Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Got up early and took off north toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park, with the highest mountain in Texas.  We traveled 45 miles north toward I-10 and never saw another vehicle. It is a very desolate stretch of land but quite beautiful.  We saw a school bus stop and wondered how long those kids needed to ride on the bus to get to school.  Where this road met I-10 there was a small town on the map where we intended to grocery shop and get gas.  Not likely, hardly anything there and what was there was boarded up! 

Drove on and found another small town and got our necessary commodities but had to stop 4 times to finally find a newspaper.  As we approached Guadalupe, the mountains were beautiful but there was a cloud cover sitting in the valley.

Guess where the campground is?

  Guadalupe is a very interesting and beautiful National Park that apparently few people visit.  There are no roads through the park so everything sits on the periphery and then you can hike in.  They were celebrating their 40^th anniversary today and had all sorts of activities going on, it is unfortunate it is so cold and cloudy, as a ranger told us that 98% of the time it is sunny and hot. The only campground on this side is at Pine Springs, where the visitor center is with water, pit toilets and no utilities for RVs, therefore there are more tent sites than RV sites.  Unfortunately the clouds were sitting right on top of the campground, so we were camping in a misty cloud, cold and unable to see anything.  We went to the visitor center and decided to hike to Devil’s Hall which is a fairly easy hike through a rocky wash to this natural staircase and narrow canyon with 400 foot elevation gain.

Natural staircase leading up to Devil's Hall

Looking up

Devil's Hall

We were able to get above the clouds where it was warm and sunny.  We hiked back down, and on the way, I heard Jack fall in front of me.  His hand was all bloody, he had blood on his face, and had hurt his ribs and back.  Oh no!  Luckily the blood on his face was from his hand except one spot on his nose.  I bandaged him up and he took off (without me of course). We got down and finished preparing our campsite and cooked spaghetti and salad.  The temp started dropping rapidly so we bundled up because no fires are allowed.  It got dark at 6:30!  We went in the tent and read for a long time and finally fell asleep.