Fort Peña Colorada (Red Rock)

The post drew its water from Peña Colorada Springs, named for the nearby Rainbow Cliffs; peña colorada is Spanish for colored rock. Prehistoric peoples camped at the springs long before they became a rest stop on the Comanche Trail, and in 1859 Lt. William Echols stopped here with the army's experimental camel train. The water rises where the creek crosses hard Caballos novaculite. Deep grasses once fed pronghorns and bighorn sheep until heavy cattle grazing changed the range, and many of the springs now lie under a lake.

What the plaque says

Fort Pena Colorada (Red Rock) Established in 1880 as a means of preventing Indian raids into Mexico. Raided by Apaches in 1881. Abandoned in 1893 after Western Texas had been permanently cleared of Indians.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Big Bend — 26 mi
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.

More markers nearby

• Marathon — 5.1 mi
• Los Caballos (in core of the Ouachita Structural Belt) — 6.1 mi
• Colonel Lewis Given Harman — 6.5 mi
• Denuded Ouachita Rock Belt — 18 mi