Restaurant

We decided to stay at Playa Santispac at Bahia Concepcion. It is one of the more popular of the 12 beaches that line the Bay, but it is large enough to fit everyone. We parked our rig right on the beach. Costs 100 pesos a night or about $5. No cell service here. Once again, the north winds followed us here making it too cold to swim or do any water sports despite the hauntingly beautiful and clear, blue water.

One day we drove with our new friends Hannah and Ty to check out a couple of the other beaches. We drove to playa El Requeson. It is a small beach and there is a cool sand spit that you can walk onto a little island. With the strong north winds, this beach is even more exposed than at Playa Santispac though. We also checked out Playa Coyote. There are a lot of snowbirds that come here and set up shop for several months. They take up quite a bit of space, but there is some room. This beach seemed to be a little more protected from the north winds and would be a good choice if you had to camp when the north winds were strong.

One morning we decided to go kayaking before the winds got too strong, While kayaking, we found the hot spring/hot tub that’s fed by the ocean. Unfortunately, the tide was too low and it was way too hot to get in. After kayaking we created a wind barricade with the kayak and RV and laid out in the sun a while.

There are a few snowbirds here and two restaurants. Ava’s restaurant and Armando’s. Armandos has a happy hour from 4-5 where you can get 2 for 1 margaritas for $1.50…niccceeee and strong too. We didn’t eat at the restaurants. Ava’s has wifi and showers you can pay to use, however we didn’t utilize these either. One convenient feature about staying at the beaches along the bay are the people that come around selling various groceries out of their trucks. We bought fresh fish, scallops, fruit, veggies, bread and cakes.

Despite the gorgeous scenery we decided to only stay three nights. The wind was very strong and, well, annoying. We are going to Ciudad Constitucion next as a halfway stopping point to La Paz for CAR-NA-VALLLLL!!!

Sunrise on the Bay of Concepcion at Playa Santispec

Tim, Hannah and Ty. We hiked the sand spit that connects the little island with Playa Requeson

Pano shot with me taking a pic of Playa Santispec

Davis Mountain State Park is a quiet Texas state park nestled in the Davis Mountains(surprise!). It has 100 sites, sites with water($15), some with water and electric($20), and some with sewer hookups and cable also($25). They also charge a $6 per day per person entrance fee. If you’ll be in Texas a while it’s well worth it to buy their state park pass which waves the entrance fees. The sites were fairly spacious and open with nice views of the mountains. The water and electric sites were back-in only while the ones with sewer were pull through. The odd thing about the layout was that the dump station was on the wrong side when leaving the campground. So you had to go around the loop to get it on the correct side and then go around the loop again to get out (weird). A small town with groceries, gas, restaurants etc. was only 5 miles from the campground. Be sure to pick up some Julio’s ”Hotter than hell chips” while in town for some of the best tortilla chips I’ve had.

There were a number of both hiking and biking trails. One of them ran from the campground 3 miles to Fort Davis National Monument. The fort was built pre civil war and a number of the buildings had been fully restored including furniture so you could see how the soldiers lived back then. If three miles is too far to hike you could also drive up skyline drive and take a shorter one mile hike or just drive the main road straight to the fort.

Skyline Drive was quite a nice scenic little road. It was very steep with a number of switchbacks like a hiking trail that took you to the top of two different peaks overlooking the campground and the town. It also allowed us to get the reception on our phones that was lacking down in the campground. It was a great place(and popular) to come and watch the sunset and then view the stars. We rode our bikes up the first night there and it had us huffing and puffing. Also available close by is the McDonald Observatory that offers star parties($15pp) on Friday and Saturday where you get to see what a REAL telescope can do.

If camping isn’t your thing they also offered rooms in an “Indian Lodge” along with a restaurant.

Five star scale rating
Scenery – ****
Campground – ****
Campsite – ***
Recreation – ****