Traveling Through West Texas

Marfa Mystery Lights, Art and Beer

We began our road trip heading north west with Marfa, Texas in mind. This was our first stop not only because of the mysterious Marfa lights, but also because this small, artsy town was recommended to us a number of times. The drive from Austin to Marfa was filled with flat landscapes full of oil fields and windmills – not much to write home about.

The town of Marfa has had many lives. Founded in 1883 as a railroad water stop for the trains that chug through town, it later held the Chemical Warfare Brigades, Marfa Army Air Field, and a prisoner of war camp – all of which have since closed. Marfa then became known for their booming art scene and mysterious lights.

Part of Marfa’s artsy side is represented by two small art buildings in the middle of nowhere. Both happen to be outside the town of Marfa and on opposite ends of each other. Our first stop was to find the Tiny Target, located in Marathon, TX. This popular photo-op attraction popped up in 2016 when a former railroad structure was transformed into the world’s smallest Target store. The creator of this installation, however, is still unknown. The building isn’t well maintained and had a swarm of bees inside so it was best appreciated from outside. No dollar section or Starbucks was to be found at this store but the red shopping cart was a nice touch.

We continued driving into Marfa where we explored a bit of the town. Just as we were pulling in a summer rain storm hit. Luckily, we were near the Hotel Saint George where happy hour was happening at the bar. We enjoyed a large margarita, buffalo chicken bites and a burger with garlic fries. Everything was delicious.

After the rain died down we were able to set up camp at Tumble In RV Park. The park is right outside of town and has a cool, old RV as a self-check in kiosk. It was one of the cheaper options for tent camping ($25 for two people) and had bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and Wi-Fi.

Since we had some time before sundown we drove to the town of Alpine where Big Bend Brewery is located. Their hefeweizen was the 2018 World Beer Cup Gold award winner. After getting some suggestions from a few locals we ended up ordering a flight. Our four pours were the 22 Porter, the Alpine White, the La Frontera IPA and of course the Hefeweizen. We also tried their raspberry seasonal which was delicious. Personally, we would recommend the Alpine White, but all of them were very good.

Once the sun went down we drove to the Marfa Lights Viewing Center to see what the mysterious lights were all about. Looking out onto the horizon, small, white dots similar to stars begin to move. They appear then disappear, revolve around each other, dance and move around. They also changed colors, we saw red and blue. The lights were discovered in the 19^thcentury and still awe people today. They appear randomly throughout the night despite the season or weather. The area which they frequent is above uninhabited, difficult to traverse land. Though these lights have been studied by scholars, there is no proven theories as to what they are. It was a strange and eerie sighting and not something we expected to witness. Needless to say, it was a very cool experience and is something you should look into if visiting Marfa.

Here is a short video Joe took of the lights. If you look closely you can see the lights blink on and off and move in weird patterns.

Before leaving town, we stopped at the Chinati Foundation to explore the sculptures by Donald Judd. In 1971 Judd, a New York City minimalist artist, moved to Marfa to offset city life. In 1976 he purchased two ranches so he could increase the scale of his work. He later purchased a decommissioned military base, known as Fort D.A. Russell. Judd then transformed the numerous buildings left from the army fort into art spaces to display permanent works of art. We ended our day in Marfa walking around his vast field filled with various forms of concrete slab sculptures.

About twenty miles out of town, on our way north, we came upon a tiny, nearly abandoned town called Valentine. A little way past that is the second art installation we were looking for – the Prada Marfa. This building was constructed in 2005 as a pop art installation. The store is never actually open for business but it is fully stocked with merchandise hand-picked by Miuccia Prada from Prada’s 2005 fall/winter collection.

The small, rustic and artsy town of Marfa has a charming yet odd vibe filled with travelers passing through. Our stay in west Texas was a good start to our trip but we were excited to continue on and get out of Texas!

Fun Fact: James Dean’s final film, “Giant” (also starring Elizabeth Taylor and Dennis Hopper) was filmed in and around Marfa. The cast and crew stayed at the historic Hotel Paisano during filming. Dean died in a car accident before the film was released.