We lived in Alpine Texas in the years after we both got out of the Air Force. Alpine is a small ‘college’ town in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. At an altitude of around 1 mile the climate was pretty good with some snow during January and February. My undergraduate Alma mater, Sul Ross State University, is located in Alpine, and was one of the ‘gateways’ to Big Bend National Park. This was our backyard for camping, climbing, backpacking and canoe trips, as well as the many field trips as a Geology Major.
Most of the scenery is of volcanic in nature from some serious ancient volcanic activity, over much older limestone. Faults and deformation type structural features are sort of the norm as well. Bottom line is that if you like Geology you will like West Texas.
These pictures show just some of the scenery in Big Bend National Park.