May 5, 2023
Chris and Heather recognize National Travel & Tourism Week with a talk about the best ways to enjoy a summer trip to Alpine and the Big Bend, from the surprisingly cool summer temperatures in the mountains, to a few choice spots to while away a warm afternoon in comfort, to enjoying the starry night skies on a deliciously cool – even chilly! – desert evening.
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Transcript for “Summer Travel to the Big Bend – National Travel & Tourism Week”:
Intro
Welcome to the heart of the Big Bend. It’s time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discussed, declare, proclaim, publicize and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.
Chris Ruggia
Hello welcome and thank you for joining us again for heart of the Big Bend. This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly, small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer.
I’m Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine, and today we are joined by everyone’s favorite Tourism Coordinator, Heather Yadon.
Heather Yadon
I’m the only Tourism Coordinator in Alpine.
Chris R
In Alpine, but I didn’t limit it.
Heather Y
Okay, okay.
Chris R
Today we’re talking about National Travel and Tourism Week.
Heather Y
Yes.
Chris R
Which is next week if you’re listening to this right when we get this out, on Friday, but that is something that was started by the US Travel Association, I believe – could be wrong about that, but it’s a nationwide recognition of the positive impacts of the tourism industry.
Heather Y
I mean, I assume that this is a kickoff of summer travel season.
Chris R
Yeah, that’s what we were thinking. So we’ll just talk about summer travel.
Heather Y
Let’s talk about summer travel.
Chris R
Alright.
Heather Y
And what there is to do here and why you should come here.
Chris R
Exactly. So first off the bat, if I’m going to go somewhere in the summer am I going to the desert where you just see people crawling across the sand, right?
Heather Y
Trying to get to water.
Chris R
Exactly. The oasis is there and they try to…
Heather Y
but it’s a mirage.
Chris R
Exactly, so why would I possibly even think about doing that?
Heather Y
Well, I think that that is probably the biggest misnomer about the desert. Whenever the rest of Texas warms up, we all get – it all gets hot in the summer. You’re in Texas, right? But in July and August, it actually starts to cool down here in the desert because of our higher elevation and our low humidity. So we have temperatures – here, the highs here are cooler by about 10 degrees compared to the major metropolitan areas of Texas.
Chris R
It’s true. Yet, it’s that dry air, the high elevation and even – so now you like you said, it’s true. It gets warm May and June. But once again, it doesn’t get warmer. If you’re sitting there in Dallas and you’re listening to this on your commute, on your way home, you can rest assured that Alpine’s cooler.
Heather Y
For sure.
Chris R
Even on a hot day. Then when the sun goes down,
Heather Y
It’s really nice. It’s really, it is very nice. And the sun does go down late, but it’s very nice and we have lots of outdoor spaces that you can enjoy in the evenings. We have music and things that happen a lot of times stuff like that’s outside. We have the theater which we’re going to talk about all the things that are going on but those are we have like really cool outdoor spaces to enjoy here in the summer too. And we also start to get hopefully pretty good monsoon rains, which offer some cool down there in late July and August as well.
Chris R
Yeah. And that’s something – I was in Austin before we came out here and what I remember about the summer weather in Austin, is that the end of the summer is just more summer, right? So you’re at the end of August, you’re going into September and it’s just getting hotter and hotter. It’s not til like mid-October or something before it starts to come off. But that edge, like you said in July as our traditional monsoon season. In the afternoons, most afternoons, the clouds roll in, sometimes it rains a little, sometimes it doesn’t, but just that little cloud cover, that little bit of moisture just takes the edge off.
Heather Y
Watching the clouds come in over the mountains, those desert rains are beautiful. The smell after the desert rain is…
Chris R
Yeah, and the thunder – the storms out here, it’s like there’s a cloud, you don’t how far away, 10 miles away or something. You see the whole storm and it’s over one mountain.
Heather Y
You’re like, “why isn’t it coming to my house?” But I’m usually thinking I don’t want to water but it’s beautiful too. And like you said, it just offers that little bit of relief and really enjoyable time to be here. We have such great things to do around here. We talk about that a lot on this show and the park is definitely going to be very warm.
Chris R
Yeah, that’s Big Bend National Park. Depending on where you are, it’s true.
