Guadalupe Mountains NP

When we left Carlsbad Caverns yesterday, we stopped by the visitor center to at Guadalupe Mountains National Park to get suggestions from the ranger for day hikes.  We also watch the information movie about Guadalupe Mountains while we were at the visitor center yesterday.

We left the campground around 8:30 and traveled up Hwy 54 north of Van Horn which was the same way we traveled to Carlsbad Caverns yesterday.  We stopped at the visitor center to register for the day hike.  Once again, the Hosler's National Parks Pass allowed us to hike for free.  Otherwise, it would have been $5 per person.  Thank you, Ken & Bonnie!

Guadalupe Mountains became a national park in 1972 and contains over 86,000 acres.  The tallest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak (8,751 ft), lies within the park and rises majestically above the surrounding mountains and desert.  You can hike to the top of Guadalupe Peak but since it is a 8.4 mile hike and is rated strenuous, we decided to stick with the ranger's recommendation of the 4.8 McKittrick Canyon to Pratt Cabin hike.

We drove to the parking lot for McKittrick Canyon and saw some mule deer out in the desert.

After parking the car, we put on our hiking boots and gear, and headed into the canyon.

The beginning of the hike had a slight climb up and then back down...

...where it followed and occasionally crossed a dry creek bed.

It was a perfect morning for hiking.  The temperatures were in the low 60's, just a little wind, and a clear blue sky.

What is unique to the Guadalupe Mountains are the trees that are found growing here.  Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and aspen can be found growing in the highlands of the mountains.  Maple, oak and  trees like this Texas Madrone tree, unique because of its dark red bark, are fed by a spring in McKittrick Canyon.

Madrone tree

These trees live among desert plants like prickly peark cactus, agave and sotol.

Sotol plants

Agave plant

Only blooms once in its life.

We also passed by several of these fir trees...

...whose bark have kind of a checked pattern.

The cacti were not in bloom here, but there was also a sprinkle of two different kinds of yellow flowers along the way.  

With all the variations of trees, plants and animals, it is easy to understand why some people call McKittrick Canyon "the most beautiful spot in Texas."

We continued hiking through the canyon, crossing the dry creek bed several more times.

At one point, we actually crossed the canyon's spring fed stream that provides the water for the unusual mixture of plant life.

We continued our hike enjoying the views of McKittrick Canyon all along the way.

We came to where a stone entrance gate and knew we must be close to Pratt's Cabin.

Wallace Pratt was a petroleum geologist who after visiting the Guadalupe Mountains in 1921, bought a tract of land that included a large portion of McKittrick Canyon.  The house was built in 1932 and was built of local limestone and heart pine. The Pratt family spent their summers in the cabin and briefly lived at the cabin during Wallace Pratt's early retirement.  When the family moved to Tucson, Arizona, they donated the cabin and more than 5,000 acres to the National Park.

There was a garage/barn behind the house.  

The roofs of both the house and the garage were a mosaic of flat limestone that you would expect to see more on a floor than a roof.  

We walked around the back of the house...

...and found the perfect place to rest our feet.

Bonnie and I sat on the front porch in a couple of adirondack chairs that must have had our names on them because we didn't give them up the whole time we sat there.  :)

We enjoyed talking with another couple from California we had met along the trail who had stopped their to rest for a few minutes too.

I think I could have taken a little snooze if we had sat there much longer.  The weather was perfect and the views were AWESOME!  It's easy to see why Mr. Pratt loved this McKittrick Canyon so much.

We had originally thought we might hike another mile further to the Grotto and Hunter Line Cabin but the gravel that was on most of this travel made my toes hurt, Ken's heel hurt, and Bonnie's back hurt.  Plus, we did not want to get back too late to the campground.  So we decided to head on back.

Along the way back, we met another full-timing couple from Helena, Montana.  We stopped and talked with them for several minutes about each other's travels.  After we got back to the car, we decided to have our picnic lunch under the shelter at the visitor center so we could enjoy the views for just a little bit longer.

We said our good-byes to El Capitan and the Guadalupe Moutains and headed back to Van Horn.

We each snoozed some on the drive back to Van Horn except Ken of course (I hope)!  We stopped to try to get pictures of Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) space tourism facility.  

Bezos has acquired 290,000 acres north of Van Horn in hopes to build a space tourism business, Blue Origin.  We tried to get a picture of some of the facilities but with not much success.

Later that evening, we went to dinner at the Cattle Company whose hamburgers had been recommended to us by another RVer.  The hamburgers were very good but the view of an empty hotel pool was not so good.

We got together after dinner for our nightly game of cards with the guys winning SkipBo and the girls winning Pinochle.  

Texas has been fun, beautiful and the people so friendly!  Tomorrow, we begin our adventures in another state:  New Mexico!