On Walkabout On: The Guadalupe Peak Trail, Texas – Part 1

A hiking trip I have been meaning to take for sometime and finally got around to doing recently is to hike up to Texas’ highest point in the Guadalupe Mountains.  Climbing every states highest point is something I have been slowly working towards as I live in different areas of the country and now I hoped to add Texas’ highest point to my list.  The Guadalupe Mountains are located about a two hour drive east of El Paso in far west Texas:

The drive from El Paso to reach the Guadalupe Mountains on Highway 180 crosses a very remote desert area that is actually quite scenic to include being able to see a few small dormant volcanoes that rise above the desert:

These volcanoes are known as the Cornudas Mountains and I actually previously climbed up one of them which you can read about at the below link:

• On Walkabout On: Alamo Mountain, New Mexico

Since the Guadalupe Mountains rise so dramatically out of the desert they can be seen for a long way when driving across the desert from El Paso:

As my wife and I got closer to the mountains the highway crosses over a very large salt plain that has served as a source of salt for centuries by the Native Americans and later the Spanish colonists who arrived in the area:

These salt plains if you can believe it considering this is the middle of the desert, is the remnants of an ancient ocean that once covered this area.  Much like this large salt plain, the Guadalupe Mountains also have a connection to the ocean.  According to the National Park website, the Guadalupe Mountains is an example of an ancient, marine fossil reef. About 250 million years ago, the vast tropical ocean that covered this area contained much sea life such as calcareous sponges, algae, and other lime-secreting marine organisms.  These organisms along with lime precipitated from the ocean water, build up and formed the reef that paralleled the shoreline for 400 miles. After the ocean evaporated, the reef was buried in thick blankets of sediments and mineral salts, and was entombed for millions of years until uplift exposed massive portions of it.  Look at the park today it is easy to imagine the ocean waves crashing into this exposed fossilized reef:

The impressive peak dubbed El Capitan is the first peak visitors driving from El Paso see when approaching the park:

Tucked into the base of the Guadalupe Mountains is the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitor center that had an excellent park ranger who provided lots of information and great advice about visiting the park:

The park is actually quite large at 135 square miles with most people only visiting the southern region of the park:

The northern area of the park is only accessible by foot or by a two hundred mile drive around the mountains to north into New Mexico. I planned on hiking the trail from the south side of the park to the 8,749 feet (2,667 m) summit of Guadalupe peak which is the highest mountain in all of Texas.  The valley floor on the south side of the park is nothing but desert scrub with a few small trees:

This is where the trail at the park begins and of course this is me with my usual hiking gear: Carolina hiking boots with gel soles, Columbia moisture wicking hiking pants, Nike moisture wicking shirt, Camelbak, and my ever trustworthy kangaroo leather stockman hat:

The mountain in the background is the first mountain that the trail to the top of Guadalupe Peak climbs up:

The trail was quite steep, but I was making some good progress up the side of the mountain and along the way I was amazed by these trees with bright red bark:

I don’t know what these trees are called but their bark was really unusual.  Anyway, since I was gaining altitude pretty rapidly on the trail I was quckly being rewarded with some nice views of the desert below to include the parking lot where the trail begins at:

You can see my wife’s blue Hyundai parked to the right in the picture:

She was waiting back at the parking lot for me while I climbed up the mountain since the mountain is too steep for her bad knee to handle plus she is pregnant and can’t hike anyway.  As I got higher up the mountain I began to notice some ponderosa pine trees growing among the rocks:

The Guadalupe Mountains is an example of a sky island in the desert southwest where the altitude of the ranges’ highest peaks gets enough water to support such large pine trees such as these ponderosa pines.  Besides pine trees the upper regions of the mountain also had a multitude of colorful flowers as well to see:

Also on this upper portion of the trail there is a section of the trail cut out from the side walls of the mountain:

Those afraid of heights best stay away from the edge on this portion of the trail:

As I rounded the corner one of the thick groves of ponderosa pines that are one of the key attractions of the park came into view:

As the trail descends into the forest it is amazing to think you are in the middle of the desert in far west Texas:

The best thing about these trees was that it got me out of the sun for a while because it was quite hot on the day I hiked up the mountain.  I wasn’t the only one enjoying this shad because I saw plenty of these lizards running around as well within the tree line:

Next Posting: Guadalupe Peak, Texas – Part 2