Best Study Spot in Alpine, TX

When I say the best study spot, you might think of a cute coffee shop or a nice library, I doubt you would think of a desk that you need to hike to. But, that is exactly where I did some light reading when I visited Alpine, TX. After a short hike from Sul Ross State University, you are met with a beautiful view and an old metal desk, commonly referred to as the Alpine Desk.

Your first question is probably, "How on Earth did that end up there?" Well, the story goes that in 1979 the desk was taken to the top of Hancock Hill by a long-distance runner who was a student at Sul Ross. He often practices by running along trails that he created on the hill and he also had a job to clean out old furniture for the university. So, one night, he and a few of his teammates stole an old desk and carried the heavy thing all the way to the top of the hill. They also put a journal in the desk to keep track of their run times and write a journal entry or two every once in a while.

Soon, word spread about the desk and more students started going up there to study or locals would take a hike with the desk as their destination. Since then, the desk has been replaced a few times, this being is the 4th iteration. Other random objects have also accumulated at the top of the hill over the decades and some of them have been combined to form a bicycle tree.

More people also started adding their own entries to the journal in the desk. In the beginning, the journals were collected by members of the cross country team. They are still collected to this day and now they are archived by Sul Ross State University. So you never know, your signature might make history someday.

I got to make a journal entry myself:

We visited Alpine during my Spring Break of 2020, right as the COVID-19 lockdown began and I received emails notifying me that the rest of my semester was virtual. So, I thought there would be no better place to study and be socially distant than the Alpine Desk.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought so either. While we were there, we met a middle school science teacher in a onesie who was recording a snippet of his lesson for his class the next day. Since everything was virtual, he was traveling around and trying to make his classes as interesting as possible for his students.

Overall, this was a really cool and random place that seems to be in the middle of nowhere West Texas. But the views are amazing and the hike itself isn't too bad either.

So, go for the experience, stay for the views, and never be afraid to dillydally.

- Amber