guadalupe mountains

wednesday i left carlsbad bright and early and went south about 45 miles, entering texas about halfway. my destination: guadalupe mountains national park in the lone star state. i was really excited about this park because it is really remote, and therefore little visited (and cheap for those without the park pass i have). carlsbad is the nearest town, with the nearest accommodations being just outside carlsbad caverns np. first off, a little about this park. the park protects the world's best preserved fossilized reef--this part of the country used to be entirely underwater, as in, all of texas. in addition, it has a wide variety of flora and fauna, encompassing everything from desert to mountain conifer forests. it has also been part of some pretty interesting history: the el paso salt war, as well as tensions between the mescalero apaches and nearby cowboys and the butterfield overland mail route (which i had seen in mesilla, nm as well). it became a park when an oil explorer working for what would be exxon fell in love with the area, built two homes how in the park, and brought it some attention. it became a national park in 1972. oh, and its home to guadalupe peak, the highest point in texas with an elevation of 8751 feet.

i had determined ahead of time that i would not climb the peak, which means climbing 3000 feet, but go on a desert hike instead, since i had not yet been on one. of the 80 miles of pretty well-maintained trails, i decided on the el capitan trail, which goes around the extreme southern end of the mountain range and the sheer rock face after which the trail is named. it was a beautiful trail, full of a wide variety of cacti and flies, as well as stunning arroyos (dried up stream beds), and great views of the mountains to the north. of course, hiking in the desert also has its perils. for instance, it was hot. above 90, even with some cloud cover in the desert takes getting used to, since there aren't trees for shade. after about 30 minutes my hair was wet through and i looked like a spanish soccer player. also, all of those stunning cacti, and even most of the non-succulent plants, with stick you. plants in the desert are survivors because they attack. by the end of my hike my legs were bleeding in at least a few places and i had a wicked sunburn on my shoulders, which are now quite disgusting looking. oh well.in the end, though, it was definitely worth it. i think this was the most fun i had hiking--i ran into no one else on my trail, which was fantastic. in all i hiked about 8 miles, taking me about 5 hours, including a few stops for water and food. i could even see the salt flats in the distance--that's the white stuff in the far background of the picture to the left. i really do love the desert, and this was a pretty one--it's part of the chihuahua desert, for anyone interested. i saw quite a few birds, lizards, and even what i think was a mule deer, or a deer of some sort. i made it most of the way around el capitan: that's it right there.

i'm glad that i finished hiking when i did: like so many mountains ranges, the guadalupes make their own weather. when i was on the trail it was by far cloudier right next to the mountains that out in the open, and it looked like it was about to storm as i left. i loaded into my car, all sweaty, and headed back up north briefly, since for some reason i had to go through new mexico to make it to midland, tx, where i was going to be spending the night. the only thing that redeemed this drive even somewhat was that there were a lot of wind farms--and i do mean a lot. at one point i could see them all the way to the horizon in just about every direction. otherwise, it was extremely flat, and mostly grazing lands. thursday i woke up, realized the extent of my sunburn, and cursed my sunscreen. i then drove the rest of the way to colleyville, in the dallas/ft. worth area, to my aunt's house to drown myself in aloe vera, which did help somewhat. in case you don't know what they look like, that's a prickly pear cactus below.