Rebecca Gale Telescope Park
Check pricesAn outdoor telescope park behind the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center, known for its public Star Parties.

Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A West Texas state park built around a huge spring-fed pool where you can swim, snorkel and scuba dive in clear desert water.
9207 TX-17 · Toyahvale, TX
Balmorhea State Park centers on the San Solomon Springs pool, a 1.3-acre basin up to 25 feet deep that the Civilian Conservation Corps built in the 1930s. Spring water flows through at 72 to 76 degrees year-round, so the pool needs no chlorine. You can swim, snorkel or scuba dive alongside small fish, and a restored desert wetland shelters the endangered Comanche Springs pupfish. Campsites and CCC-built motel rooms are part of the park, and it often fills in summer.
The closest stops to Balmorhea State Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
An outdoor telescope park behind the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center, known for its public Star Parties.
23 mi awayMore like this
A preserved frontier Army post in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, run by the National Park Service.
25 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Drive the CCC's Skyline Drive to mountain overlooks, hike to Fort Davis, and stay up for dark West Texas skies or a night at the adobe Indian Lodge.
26 mi awayMore like this
Regional museum on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, covering the natural history, culture, and art of the Big Bend area.
41 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums
A roadside viewing area on U.S. 90 east of Marfa where you scan the dark desert horizon after sunset for the Marfa Mystery Lights.
47 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Take a guided tour of large installations by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and other artists on a former Army post in Marfa.
47 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums