Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

October 13, 2022

Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Travel day was uneventful, and after stopping in El Paso for groceries, we settled into our new home in the Texas Guadalupe Mountains. 

Rick spotted a tarantula on the road, so we stopped to have a look!

We were surprised to learn that chickens have paws here in Texas.

The salt flats just outside of Guadalupe National Park

That's El Capitan up ahead--not as famous as the one in Yosemite.

Going up in altitude again.

Our campsite at Guadalupe National Park was simply a 50x16 foot parallelogram painted on a parking lot.  So there was to be no deck for us at this location.  

We took it easy the rest of the day, taking a scenic 2 mile stroll down to the visitor center to grab some trail maps and get suggestions for day hikes.

The trail to the visitor center from the "campground"

Since we were pretty close to Carlsbad Caverns National Park (and since we have a national parks pass that we are working hard to get our money's worth out of), we decided to make the trek there on Tuesday. We opted to take the Natural Entrance Trail which entailed a long walk down 700-ish vertical feet to get to the Big Room Trail. (Fortunately, there was an elevator to take us back up again.)  The total distance of the walk was about 2.75 miles, and we really enjoyed it. The lighting was very well designed to illuminate and highlight the dramatic cave features, while only leaving you just enough light to see the path.

The visitor center

The natural entrance

The first of many, many switchbacks--it was a long way down!

Looking back toward the entrance.

The blue-colored light is daylight coming from the entrance. The cave rooms were massive!

These features hanging from the ceiling were called "lion's tails".

And some photospheres from inside the cave...

Wednesday and Thursday were more serious hiking days.  We hadn't had any long or strenuous hikes in a couple of weeks, so our 5-mile hike to Devil's Hall was a bit of a kick in the pants.  This scenic hike took us up the mountainside and into a VERY rocky wash through a canyon. "Rocky" doesn't quite adequately describe this wash. Last year, the area was affected by a pretty serious flash flood where boulders of not insignificant size filled parts of the wash. We had fun climbing through the boulder fields but it did tire us out!

This was a very photogenic hike - with brilliant white rocks in the wash and lots of flowers and just a touch of fall colors.

There were quite a few of these attractive trees with brilliant red-to-orange berries.

Straight ahead are the boulders we negotiated through. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked, and we actually found it fun (but tiring!)

More of the boulder-strewn path

These are the natural steps into the "Devil's Hall".

Inside Devil's Hall

More boulders to climb

This tree was growing out of what looked like a rubble heap.

Interesting peeling bark on this tree

It looked like someone built a retaining wall on the right, but it's all natural. (Oh, and more boulders!)

Several holes in the rocks made for little individual planters

A touch of fall!

Walking back toward the campground

There's Phil down below.

Thursday's hike was not quite as strenuous (no bouldering required), but it was longer (about 9 miles). It went through the popular McKittrick Canyon which is known for its fall color display due to a surprising number of maple trees. We were a bit early in the season for the show, but we did manage to see a couple of trees in their autumn finery.

More "steps" like the ones we saw yesterday

We were surprised at how lush everything looked. It almost felt tropical (except for the cacti). 

Most of the yucca-type plants had finished blooming, but this century plant was still going.

A camera-shy hummingbird appeared right before taking this photo.

There were quite a few century plants (agave) growing all over the place.

An actual stream with flowing water!

The bark on this tree looked kind of reptilian.

Still plenty of wildflowers to take pictures of! 😊

Finally--some fall color!

This summer home was built in the 1930s by the geologist Wallace Pratt.

It is built almost entirely of stone--even the roof!

The trail passed through a grove of maples.

The spines on this agave are no joke!

The grotto

The grotto picnic area furniture was made entirely out of stone.

Some old building ruins. Around here, it's not the vines and trees that take over--it's the cacti!

An old hunting lodge

Looks like a face up there.

And what would a blog post be without Rick's attempt at artsy night time shots?

Moon view from on top of the camper towards town.

Trail head parking lot (and valley we walked for Devils Hall)

Top of peak with clouds

From our site looking towards bath house (and people walking with flashlights)

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