In March of 2020 (yep), Brian and I went to explore Marfa and West Texas. We started in Alpine, made our way to Fort Davis to camp, then ended our stay at El Cosmico in Marfa.

ALPINE, TEXAS

In Alpine, we stayed at the Holland Hotel. It’s located right on the main street in Alpine, so you can easily walk around to different shops. When we visited, we walked over to the Ritchey Hotel to eat and drink a few beers, but I believe it’s closed now. That’s a bummer. It was such a cool place to chill and watch the West Texas sunset.

The city of Alpine is kinda cool. Super small, but full of incredible art. Definitely take an hour or two to just walk up and down the streets.

CHIHUAHUAN DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE

On our way out of town headed to the Davis Mountains State Park, we stopped at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. We saw they were having their annual cactus and succulent sale, so we got out and had a look around.

After shopping for plants, we did a quick little hike around the visitor center. They also have a botanical garden and the Maxie Templeton Cactus Museum. If you’re getting restless in the car, I’d for sure recommend a quick stop here to stretch your legs a bit.

DAVIS MOUNTAINS STATE PARK

We brought all our camping gear to spend one night out under the stars in Davis Mountains State Park. We started on the Montezuma Quail Trail which was right behind our campsite and head around the Indian Lodge Trail. It was all very chill – a delightful little hike. We spent the rest of our day making pancakes, coffee, and hotdogs on our little camper stove.

MARFA

To balance out the tent camping, we booked an airstream at the Instagrammer glamping paradise, El Cosmico. I’d always wanted to stay here and I have to say, I DID get a ton of great photos. The airstream wasn’t quite as posh as you might think though. It was pretty musty (moldy??) and had some soft spots in the floor. It’s not a spa resort, that’s for sure. But overall, it’s worth the stay just for the VIBES. That’s the main goal of El Cosmico – taking your cute desert influencer photos – so it was definitely worth it.

Accommodations at El Cosmico include renovated vintage trailers, safari and scout tents, Sioux-style tepees, a Mongolian yurt, and tent campsites. The property also offers several communal spaces for guests – a hammock grove, an outdoor kitchen and dining area, a community lounge and mercantile, an outdoor stage, and a reading room.

Exploring Marfa is also it’s own vibe. If you know you know. We puttered around, snapped some photos, and grabbed food where we could. The thing about Marfa is that places are open when the want to be open. You can check google and try to plan as much as you want, but in the end, that place you wanted to go to will probably be closed. That’s just how it is out there. If I had more time, I would have explored the Judd Foundation a bit more.

We did drive out to the Marfa lights viewing center (of course), but sadly, didn’t see any lights.

I also made Brian drive 26-miles out to the Prada Marfa store. Look, there’s not a ton to do in Marfa besides look at all the weird stuff and take photos (which, don’t get my tone wrong, I LOVE that), so we made the drive. We also stopped along the way and took fun photos in the middle of the street.

On our last day, March 11th, I was scrolling twitter and realized the NBA had suspended the 19-20 season because of COVID-19. With that being such a HUGE loss of money, I realized COVID was going to be a thing. Marfa shut down immediately. It makes sense, being such a small town in the middle of nowhere with little to no medical assistance. Big Bend Medical Center is probably the closest hospital and it’s 30 miles away. We ate one last meal a Dairy Queen, the only place still open, and hit the road for home where we remained.