re: Hill Country/SA/Big Bend

The drive down River Road from Terlingua to Presidio is spectacular. You can stop at Closed Canyon for a short little hike in a slot canyon. There is a tiny gravel parking lot and its free. Just before you get to Presidio is Fort Leaton Historic Site which is interesting to check out. In Presidio there isn't much except the best enchiladas I've ever had at Oasis.....and I tried them a 2nd time about 5 years after the first time and they lived up to my memory. Its a hole-n-the-wall but definitely worth a stop. From Presidio I would highly recommend continuing west on River Road to Chinati Hotsprings. You can spend the night there and soak in the springs or just get a day pass. From there, if you have a high clearance vehicle you can take Pinto Canyon Road, a dirt road through the mountains, up to Marfa. Or you can back track to Presidio and take Hwy 67 to Marfa. Marfa is a big art town where hipsters and ranchers coexist peacefully. The movie Giant with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson was filmed in the area and you can stay at the El Paisano Hotel, a nice hotel, where those movie stars stayed. You can also just go in the lobby and check out all the memorabilia they have on display. If you are interested in modern art, you can tour the Donald Judd Chinati museum. Judd was a famous minimalist sculptor who moved his family out there in the 1970s as he was tired of NYC and remembered passing through there when he was in the Army. He bought a decommissioned military base and started filling it with his and other famous artist's work. That's why its a big artsy town now with galleries in the main town area. Ft Davis is about 20 minutes from Marfa and is more of a normal tourists town with shops that cater to tourists. There is the Chiuahuan Desert Research Center outside of town towards Alpine that is worth stopping at and checking out all the different cacti. They also have an interpretive center describing the different natural aspects of the desert and there are a couple of good 1 to 1 1/2 hr hikes on their property. Alpine is the largest town in the area and nice enough but not much going on there since Harry's Tinaja closed.