Heather Y
They’ve already searched the summer hours for like the Boquillas Crossing into Mexico. That’s one of the hottest spots at Rio Grande Village. That’s very, very warm. But the Chisos Basin, the higher part of the park is going to be more comfortable. You can do early hikes if you want to, if you want to hike always pack plenty of water. If you take precautions, you can still enjoy Big Bend in the summer.
Chris R
You were mentioning elevation being the thing that keeps Alpine cool. You really see that playing out in the national park and really in the whole region, the lower the elevation, the hotter it’s going to be. Along the Rio Grande, along the river, that’s kind of lowest part of the area, so Presidio, and then like Lajitas, Terlingua – those areas during the day in the summer, those things are going to be those 10 to 15 degrees hotter than up in the mountains. Tou drive up in the when you’re in the park, you go, from Santa Elena Canyon up to the Chisos Basin. It takes you, what, 30 minutes to drive and your dropping 15 degrees.
Heather Y
Yeah and Alpine is kind of a not only good central point to stay and do all the things but a good central point for the weather of the area because it’s always going to be you can bet 10 degrees hotter or so South in about 10 degrees cooler North.
Chris R
Yeah, and we hear it every day on the radio when you hear the newscast. In the mountains and by the river.
Heather Y
Yep, you gotta give two different tips because it is such a big difference and I know that some people don’t even think to plan for that if they’re going to like Star parties at McDonald’s Observatory. You get up there at night and it sometimes it’s cold.
Chris R
Yeah, you’re in late summer and you need a jacket.
Heather Y
You need a jacket. I remember, I went one time on April 29th, it was beautiful down in Alpine. I got up there and it was snowing on the mountain. You got to be prepared for that because of the changes.
Chris R
Let’s give people the – you mentioned it a little bit already, but the best tips for – we’re here, just brought my family into town. It’s mid-June, which is kind of our warmest part. Let’s say this happens to be an unseasonably hot day. What am I going to do? First thing is start early.
Heather Y
Start early, yep.
Chris R
Because the times that are friendliest to you are the closest to dark. That’s going to be like early in the morning, it’s going to be amazingly cool and beautiful. If you’re going to do some outdoor activities,
Heather Y
That’s a great time to hike Hancock Hill here in Alpine. If you’re wanting to find our famous desk, if you want to get…you can go to the park early too, you don’t have to wait till one of the stations is open taking payment. So go into the park early and do hikes.
Chris R
We mean early. Because if it’s a really hot day, you actually want to be done if you can by, like 11 in the morning. That might be a little late, actually.
Heather Y
I would say be done by 10:00 or so.
Chris R
Yeah, plan your day so that time period of an hour before lunch until maybe dinner time, think about – you’re going to do, make sure if you want to be outside, somewhere where there’s some shade. Or just plan some indoor activities for the afternoon.
Heather Y
We do have a city pool here in Alpine that opens during the summer. That’s a great place to go for some afternoon heat relief. Balmorhea State Park is an hour away.
Chris R
Largest spring fed swimming pool in the world.
Heather Y
It is an amazing spot. Any time of year in the summer, it’s going to be busier, of course. They ask you book online. They offer a morning and an afternoon pass and you don’t have to get both to stay all day. They’re just trying to control the flow of people. So that’s important for people to know, but it is always going to be better to go ahead and book that online before you go. It’s available on their website for Balmorhea State Park, but they only have day use right now. They used to have some cabins and stuff and those are still under renovation, but that springfed pool is a great place to go for an afternoon. Beautiful drive there from Alpine through Fort Davis to Balmorhea.
Chris R
Then also there’s the Museum of the Big Bend. You can spend an afternoon easily. The McDonald Observatory Visitor Center is amazing.
Heather Y
And they have their daytime tours as well, where you can do a daytime tour, again, you have to book in advance. We’ve talked a little bit in another show, The Post south of Marathon has water, you can fish. There’s really great trees there.
Chris R
That’s actually a County Park and you take Avenue D, I believe it is. You’re right in the center of Marathon. There’s the road that goes up to the French company. You take that south about five miles, I think. When the first time you go, you’re like, am I on the right road? Because it’s a tiny little road and it ends at this County park.
