Passport to Texas

Sotol, yucca and other desert plants cover the hillsides at Mundy’s Gap. Photo Credit: Chase Fountain

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When you think of mountains, do you think of El Paso?

Probably people don’t think of Texas as having mountains. And if they do, they think that they’re in Big Bend. But here, the Franklin Mountains are a pretty, sizable, impressive mountain range worth visiting. And, they’re right there in the city, and really easy to get to.

Melissa Gaskill visited El Paso and Franklin Mountains SP, and wrote about it for the current issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. The mountains have a rich geologic history—as mountains do—dating back to the Precambrian era; woven into that history… are the human stories.

 I do love the fact that there’s really rich history there. It’s not far from Hueco Tanks, which has that really cool rock art. There’s some rock art in this park as well, although it’s not as easy to find. El Paso is a pass between these mountains that people have been passing through for thousands of years. So, it’s also pretty cool people-history-wise.

Not everyone has mountains in their backyards, but El Pasoans do, and Gaskill hopes they explore them.

It’s literally looming over them. I don’t know how many of them take advantage of it, but I hope that maybe this article will encourage more of them to do so. Because it’s so close and it’s so cool. There’s so much there to offer, and they don’t have to drive too far to enjoy [it].

Read the article, Views Around Every Bend, by Melissa Gaskill in the January/February issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Wyler Aerial Tramway, Franklin Mountains above El Paso,  Photo credit: Laurence Parent

TPW Magazine: Franklin Mountains State Park Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Franklin Mountains State Park shares similarities to the Big Bend region, minus the isolation.

It’s big, and it’s a desert type environment, and it’s mountains and it’s remote. If you hike into the basin and up into the mountains and get away from the city, you’re out in sort of a wilderness; you can really get away from it all. And within 30 minutes you can go get a soda at a drive-through. Or a hamburger. [laughs]

Melissa Gaskill wrote about the park for the current issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. She says the park’s Wyler Ariel Tramway gives visitors a four-minute trip past 600 million years of geologic history; including some very old rocks.

Precambrian rock—more than a billion year old—that’s from the formation of the earth, pretty much. And then uplifts and faults exposed these. If you’re into geology, it’s a definite must for your bucket list.

Gaskill says once on the mountain there are plenty of hiking trails from which to choose.

I was astonished to find out how much hiking there is in the park—and how big the park is. It’s 37 square miles. And there’s more than 125 miles of trails. I really only scratched the surface—I’d love to go back and do more. But given that, I felt that hiking was the thing to do there.

Melissa Gaskill is back tomorrow.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

The day Dale Blasingame bought his Texas State Park pass. Photo credit: Dale Blasingame.

TPW Magazine: 95 Parks in 365 Days Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

A dream is a wish your heart makes. So says the song from the 1950s Disney classic, Cinderella. Perhaps the night Dale Blasingame had a dream about driving around the country—his heart was revealing its deepest wish.

I woke up that next day, and it was all I could think about—and I was coming to the end of the semester and I was about to have a break. And so I just decided to go for it. And so, I went on this trip across the entire west.

During his travels, Dale—a social journalism lecturer at Texas State University—visited national parks.

When I got home, it was one of those vacation blues type things, where I was just kind of bored. And a friend of mine suggested that I go to a state park. And, that kind of spawned the whole thing.

That thing: visit Texas’ 95 state parks in a single year. He writes about his journey in the January/February issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

I really didn’t do a ton of planning. There were a couple of times I took big, huge trips and I would hit 15 or 18 parks at one time. But it really just kind of started as: ‘Okay, here’s this one. This is the next closest one—I’m going to go there…’  I’d wake up on a Saturday morning, or I’d think about it the Friday the night before, and ask: ‘Where am I going to go tomorrow?’

Tomorrow Dale Blasingame tells us how he found a hiking buddy. Read his story, One is Not Enough, in the January/February issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

That’s our show… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Jim Remley and his new puppy, Lilly

TPW Magazine: Ducks and Dogs Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

A great hunting dog will leave an indelible mark on the heart of the hunter who owns it.

06—I hesitated to use the word love. But I don’t think there’s a better word than love for it.

David Sikes is the outdoor writer at the Corpus Christi Caller Times. He wrote about hunters and their dogs for the November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

13—I’ve been duck hunting for a few decades now. So, I’ve sat beside many, many dog owners and their beloved hunting dogs, and I’ve become fascinated just by the relationship that they have.

Sikes says these highly trained animals are also loyal family pets. But when they’re in the field, they have a job to do. And when done well, they’re a source of pride.

26—The dog owners take such a sense of pride in what the dogs can accomplish. And, of course, they only take partial credit for that. Because they give the dogs credit for their intelligence. They do. The dogs that seem to perform best have more intelligence and more heart. And just more drive than others. And most of them, like some of the subjects of this story, have a special place for those special dogs they’ve had over the decades.

Such as Jim Remley’s black lab Kareem, or Rob Sawyer’s Chesapeake, Nellie, or even Harvey Evans’ Chesapeake named Taffy that also helped him sell crackers in the 1950s. Read about all of them in David Sikes piece in this month’s Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Stephanie Salinas’ first hunt.

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This is Passport to Texas

Ten years ago I went on my first deer hunt as an observer; it’s something I’ll never forget. Last year, my colleague, Stephanie Salinas, did more than observe. She shot her first deer and wrote about it for the November 2015 issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

49- I had a lot of mixed emotions. I took Hunter Ed, and learned a lot of things. I had never shot a rifle before going out there, so I actually went to the range and practiced. So, now let’s go to the day. Yeah, there was one buck that emerged; I thought if I’m going to do this, that’s going to be the deer. It was kind of like a connection. It’s really odd to explain. I knew that he was going to be the one that I took. So, when you made that decision, and you committed–what happened when you pulled the trigger? Once I got positioned, and I knew that was the one I was going to get, as soon as I pulled the trigger, I didn’t hear anything. Everything stopped. It was a moment in time that froze. And it was just me and my breath and realizing
what had happened.

To learn the rest of the story, read Stephanie Salinas’ account of her hunt in the November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.