The wild and remote Davis Mountains is considered one of the most scenic areas of Texas.
Indeed it is one of the most biologically diverse.
Rising above the Chihuahuan desert, the range forms a unique “sky island” surrounded by the lowland desert.
Animals and plants living above 5,000 feet are isolated from other similar mountain ranges by vast distances.
These are true ecological islands, preserving living remnants that occur otherwise nowhere else in Texas.
The 33,075-acre Davis Mountains Preserve (with conservation easements on about 69,600 acres of adjoining property)
includes Mount Livermore, the summit of the Davis Mountains. It encompasses the heart of a functioning landscape
with intact watersheds and a unique assemblage of animals and plants.
Plant life is diverse and presents interesting contrasts. On the wetter,
shaded slopes is a montane forest, including ponderosa pine and small but thick stands of quaking aspens sheltered
under a cliff beneath Mount Livermore. South-facing slopes are dominated by pinyon pine, gray oak,
alligator juniper and mountain mahogany. Madrone trees dot the valleys and deep canyon streambeds.
Eleven rare species of plant are known, including the Livermore sandwort, many-flowered unicorn plant and fringed paintbrush.