Into the Wild: Madera Canyon Trail

By Barbara Rodriguez

Determined to take a West Texas walk one particularly blustery spring day, my son and I blew into Fort Davis. Almost literally. A warm tail wind out of Marfa swept us up into the desert frontier town—at an altitude of 5,050 feet, the highest town in Texas. The former cavalry outpost (the fort was active from 1854-1891) usually boasts a pleasant Denver-without-snow climate, but when La Niña blasts, she gets your full attention. Grit in the teeth aside, altitude and climate make the surrounding Davis Mountains a favorite among hikers and bikers. On the other hand, rugged terrain and private land holdings mean that the most extensive mountain range in the state has only limited public access.
My 10-year-old and I had already hiked the trail between the old fort and Davis Mountains State Park (fabulous views) and declared the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute’s trails a flora fiend’s delight. This trip I’d promised Elliott he’d be one of the first to goat-leg it up the Nature Conservancy’s newly opened Madera Canyon Trail—a little thing like gusting 50-mph wind isn’t going to stop him. (In the spirit of full disclosure, trail’s-end enticements include root-beer floats at the Ft. Davis Drugstore’s famed soda fountain and a dip in the Hotel Limpia’s pool.)
We battle the wind past the Jeff Davis County Courthouse to the Nature Conservancy offices, where we meet Colin Shackelford, Stewardship Director of the Davis Mountains Preserve and our day’s companion. Hale and hearty despite a week of fighting wildfires, Shackelford is no stranger to hard work, but, he says, blazing a trail was new to him. Hired after the Madera Canyon Trail plans were in motion, Shackelford says his background in plant community ecology provided him “next to nothing” in the way of trail-building experience. For trail building, he relied on expert stonemasons (with technical rockwork experience) and direction from an expert on trail layout on loan from Big Bend National Park.

Shackelford’s team completed the task with almost 2,000 hours of volunteer labor, and Madera Canyon Trail—opened to the public in October 2007—is now ours for the tackling.
Leaving town, the hoodoos (vertical columns of basalt characteristic of the foothills) stand sentinel at The Fort Davis National Historic Site and mark our way as we wind up past Davis Mountains State Park (home to Indian Lodge, one of the state’s most unusual historic hotels). Heritage cow-calf operations still predominate the landscape, although increasing numbers of weekend and retirement cabins dot the mountainsides. Still, Fort Davis remains a soothing settlement of 1,050 souls. It’s isolated enough that a big grocery-shopping trip involves a couple of ice chests and a two-hour drive to Midland.

Sixteen miles northwest of Fort Davis, we pass the turn-off to Mount Locke (altitude 6,800 feet) and the McDonald Observatory, the third-largest observatory in the United States (the visitor’s center and scheduled star parties are not to be missed).

We see ponderosa pine in protected draws as we climb past a better-thighs-than-mine bicyclist laboring against the wind and elevation at Elbow Canyon. Beyond him, Pine Peak points into Big Sky blue; at 7,900 feet, it’s second only to Mt. Livermore, which tops out at 8,382 feet. All around us, the aptly named stands of scaly alligator juniper and piñon pine appear. Above us the elusive Southwest-ern white pine comes into view.

Crossing Madera Creek at the old Fisher Ranch, we soon turn in at the Lawrence E. Wood picnic area, acclaimed as the highest roadside park in Texas, its meadowland appeal picnic-perfect. Unbelievably, given that our visit heralds the beginning of Spring Break, the park (which is also the trailhead for the Madera Canyon Trail) is empty. As soon as he can dodge my slathering of sunblock, Elliott makes a slippery escape, visions of black-chinned hummingbirds and acorn woodpeckers calling him.
Shackelford, despite a sleepless week and a twisted ankle, is an enthusiastic hiking companion who offers a naturalist’s insights as we climb.

Strolling and jabbering, we discuss how the Davis Mountains form a “sky island” where animals and plants living above 5,000 feet are isolated from other mountain ranges by distance.

The Nature Conservancy’s Davis Mountain Preserve covers a big chunk of land, but much of it is inaccessible to the public except by prior arrangement or for special events. The Madera Canyon Trail, open to the public 365 days a year, is a fantastic entrée to vistas, fauna, and wildlife not easily seen elsewhere. While the trail offers a decent 2.4-mile loop of length, the 175-foot rise in elevation (to 6,050 feet) means it is doable, even in today’s desiccating wind. The gentle elevation is only moderately difficult, and much of the path is more like a stroll in a rough-hewn garden. When the slight climb opens up to the highland vistas, the views are jaw-droppingly beautiful.

See the full article in the February 2009 issue.

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