Heather Y
Yes and it’s a nice little place to go for an afternoon. The Gage Gardens are beautiful and they offer some shade cover and you can walk through there if you really enjoy seeing all kinds of different flowers, they do a wonderful job of maintaining that. There’s lots of things that you can do through the area. Then, like I said in the evening, there’s going to be more stuff going on. We have the Alpine Cowboys baseball games, the field faces the right way for the sun. It sets behind you, there’s some shade cover in the seats and Alpine Cowboys baseball season is going to kick off Memorial Day weekend with a big 5K/10k run, which you can still sign up for if you want to come here and do the run. It finishes at home plate, which is pretty cool and you get hot dog and beer.
Chris R
Yeah, meet the team and everything, right?
Heather Y
And it’s also going to be Little League’s closing ceremonies here in Alpine so it’ll be a fun time for sure. Then the season kicks off, it runs through June and July. Awesome field. It won best small sports venue in Texas last year, it’s a 75 year old historic baseball field, it is gorgeous. And the games are so fun to go to.
Chris R
Yeah. It’s like stepping into the past. Small town baseball, professional baseball, in this real cozy environment.
Heather Y
So that’s a great spot. We have our outdoor amphitheater for the Theater of the Big Bend.
Chris R
That’s all through July
Heather Y
That’s in July. And what’s their show this year?
Chris R
It is the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which I understand is just hilarious.
Heather Y
Yes, they put on a great show last year with Charlie Brown and now we’re excited to see this year’s show. Again, it’s a great little outdoor amphitheater that you can enjoy our evenings in watching local theater.
Chris R
Then, of course, Fourth of July, a time people love to travel. Again, don’t be put off by, “oh, it’s going to be hot.” Because besides you want to be there at night for the fireworks.
Heather Y
Exactly. Fort Davis has the coolest Fourth of July in Texas. Theirs will be the weekend before and then Alpine’s will be on Tuesday.
Chris R
Alpine’s is always on the fourth.
Heather Y
We’ll have a parade, we’ll have vendors in the park and then followed by…There’s a doubleheader that day for the Cowboys baseball and it is earlier. Last year we were waiting for the games to get over for the fireworks. We have to wait for it to get dark of course, for fireworks, but the games were still going on, so they did change that up a little bit. All of that is great for activities to come and and enjoy during the summer.
Chris R
End of July we have Viva Big Bend, 26 through the 30th.
Heather Y
That is our huge music festival. It is so much fun. You buy a wristband, it gets you into all the shows.
Chris R
That’s four towns. I think Presidio’s going to have some music this time. So that’s five towns then. We’ve got Presidio, we’ve got Lajitas – no, Terlingua, Starlite Theater. Fort Davis, Marathon, Alpine, and Marfa. Almost every stage in all of these towns has music.
Heather Y
Which is why this is so unique is because you’re not going to like a field to watch a music festival.
Chris R
It’s not a huge crowd.
Heather Y
It’s at all the venues that hold music all the time. So you’re never going to have a ton of people at a show. If you want to stay in just one town, you could do that. You can travel between them. There is some shuttles to help with that and right now you actually have a chance to win. If you go to our website visitalpinetx.com, you can win VIP tickets to Viva Big Bend. I encourage everyone to check that out for sure. Then we have another music event coming up in August.
Chris R
Yep, just right after that. This is the second time they’ve had Fiesta 1888 on historic Murphy Street. This is an interesting series that they’re doing because they’re bringing Tejano Legends to come and play free concerts in Alpine. Last year, it was Little Joey La Familia and Ruben Ramos.
Heather Y
It was amazing.
Chris R
It really was. This time Augustine Ramirez La Ley de Tejas is going to come.
Heather Y
Good job on that name.
Chris R
I do my best, I really try.
Heather Y
Also in August we have the Big Bend Ranch Rodeo, which is a huge ranch rodeo. It brings in competitors from all over the country, 16 teams compete in that. That is a fundraiser for the Sul Ross Rodeo team. Again, the actual main show in a ranch rodeo is in the evening. That starts at 7:00 and the sale arena is completely covered. So it’s really nice and like a breeze blows through there. I’ve never sat in that rodeo, which I’ve gone every year, and felt like it’s hot. Like I said before, we have lovely stuff going on all the time, we have music regularly. We’re a music-friendly city. You can find music here about five nights, guaranteed, five nights a week. Old Gringo has music all the time. That’s one of our venues. We have the Granada Theater open again and they’re doing all kinds of special stuff.
