In my post about Big Bend National Park, I mentioned that I preferred the evenings, when the glaring sun slid behind the mountains and the stars came out. In the desert, perhaps it’s always been so. Evening is a time of coolness and relaxation, dinner around the fire and singing.

Or so it seemed at the Starlight Theatre, a restaurant and bar in Terlingua, Texas, built in an abandoned theater that had hosted—roofless and open to the stars for many years—singers such as Willie Nelson, the Flatlanders, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Today it offers diners a roof, but the rustic interior walls and music stage have been preserved. At the back of the stage, a beautiful mural (pictured at top) evokes a ranch-hand version of Terlingua nightlife.

We were staying outside the park in Terlingua and decided to try the Starlight for dinner one evening. We arrived on a Thursday around 8 pm, and the place was packed with an hour-long wait. Locals and tourists relaxed in chairs on the long front porch, watching the sun set, and a couple danced to the music pouring through the doors. We finally got in around 9 pm and had a good dinner (I had tilapia tacos; my son tried the chicken-fried antelope!) while listening to a country-folk singer from Seattle. The vibe reminded me of Austin.

While waiting for our table, we strolled down the road to Terlingua’s ghost town, an old mercury-mining village abandoned in the 1940s.

The desert is reclaiming the place.

Next door, in the ghost town’s historic cemetery, rest some of the former inhabitants. Many of the rock-mounded graves and stone altars bear tributes from recent visitors: guttered candles, faded flowers, even a few beer bottles intentionally placed.

A sign explained that locals still use the cemetery and hold Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebrations there.

Terlingua’s ghost town and Starlight Theatre gave us a sense of the area’s recent history and made for an enjoyable desert evening under the stars.

Up next: We visited the Capri Lounge garden in Marfa on the way home. Click here for the tour. For a look back at our visit to Big Bend National Park (part 2), click here.

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