26 Mar 2024

Cruising along Texas’ Highest Paved Road


Regarding scenic routes, Texas has its share of beautiful drives. My top three favorite drives in the state are:

I have featured some photos of the first two drives on my list. It is time to introduce you to the third drive on the list above. A section of the Davis Mountains Scenic Loop, Highway 118 is Texas’s highest paved and state-maintained road. Now, that is a mouthful! There is another road higher than this, but it goes through private land and is inaccessible to the general public. Highway 118 reaches a height of 6,791 feet (2,070 meters).

Highway 118 near Davis Mountains SP

The Davis Mountains Scenic Loop runs approximately 75 miles (120 km). You’ll drive along Texas highways 118 and 166 when you take this loop. Starting in Fort Davis and going counter-clockwise, you go up a beautiful ascent into the Davis Mountains. After you pass Limpia Canyon (a section of it can be seen in the photo above near the highway) and the Davis Mountains State Park, the road climbs quickly and offers breathtaking views. There are several picnic areas you may pull over to admire the views. When you reach the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, you’ll be very high in the Davis Mountains. Then you come to Madera Canyon, part of the Texas Nature Conservancy‘s Davis Mountains Preserve. Shortly after that, you’ll be turning from Highway 118 onto Highway 166.

Highway 166

The mountains you will see along this loop include Mt. Livermore and Sawtooth Mountain. Be sure to give yourself at least a couple of hours or longer, depending on your number of stops. Even though the first and last shots in this post were taken on the same day and only 25 minutes apart, you can see that as we started going down Highway 166, there was some fog.

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15 Responses

  1. Amy
    |

    Beautiful scenery through your lens!

  2. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thanks, Amy.

  3. margaret21
    |

    Fabulously scenic!

  4. nesfelicio
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    Definitely scenic routes! That shot of the 118 is an instant classic.

  5. philosophy through photography
    |

    Beautiful landscape.
    Last one is my favourite!

  6. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thanks so much, Margaret. Driving on scenic roads is one of my favorite things when traveling.

  7. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thank you so much, Nes. I love that drive.

  8. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thank you, Philo. I couldn’t believe how much the skies changed in just about 25 minutes.

  9. philosophy through photography
    |

    True!
    That is the wonder of nature!

  10. Anne Sandler
    |

    Thank you for the beautiful scenic tour Egidio! It’s amazing that even at 6,000 feet, there are no trees.

  11. Egídio Leitão
    |

    West Texas is like that for the most part. In some areas, you may see some trees. Thanks for the feedback.

  12. Leanne Cole
    |

    I love seeing really different places, and this is fantastic.

  13. Paradocs Photography
    |

    Hill Country is Texas is definitely underappreciated. Great set and write up!

  14. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thank you so much, Leanne.

  15. Egídio Leitão
    |

    Thank you very much, Patrick.

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