An RV Stop West of the Pecos – Marathon Texas

Just a little ole place in the middle nowhere.  That about sums up Marathon, Texas, population 430.  It was established in 1885 as a stop on the San Antonio to El Paso railroad.  The train still goes thru about 4-5 times per day, but it doesn’t stop in Marathon anymore.  Now its a stop over point for tourists on their way to Big Bend National Park.  It sits about 60 miles south of Fort Stockton and about 60 miles north of the park entrance.  All that’s here is a motel, small RV park, hotel, bar, grocery, and two gas stations.  A place of splendid isolation!

We stopped here on our way to Big Bend to do some last minute laundry, refuel, and enjoy the beautiful desert vista’s.  Marathon sits in a large basin with mountains in the distance.  It’s classified as a Class One Dark Sky place.  That’s as dark as it gets which makes it one of the best places for star gazing.  The owner of the Marathon Motel and RV Park is a star gazer and has a couple big telescopes for viewing at night.  Its a big sky type of place and the stars are awesome.  On the motel web site there’s a gallery of night time star pictures.

The RV park is a nice place to pause while in the Big Bend area.  The RV sites are basically a gravel parking lot with full hookups, cable TV, and wifi.  The views are great from each site.  There’s a beautiful courtyard with a fire place and benches.  Its so nice to sit around this at night and compare travels with some of the other RVer’s.  This place is a steal at $22.50 per night.

The Gage Hotel is the major attraction in town,  Its a historic place that is now a deluxe upscale western hotel with a pool, bar, and fine restaurant.

I like it our here in west Texas.  There’s nothing but beautiful sky and distant mountain vista’s.  You can see for 15 miles.  Its warm, dry, and high up (elevation 4,000 ft).  Splendid isolation describes it well.  So different from where we live back east.  Here’s some pictures I took while we spent a couple days in Marathon.