Looking southwest over the Chihuahuan Desert from Skyline Drive in Davis Mountains State Park.

Last week 30 or so Texas Master Naturalists from all over Texas converged on the Davis Mountains for five days of exploration and education. Our trip organizer, Donna Cole, set up a wonderful itinerary with plenty of interesting activities as well as free time to pursue other interests. Some of us camped and some roughed it in the Indian Lodge. Joy and I got there a few days early so we could visit some other areas south of the Davis Mountains such as Presidio and the River Road along the Rio Grande. We were very fortunate to get to know some wonderful Master Naturalists from various parts of the state that we wouldn’t normally see except perhaps at the state convention. Thanks very much to all of you. You made the trip very special.

We had a fabulous evening with Kelly Bryan who is one of the foremost experts on hummingbirds in the world. He showed us how to identify the variety of hummingbirds that live in or visit the Davis Mountains. And the Davis Mountains are the hummingbird capital of the universe. See his wonderful web site here.

We visited the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center which is a facility of the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute including a desert botanical garden, a cactus and succulent greenhouse and interpretive exhibits. The group split so some of us could hike the Modesta Canyon trail while others visited the gardens and greenhouse. The hike was led by local Master Naturalist, Steve Elfring, who did a wonderful job of explaining the local geology, flora and fauna.

And finally we visited the Davis Mountains Preserve which is a 33,000 acre preserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. It is surrounded by another 100,000 acres that The Conservancy holds conservation easements on. Our hosts were John Herron, Director of Conservation and John Karges, Director of Field Science for the Texas chapter of The Conservancy. Both of these gentlemen are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about nature and conservation of our natural treasures. They were also more than willing to share their knowledge with us. It was an honor to walk the Davis Mountains Preserve with them.

To see just a few of my pictures from this trip please go here. I normally don’t include so many images on one of these updates but I just had so many things I wanted to share. The Davis Mountains and the Big Bend area are just so photographically opulent. Please tolerate it this time.