Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Alpine Texas, anyone familiar with this area?

My wife was there on a business trip, and it sounded like a nice little town. She saw some game in the area too. She had to drive in from Midland TX. Any comments about Alpine?

I'm no expert, but I've been through. The phrase "300 miles from nowhere" comes to mind.

That's what she said. Once you leave town, you leave town. Wish I went with her.

I thought it to be an eclectic little town. There was a guy sitting next to me at a bar wearing a top hot. I even got a cajun pizza with truffle oil on it. Very odd little place but nice.

I thought Pat told me it was their 'Alaska' town. It had that feel. It was cold, 14 degrees at night in December.

my buddy bought 400 acres out west of there, i'll get to hunt mule deer this yr.

The Marfa/Alpine area isn't bad, and yes, it's surrounded by miles of nowhere. Not that that's a bad thing. Big artsy-craftsy community and a college. It's kind of the west Tejas version of Bisbee, AZ.

Headed south is pretty.

Alpine/Ft. Stockton/etc. are remote and somewhat desolate, but a man could do worse as far as relocating/hunting goes:

Alpine is two different towns. An authentic West Texas cattlemen's town which has appealed to the "arts crowd" long enough for THAT to be authentic also. There are some real good cowboys who make a living around there. Don't know about the artists.

Big Bend Saddlery [which now belongs to good young friend of mine] is world class.

I've been getting out that way at least a couple times a year for a long time now. One of the things that strikes me as somewhat unique is that it seems ALL the cowboys in the Trans Pecos know each other, and Alpine is sort of a "clearinghouse" for information about them.

I'll be going thru there on my way down to the Longfellow in a couple of months. I'll see if I have a picture or two to post from a visit last year.

Alpine ain't the end of the world, but you can see it from there.

Aside from some good mule deer hunting, I never saw a reason to go there.

Warren Jeffs liked it to so much he built a compound out there....
But in all seriousness, it's one of the only places outside of the hill country that I liked in Texas.

I really like that country...haven't been to Alpine in a long time, but we lived in Ft.Stockton briefly when I was a kid. it is pretty much the middle of nowhere, which I like. the Davis Mountains are pretty, and they hold some big old mulies.

if you don't have your own plane, it's a long way to anywhere else, though.

There are quite a few of these around there. A fellow in Alpine makes lion traps .



These are free range on the Longfellow and it's not uncommon to see them up around Alpine as well:



These are pickups from Reagan Canyon:



The Trans Pecos has been in a severe drouth for several years and game numbers are way down, but a couple years of good rains and they will come back.

Spent a month their last summer and really enjoyed it and the Big Bend area in general. Saw a bull elk standing by a fence half way between Marathon and Alpine. Buffalo Rose is a great place to eat and drink depending on who's working the bar. Had a great nilgia steak from the King ranch at the Saddle Club, can't beat the Reata for high end eating either and the Railroad Blues has live music every night. Basically any remote town of just over 6000 people that has two saddle makers is OK in my book. Only down side would be the influx of Californians.

You guys are sayin some of the same things the wife said. She did mention that it was artsy too. I asked her a bunch about it, because it seemed like there was a dichotomy of authentic and new(comers). She did see a mule deer, antelope and a javelina. She got way out in the no mans land part (works for USGS). People seemed friendly and the food was good. Of course I asked her if she saw any "sporting goods" stores, but she said she didn't notice any. Of course she did not have much free time though. One of the other USGS guys (Texas) did talk hunting with her. I love gun friendly states/folks.

I told her that I am going to the campfire and post up Alpine because somebody will prolly comment on it...........Duh. Got to put her on and read this thread tonight.

GREAT pictures!

A friend of mine is the premier trapper in that country. These are a few of his traps:



Alpine is a pass thru one of the mountain ranges and a wagon road went all the way from Del Rio to there. A portion of this road went through the ranch I hunted for years, down below Sanderson :



It's hard to imagine making that trip with mules and wagons and you would for sure have to know the few water sources along the way :



This is a section of live water on the San Francisco Creek. It runs underground most of its length.

Spent some time south of Alpine in Terlingua on a bike trip summer before last. The term 'off the grid' and 'stark beauty' comes to mind. Most of the Big Bend country was burnt that spring and summer.

we used to hunt a place near Sanderson that had that old stage road running through it. you could still see the wagon ruts, old adobe stage stations all tumbledown, insulators for the telegraph line. always wanted to poke around one of those places with a metal detector.

the wets use the old wagon road now.

The Pres. of our Trapper Assn. lives and traps mountain lions out there. The numbers are impressive.