. The camping spots were just off the beach behind the dunes and as an added bonus the beaches in this area allow vehicles to drive on the beach!
We stayed three days at MISP. We divided our time between bicycling along the shore road, walking and driving on the beach and, of course, drinking coffee and tea at Island Joe’s Coffee and Gallery (made from containers – see photos below). All in all, a good first experience at the Texas shore – our only complaint being the windy nights which curtailed sitting by the campfire.
Our next destination on the Texas State Park portion of OTR 9.0 was Garner State Park (GSP). GSP is located in the Hill Country west of San Antonio. Therefore, we felt compelled to pop into San Antonio to check out Estate Coffee Company. Estate is a small batch roaster with a minimalist espresso bar and cafe in downtown. Estate was excellent and the stop gave us a nicely timed break on the four hour drive to GSP.
The Frio River (Rio Frio) runs through GSP and provides about three miles of river access within the park. This was most fortunate for us as the weather in Hill Country was a matching set of 85s – temperature and humidity! We had luckily secured a campsite directly above the river and we were able to access the river via a five minute walk. We spent much of our two days at GSP sitting or wading in the river. P.S. While there was a feral hog alert in effect we fortunately did not encounter any of the beasts during our stay!
Seminole Canyon SP & Historic Site (SCSP) was the next stop on our journey west across South Texas. SCSP opened to the public as a state park in 1980. The land that now encompasses the park was privately owned until the late 1970s. The state purchased the land to protect and preserve more than 200 pictographs located in the canyon and caves, which date back 7000 years.
We hiked the Canyon Rim Trail which provided spectacular views of the Seminole and Presa Canyons. The rim trail leads to the park’s southern boundary at the Rio Grande River with Mexico directly beyond.
We also broke out the bicycles for some dirt riding on the Rio Grande Trail. While one of us had a minor crash (see video below) our early evening ride was lots of fun and provided beautiful views of the Rio Grande and Mexico!
Our final stop before heading to Big Bend NP (see our post Three Nights in the Backcountry) was the town of Marathon (pronounced Marathen). We made a brief stop in Marathon in March 2020 en route back to Connecticut during our pandemic-shortened trip. As with the majority of towns we traveled through on our way home, Marathon was locked down tight. With a population of just 365 it was deserted for all intents and purposes. We made a note to return on a future trip to stay at the charming Gage Hotel and check out the town.
Marathon is a straight shot west from SCSP on State Route 90. We had traveled SR90 on our 2020 trip and recalled that significant sections were not attractive, There was a fair amount of truck traffic hauling oil from the fields along 90 and a lot of Border Patrol activity. We decided to attempt to wend our way through the maze of ranch roads using our DeLorme Atlas. We also figured that we could use the east-west Union Pacific Rail Line as a rough guide. We made good progress but eventually ran into a locked gate and after considering our options decided to backtrack until we could intersect with the 90 and finish the trip on the highway. A fun adventure nonetheless!
One of the items you will become accustomed to seeing (not necessarily appreciating) driving through (and camping) farm and cattle country is the carcass pit. The carcass pit is just what it sounds like – when farm and ranch animals die (for whatever reason) they are hauled to holes that have been dug at various locations on the property and thrown into the pit to decompose.
You might go right by a pit while rumbling down a dirt road if you didn’t know that ranchers often use a skull as sign post (see photo below). In theory carcass pits need to follow state approved methods to avoid contaminating water as well as discouraging scavengers from dragging contaminated carcasses from the pit. While there are groups trying to end the practice I do not foresee that happening anytime soon – livestock mortality is a fact of life on ranches and farms.
In a future post we will share our experiences and thoughts on two cool towns in Far West Texas – Marathon and Alpine. We hope you found this post interesting and informative.
Be seeing you!
ON THE ROAD with Maria + Stephen 