Road Runner Tour, Day 12 & 13

We left Terlingua Ranch a day early to move to Alpine, the largest city near Big Bend NP.  (We had seen most of the Big Bend sights and were tired of the long drive to and from the ranch,)  We drove several hours north, arriving around one o'clock.  Alpine is the home of Sul Ross State University, which overlooks the central district.  They also have a several walking routes, one that passes by the historic buildings (constructed circa 1880s to early 1900's), a second route that goes by 44 murals of various sizes painted on the city's buildings.  We picked up the guides for both and walked around.  Attached below are photos of many of the murals.

Name the Country Music Stars

Even the dumpsters are painted

After checking in to our hotel for the night, Betsy and I went out to explore the Sul Ross State University campus and neighborhood.

The main Administration Building - a very impressive red brick with large porticos.  There are similar sized buildings for Science, Fine Arts, and Student Union.

After leaving the campus, we walked around a golf course, seeing this fellow.

And crossing a "Texas bridge."  Note the Flood Gauge in the middle of the span.

Today, we left Alpine for the drive to Guadelupe National Park, stopping at the Pine Springs Visitor Center for an orientation.  Then we moved to Frijole Ranch History Museum for a snack and a short stroll to Manzanita Spring.  We also toured through an early ranch house.

View to El Capitan (far left), Guadalupe Peak (mid left), and the mountain range.  The mountains are part of marine fossil reef that formed 260-270 million years ago.  It is part of a 400-mile long horseshoe shaped Capitan Reef.

More of the Range to the north of previous photo.

Frijole Ranch Historic Museum, sited at an early ranch house, built by the Rader Brothers (the range behind the house is named Rader Range).

Rader Range and view of a canyon that probably is a source of water for one of the several springs that comes out in the foothills.