Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens

The Chihuahuan Desert covers much of northern Mexico and reaches into West Texas and southern New Mexico, and this center was built to explain it. The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute was founded in 1974 as a nonprofit scientific and educational group, with offices at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. In 1978 it bought 507 acres of wooded grassland on TX-118 about four miles south of Fort Davis for a visitor center, and the center has been open to the public since 1982.

It sits in the foothills of the Davis Mountains at 5,100 feet. Visitors check in at the Powell Visitor Center for trail maps and guide booklets. The botanical gardens fill an 18-acre fenced area with plants of the desert, a pollinator garden, a native grasses exhibit and the Maxie Templeton Cactus Museum, a greenhouse of cacti and succulents. Hiking trails lead out of the gardens into the hills and canyons, and the institute has listed its garden collection in the international Hortis database.

The institute's research has covered fire ecology, restoration of damaged land, range management, plants and animals, and the archaeology of the desert. Bring a wide-brimmed hat, sunscreen and closed shoes with good tread for the trails, and check the institute's site for hours and seasons.