Fort Davis Trail

Comfort Castle Location: Fort Davis, Texas

Adventure Location: Ft. Davis NP, Texas

There was a trail at the NP that had been on my To Do List for several years. It is now an accomplishment instead of a wish. Here is the map of the route. Start at my finger and walk the loop clockwise until you come down the cliff to “You Are Here”.

The trail up the cliff onto the rim is very anticlimactic and almost boring. Then it gets to the top and things get a lot more interesting. This trail will test your balance, ankles, knees and if you are not careful, how tough your skin is against thorns from the bushes. As the well defined trail winds around on the rim there are several good vistas of the fort below and the town. Eventually you come to the interesting part.

Suddenly for the rest of the trail you will be in and out of the rocks and boulders. Ankle twisting spots abound. Places to fall badly are frequent so take your time, drink water often and enjoy the outing. It is less than two miles round trip. The drought has most of the vegetation in a state of death. One cactus was making a decent try at producing flowers.

The trail winds through narrow sections of boulders and lava flows again and again. It definitely does not let you get bored. Be very careful with your steps or your bottom may get to test the hardness of the rocks.

At the top of the ridge is an overlook of the whole fort. The sign explains the layout of some of the buildings on the grounds below.

Now you can understand why some of the buildings and foundations are skewed to each other. By the way the Truck is waiting patiently in the right hand row of vehicles and is the closest vehicle to this end.

You thought the previous part of the trail was tricky; you are in for a treat. From here all the way to the bottom it is a lot more treacherous than before. You almost immediately are staring down a very steep “trail” with handrails. The handrails were a very welcome addition since the footing is very loose gravel.

After fighting the trail forever it seems that you must be nearly at the bottom.

Nope there is still plenty of the trail in front of you. The cliff is so steep that the trail has to switchback several more times before letting go of you. It was definitely a great trail for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.