This past weekend, I traveled to Marfa, TX to celebrate my friend’s birthday. Since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to visit; however, the opportunity had never presented itself until now. For those unfamiliar, the town is a fairly famous art community (equipped with several galleries despite its population of about 2000) known for its food, architecture, art, and the mysterious “Marfa lights.”
We stayed at the El Cosmico campgrounds, which turned out to be more of an adorable commune, really. My boyfriend and I rented the reasonably-priced safari tents for $60 a night, which came equipped with a platform bed, lighting and electricity outlets, and towels. The amenities included toilets, showers, hammocks, a community kitchen (with a fridge, grill, and more), and an outdoor amphitheater for local music festivals. The staff was very accommodating, especially considering our 3am arrival.
The El Cosmico lodge
A few of the yurts and tents (mine is the safari tent in the back)
The interior of our safari tent. The lantern was made out of recycled cans
The El Cosmico community kitchen
For the first day, we hit up several of the local attractions (to be covered in the following post), and at around 3pm we retired to the hammocks. Unlike most of Texas, Marfa’s temperatures hover around a bearable 90° during the day, and fall to about 50-60° during the night. Everyone grabbed their summer reading books (mine was The Stranger by Albert Camus) and laid down to read and nap. Just as we began, however, a summer shower moved in. We put away our books but continued laying in the hammocks as cold rain filtered through the treetops and cooled us off. I ended up falling asleep, and woke up about an hour later with a light sunburn across my face, chest, and arms (which has since turned tan, thankfully).
After dinner (grilled bratwurst, chili, beans, and beer), we drove east of Marfa to witness the Marfa lights. For those unfamiliar, the lights are a famous phenomenon reported about 30 times per year, usually during the summer, since the 1940s. Despite their sporadic occurrences, we were very lucky to catch a wonderful display of them. After dusk, the lights appear along the horizon in the mountains. The size, frequency, color, and behavior of the lights vary: some blip in and out in the same spot; some fade out very quickly while others burn for minutes at a time; some are yellow, others red or white; some move and some are completely stationery; some are large while others are very faint. Although many of them can be dismissed as automobile headlights, many of them still remain unexplained (though scientists postulate that they result from atmospheric pressure). The lights can be viewed best from the official viewing platform – a deck out in the countryside devoid almost COMPLETELY of light pollution, about 20 minutes from any town.
Those who don’t get to see the lights will see a BEAUTIFUL display of stars from the viewing platform. We saw two satellites orbiting earth, the Milky Way, Pluto, and an alignment of Venus, Mars, and Saturn. Also, in the large ranch field in front of us, we saw a shooting star probably about half a mile out. It burned bright green before bursting into flames and disintegrating. The display was so beautiful that all of the observers applauded.
After the Marfa lights, we returned back to the campgrounds to play drinking games and celebrate summer.
Resident spider (there were so many of these huge, hairy ones around – I’m not sure of the species)
More to come within the next few days!
August 10, 2010 at 12:09 am
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damn, i really wanna go to marfa now. this campground looks like a great place to stay, thanks!
August 10, 2010 at 1:32 pm
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This place looks AMAZING! xoxo
August 10, 2010 at 7:35 pm
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wow, i don’t think i’ve ever seen anything like this before. what an amazing place to stay!
August 11, 2010 at 6:23 am
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Why on earth did you end with that spider photo! Now I have the itchies. :(
Haha, anyway, it seems you have fun! I’m glad you got to go. Funny how I lived my entire life in TX and only just now heard of Marfa through your posts about it. I hope you got some pics of the lights! Unexplained phenomena is the best. :)
Those tents look awesome! I may rethink my fear of camping. :)
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August 11, 2010 at 11:51 pm
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oh my goodness, this is place looks AWESOME! (besides the spiders;)) i’m definitely bookmarking this place if i ever visit in the future.
August 14, 2010 at 4:17 am
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You didn’t stay in the Yurt?! I totally would have stayed in the Yurt! I made felt the same way that the Mongolians make felt for their Yurts! Yurts are awesome! Yurt yurt yurt yurt! :D
August 15, 2010 at 8:53 pm
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Great narrative! I’ve been to Marfa before but didn’t see much of the ‘rural’ community. (I was focused on working on tourism development in the city itself.) One great memory I do have is driving out to the middle of nowhere and just watching the stars for a couple hours. Absolutely gorgeous.
August 18, 2010 at 5:16 pm
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i have never been to tx but this looks really cool.