Though Balmorhea may sound like a warm inviting castle in which to hide from bleak Scottish winters, it is quite the opposite. It is truly an oasis.
Amid seemingly endless, flat, hot, dry miles of the Chihuahuan Desert, San Solomon Springs gushes about 20 million gallons (76,000 cubic meters) of crystal-clear water a day into Balmorhea State Park. Cool water filtered through limestone flows underground about 30 miles (48 kilometers) down from the Davis Mountains, emerging like a river. Bands of Jumano, Mescalero Apache, and Comanche people watered horses there and farmed crops of corn and peaches. Big game hunters frequented the spring 11,000 years ago. Rare and endangered species, unique to the Trans-Pecos region, thrive in the marshes downstream.
“It’s a Texas treasure,” says Dan Garrison, founder of Garrison…