The Best Things to Do in Marfa TX: a Complete Guide
We didn’t have too much time to spare, so Patrick and I only visited the outdoor self-guided tour of Donald Judd’s 15 works of concrete.
This permanent exhibit is scattered across 1.5 miles of Chihuahuan Desert on the Chinati Campus.
I took a few art history classes in college and I really do enjoy studying/contemplating the “meaning” behind interesting pieces of art. But honestly, it was more fun to run around this field, in and out of the
giant concrete boxes with the wide open Texas sky above, than to ponder
the concrete’s existence, at the time.
We explored the collection, ran our hands across the surprisingly cool concrete under the hot desert sun and yes, contemplated these crazy squares’ meaning a time or two.
With a short amount of time, and a whole lot to see, we were soon off to the next stop on our Marfa tour: Prada, Marfa.
(Which is actually about 45 minutes north of Marfa, in case you were wondering.)
I’m sure you’ve seen dozens of photos of Prada, Marfa before. I know I had.
Seeing the actual installation in person was pretty unreal. Especially after driving 45 minutes through absolutely nothing, and all of a sudden you see a Prada store.
This faux designer storefront was filled with exquisite shoes, purses, and quite a bit of dust actually, all which completely fascinated me.
Once back in town, we visited one more art gallery, Ballroom Marfa.
We perused the contemporary and video art then headed outside where we
discovered a pickup truck filled with succulents.
It’s safe to say, we got some great ideas out of this for our garden back home. 😉
I will say this about Marfa, if you’re planning a visit it is best to try to go on a weekend. We spent a Thursday in town and this little desert hamlet was almost completely deserted.
Get it, desert … deserted.
I really do have too much fun with puns. 🙂
Anyway, we really wanted to try out the beer garden, Planet Marfa, but it was only open during the weekends. I also heard the offer roundtrip driving tours of the Marfa Lights. So …. we’re definitely coming back.
With the beer garden closed, Patrick and I explored Marfa on foot and found ourselves another tucked away bar, Padre’s, that I’m sure was just as nice as the beer garden we were so excited to see.
We were pretty much the only ones there for a while.
Which was actually kind of nice. 🙂
Patrick and I haven’t taken a solo trip like this in a long time. Other than our honeymoon, most of our travels since our wedding have been for other people’s weddings or to visit family for various holidays. This trip was the perfect long overdue getaway.
Cheers to Texas beers and our West Texas vacation!
The happiest of hours came to an end and we headed back to Hotel Paisano for drinks on the patio at Jet’s Grill.
If you’ve seen Giant then you’ll know that Jet’s Grill was inspired after James Dean’s
character in the film, Jet Rink. Jet Rink *spoiler* struck oil and became a big Texas oil tycoon, building his own hotel and restaurant in the film.
Naturally, I pretended I was at Jet’s legit restaurant, and it made the evening all the more fun.
Plus, the jalapeno margarita helped a bit too.
Our one day in Marfa sadly came to an end. But I know we’ll be back eventually, as it’s just a hop, skip and a jump from one of our new found favorite places in the world: Big Bend National Park.
Which you will probably be seeing several posts about in the next few weeks. I thought we took a lot of pictures in Marfa, wellllll we took maybe 10 times that in Big Bend!
If you’ve made it all the way down here, thanks for reading! Hope this post inspired you to get out, travel and explore different parts of your state, country, or basically … you know … the entire world. Which is what I’d like to do someday, but for now I’m focusing on the great state of Texas. There’s still a whole lot more to see in the Lone Star state!