Guadalupe Mountains National Park

When you think of Texas and National Parks, the first place that comes to mind might be Big Bend. But did you know that Texas has another National Park? In fact, you might have been right on its doorstep at some point when visiting another popular local attraction.

The Guadalupe Mountains are located in far west Texas just south of the New Mexico state line and a stone’s throw from Carlsbad Caverns. If you want to get high in Texas this is the place, Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet above sea level and the park is home to 8 of 10 of the highest peaks in Texas.

This isn’t a park you can drive through with scenic lookouts along the way, rather a park that primarily needs to be explored on foot. There is a back road for high clearance vehicles that goes to Williams Ranch but that’s’ been closed for a couple of years. There are three primary entrance points to the park to access the many hiking trails, nature trails and historical points. Pine Springs is the main, and most accessible entrance point and home to the primary visitor’s center. McKittrick Canyon is a day use section along the eastern part of the park and Dog Canyon is a very remote area in the northwest portion of the park. Also worth mentioning is the Salt Basin Dunes, a vast area of gypsum that formed through a natural process of water, wind, and earthquakes starting 26 million years ago.

We did three hikes of varying levels within the park and all were quite enjoyable:

The Pinery Trail

This short nature walk from the Pine Springs visitors center was a good opportunity to get out and stretch our legs and get introduced to the park. This hike takes you to remains of the Old Butterfield Stagecoach Station, built in 1858.

Pratt Cabin

Pratt Cabin is actually an old stone homestead built as a vacation home by an oil geologist back in the 1930’s. The hike takes you 2 and a half miles into the beautiful McKittrick canyon where you can stop and hang out on the back porch of the cabin for a while. The (McKittrick) trail actual goes on for a long way after this and is considered to be “the toughest hike in Texas”. We took it a little further but fading daylight (and our senses) kept us from going any further. All-in-all, this was a great hike and we even encountered a bit of fall color along the way.

Guadalupe Peak

The McKittrick Canyon might be the toughest hike in Texas but Guadalupe Peak was the toughest hike that I (and my hiking companion, Brigitte) have ever done. This is an 8.5 mile hike with a 3,000 foot elevation gain to the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet above sea level. It was uphill the entire way with loose rock and lots of high stepping with large rock and timber stairs along the way. It was a grueling hike with amazing beauty along the entire trail and an incredible finish at the peak where you can see forever. An extremely rewarding experience!

I mentioned that there aren’t any interior roads within the park but there are two places that you can take in some of the scenery without hiking. The first is the short road that leads into the aforementioned McKittrick Canyon day use area, and the other is the El Capitan Viewpoint off of the main highway 62/180. Both offer some great views of the surrounding Guadalupe Mountains landscape.

There are two other places worth visiting when in the area. The first is Carlsbad Caverns which we blogged about previously and is a must see. The second is the Sitting Bull Falls Recreation Area. Sitting Bull Falls is accessible from a short boardwalk which takes you to a serene setting within a small canyon with a tall waterfall as the centerpiece. There’s also a steep trail that takes you to the top side of the falls. Although the views were pretty up top we never saw the waterfall from there. Possibly we didn’t venture far enough.

Although the Guadalupe Mountains may not be the biggest or baddest of the National Parks, they are sure well worth a visit, especially if you are a hiking enthusiast or in the area visiting the caverns. The mountain range seems to appear out of nowhere from the rolling plains. We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the park and the surrounding areas with our good friends Richard and Brigitte during Thanksgiving week.

Be sure to check out the rest of our pictures.