Chris R
Yeah and let’s shout out to the Granada at Viva Big Bend. This is the first Viva Big Bend since the Granada has reopened and so we’re going to finally have headliners back in the Granada.
Heather Y
We are excited because we are supporting that. We’re welcoming that for sure. The Granada does like even in the middle of the week they’re having trivia night, they’ll have a little bazaar sometimes. They do all kinds of different stuff – music night. So that’s a great place. You talked about the Museum of the Big Bend. They have a new addition opening this summer that people are going to be really interested to see.
Chris R
The grand opening of the new addition is going to be in June. Go to MuseumoftheBigBend.com and you can get the dates and find about tickets to the big Gala opening. If you want to see that or come the next day and everything is free.
Heather Y
There’s all kinds of stuff going on for that. There’s just always stuff going on, like this weekend alone in downtown Alpine, we have Cinco de Mayo. They’re calling it the downtown hoedown where it’s going to be like food and games. There is a salsa competition at the Granada. That’s a fundraiser for the Humane Society, that’s music and salsa and a live auction, the Big Bend Community Chorale is having a concert on Friday night. There is always something to do here.
Chris R
Yep, exactly. You can find out what it is when you get to town. Stop in at The Visitor Center, because Heather puts together, a list every week of what’s going on right now. So you can find out what’s happening tonight if you only have the one night in Alpine or you’re here for the weekend, you can see everything there is to do.
Heather Y
It is also available on our website at visitalpinetx.com.
Chris R
Yeah and the last thing to mention because we were talking about summertime and it being so much more comfortable at night. Speaking of the night we have to mention again and again and again the greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve, which is the largest in the world. The only protected dark sky area that crosses an international border, because there’s some of Mexico is also included in it. This is amazing to me: the night skies nationwide are getting brighter at a rate of almost 10% a year. 80% of North Americans cannot see the Milky Way and from where they live.
Heather Y
It dropped the last two years here.
Chris R
It got darker, yeah. That’s part of what the Reserve does. It makes that the working group we have to continue to measure and to take steps to ensure the skies stay dark and then measure to make sure that happens. They got the information back and it showed it’s working.
Heather Y
The Visitor Center got certified as a dark sky compliant building with our new lighting that we did there and it’s still so bright at night there. I mean, you can still see plenty. We could have events out there at night and it’s just facing it down in the right direction. It makes such a big difference.
Chris R
This has nothing to do with traveling in the summer, but let’s just encourage everybody, no matter where you live, to look up night-sky friendly lighting and try it.
Heather Y
Even going on right now in Texas, look up your area because you need to turn your lights off for the birds migration. That’s happening right now.
Chris R
So yeah, you save so much money and also eyestrain honestly. People think I need a bright light shining out to cover my whole property. When, in fact, what you need is to cover the top and sides of that light so you can actually see your property and your so much safer for so much less money and less eyestrain on your neighbors.
Heather Y
The actual City of Alpine website has great information about the lights if people want to look at that. McDonald Observatory has a ton.
Chris R
Yeah, we have to blame Steven Hummel for that little rant about lighting. It’s his job to teach us.
Heather Y
It’s made such a big difference here and you have amazing places to see the stars here that you are not going to see anywhere else. That’s a great draw.
Chris R
When you travel near summer, do not miss the opportunity to look up.
Heather Y
The observatory’s not as busy as this in the summer either. Because it’s not a busy time of year here, you can book star parties easier.
Chris R
So that kicks off next week, National Travel and Tourism Week with come to Alpine in the summer.
So anyway, thanks Heather, for coming back. Thank you for joining us for Heart of the Big Bend every other week. You can get more information about Heart of the Big Bend at visitalpinetx.com/podcast or search for Heart of the Big Bend on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast apps. And for all of you guys, listening to us on KALP/KVLF radio in Alpine, we’ll see you in two Fridays.
Outro
You’ve been listening to the heart of the Big Bend. Hope you liked what you heard and that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Ben has to offer. See you soon, partner.