Want to Experience the Ultimate Long Weekend? Head to West Texas

Day 2: Marfa

Many of the town’s permanent residents start their mornings at Do Your Thing coffee shop, with espresso, avocado toast, and people watching. You should do the same, and once you’ve had your caffeine fix, head out on foot to absorb the pastel shades and contours of the town’s structures, and visit funky shops like Cobra Rock and Mano Mercantile. When the sun gets low in the west, head to the Capri for chef Barnette’s pre-Columbian cuisine, with dishes like watermelon radish salad and turkey mole. After dinner, try for a viewing of the Marfa lights: mysterious floating balls of luminous color visible east of town that may be reflections of distant headlights but can seem otherworldly in the desert. Or head to the mangy but irresistible Lost Horse Saloon for one last Ranch Water: tequila, lime, and mineral water. 

Day 3: Balmorhea, Alpine, Marathon

Depart Marfa by heading north through former military town Fort Davis to Balmorhea State Park, where the Civilian Conservation Corps built the world’s largest spring-fed pool during the Great Depression. The park has modest rooms to rent and places to camp, but it’s the year-round-73-degree water in the Beaux Arts–style basin that makes Balmorhea worth a stop—and a dip—particularly since oil and gas development may destroy the park and pool in the near future. Take advantage while you can. 

Loop back south through Alpine and check out Cheshire Cat Antiques, which has vintage Hudson’s Bay and Navajo blankets, Native American silver jewelry, and other southwestern treasures. From there, head to Big Bend Brewing Co., perhaps the most remote brewery in the United States, to sip its locally made beers. In that same craft spirit, but dating to 1905, is Big Bend Saddlery, a dream emporium for custom-tooled leather—everything from photo albums to cellphone belt clips, as well as cowboy bedrolls and, of course, saddles. Spend the night in southwestern luxury at the Gage Hotel, in the town of Marathon, the gateway to 800,000-acre Big Bend National Park. The hotel has a ranching motif, complete with cowhides as rugs and a restaurant that serves elk-and-buffalo meatloaf and stuffed quail. 

Day 4: Big Bend National Park

Nowhere is the West Texas landscape more spectacular than in Big Bend National Park, where the Rio Grande slices through canyons and marks the border of the United States and Mexico. “It allows you the space to find yourself—the space and the solitude to discover what’s important,” says Shawn Adams, of Marfa Meat Company, who makes regular forays into the park. In addition to soul-searching, there’s also kayaking, hiking, camping, fishing, bird-watching, and stargazing. If you want to extend the trip, do it here with a paddle down the Rio Grande. Otherwise, head back to civilization through the former mining town of Terlingua (population 58) to the Chinati Hot Springs, where you can soak away sore hiking or camping muscles. Once owned by Donald Judd, the Chinati Springs are modest but pleasantly tranquil, and are another place from which to explore the desert on foot or bike. Once the dust is washed off in the springs, it’s a five-hour haul back to El Paso and your flight home.