2/17/11 – Guadalupe Mountains NP

Never heard of this park?  We hadn’t either!  It’s right off the highway when you’re travelling from El Paso to Carlsbad, and it’s worth a short detour (if only to get the park stamp in your National Park Passport!)

El Capitan was used for years as a guide post for pioneers because it’s visible for so far.  The Butterfield stage stopped nearby to change their pooped horses.  At 8,749’, Guadalupe Peak is the highest mountain in Texas (they call it “the top of Texas”).

The park protects a range of mountains that were actually a fossil reef on the bottom of the sea a long, long, long time ago.  Most of it’s wilderness, and there are trails all over, but for a change, we didn’t take any.  We did watch the movie at the Visitor’s Center.  Then it was back to the truck and on the road to Carlsbad, NM.

A few pictures of Guadalupe Mtns NP