Guadalupe Mountains National Park

This past weekend, four of us guys headed to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas for an overnight camping and hiking trip.

Friday evening we headed out of Midland at about 7:00pm. We arrived at the park about 10pm, only to discover that the campground was full. We went to the visitor center and found a paper taped to the window that gave some options in the “Case that the Campground is Full.” It listed some hotels and private campgrounds (all of which were 40+ miles away), and also a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) area about 20 miles north. The instructions were to across the border into New Mexico to mile marker 5, then turn right, and make sure to close the gate behind us. So off we went. When we got there, we drove into what was literally a cow pasture (although, much different than pastures in the midwest). We drove on a bumpy dirt road till we were about a 1/4 mile from the highway. There was a fairly flat and open area, where it appeared as though people had camped before. There was a little fire ring, and we figured it was as good as any place, so we setup camp. We had two tents for the four of us. We made a little fire, and then we had a gas stove which we used to heat up water and ate some Ramen, mushroom soup, and hot chocolate.

Friday night it got down into the low 40s, which wasn’t all that bad. I wore a stocking cap, one tshirt, one longsleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt, pants, and wool socks. My feet were still cold, but the rest of me was fairly comfortable. I slept pretty well.

We got up about 8am and made some oatmeal and coffee and then packed up and headed to McKittrich Canyon. It’s a beautiful trail along which Maples (yes, Maple trees in Texas) grow. I didn’t have high expectations for the fall colors, but I was impressed. If you look at my pictures, you can see all the color that was there.

We hiked 4.5 miles to “The Notch”. The first 3.5 miles are fairly flat, but the last mile includes a 1,500 foot elevation change, so it’s pretty strenuous–but worth it. We ate lunch at the top, and talked to the Park Ranger who was stationed up there for the day. After about a 30 min break, we headed back down the canyon. The trip back was faster, and all-in-all, took us about 4 hours.

After McKittrich Canyon, we debated which trail we should do next. We had already done nine miles, so we weren’t rearing to hit another heavy trail, plus it was about 2pm by the time we were ready to go again, so we decided to go to Frijole Ranch and go on the Smith Spring Trail. It’s a short 2.3 mile round trip jaunt. It was also one of the most beautiful spots I’ve been to (at least in Texas). Basically you’re hiking through the desert at the foot of the mountains and all of a sudden you walk into a grove of trees and in less than 100ft, you’re at this beautiful little pool of water being fed by a spring coming out in a little waterfall. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed the beauty. A young family from Sweden with two little children came up there while we were sitting there, so we talked with them a little bit (and even got a picture with them). They were traveling from Los Angeles, CA to McAllen, TX, visiting different parks and whatnot.

After sitting at the spring for a while, we continued on the trail ending back up at the Frijole Ranch (just a couple of small buildings with a lot of history). We then loaded back up in the car and headed for Midland. We arrived back in town about 9:30pm. Brandon’s wife had made some pizza, so we threw down a couple of pieces. Nathanael headed home and I took Taylor to a relatives house because his wife was still out of town for a couple more hours and he didn’t have his keys to get back into his house. When I got home, I said “hi” to people who were in the living room, and then headed straight for the shower. After cleaning up, I got into bed at about 11pm and slept straight through till 9:00am and then got up and went to church.