Guadalupe Mountains National Park

As we drove across West Texas, it didn’t really seem possible that serious mountains lay ahead. The landscape is flat, flat, flat. We’d left El Paso early to get a full day in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and there was no hint of mountains on the horizon. But about a hundred miles later, the road turned north, we drove around a long curve, and bam, a huge rock prow jutted out of the ground. It was startlingly dramatic, and, as we learned when we pulled into a strategically sited picnic area, it was the southern end of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Once a sea, now a fossil reef

In fact, Guadalupe Mountains National Park protects the world’s largest Permian fossil reef, an artifact composed of the skeletal remains of prehistoric marine creatures, limestone, minerals, and mud left over when an ancient saltwater ocean, the Delaware Sea, evaporated about 250 million years ago. Tectonic shifts forced the reef upward, and now, known as the Guadalupe Mountains, it towers over the surrounding desert landscape.

Suddenly I realized we were in the Permian Basin, west Texas oil country. Later I learned the park was created from land owned by oil prospectors and ranchers, and that it sits on the western edge of the oil deposits associated with this part of the country. The big rock formation we’d spotted was El Capitan, at the southern tip of the Guadalupe Mountains. At the northeastern end, Carlsbad Cavern National Park protected a giant limestone cave. The whole range is a giant geology lesson.

Get a campsite, quick!

We arrived at the Pine Springs Visitor Center to check on campsites, expecting no problem finding one midweek. “Uh, you should go right now,” the ranger told us, “and get a site. The campground will probably be full within the hour.” No further encouragement needed. We hopped back in the car and drove up the slope to Pine Springs Campground, quickly found one of the last unoccupied sites, and set up our tent.

Back at the visitor center, we watched the park orientation film, then consulted with a ranger about hikes. Mr. Adventure, a congenital peak bagger, leaned strongly toward Guadalupe Peak, the tallest mountain in Texas and a strenuous day hike that gained nearly 3,000 feet. But choosing that hike meant we’d see nothing else in the park, because we planned to leave early the next morning.

We dithered for a long time, weighing other options, and eventually the ranger said politely, “Well, I’ll just leave you folks to figure it out,” and backed away. Finally, we realized we could spend all day debating the choices, and decided to hike McKittrick Canyon and hopefully add another shorter hike or two in the afternoon.

McKittrick Canyon

Almost as soon as we hit the trail, I was sure we’d made the right choice. We hiked for a couple of miles along McKittrick Creek, crossing and re-crossing as the trail wound up the wide canyon mouth. Over the millennia, water flowing downhill has carved the canyon, and the geological layers of the Guadalupes are visible in its walls.

Prickly pear cacti and ocotillo grow near juniper, Ponderosa pine, and Texas madrone trees. This unexpected mix of Chihuahuan desert and high-elevation forest plants makes McKittrick Canyon a beautiful and diverse ecosystem. The Mescalero Apache people lived here until the late 1800s, and artifacts such as pictographs and points dating to 12,000 years ago have been found in the canyon.

Pratt Cabin

After about 2.5 miles, we reached a striking stone house just off the trail. Pratt Cabin is named for the geologist who, while scouting oil deposits in the Permian Basin in 1921, wandered up the canyon and fell in love with the beautiful scenery. Wallace Pratt purchased about 5,000 acres and built this stone lodge as a family vacation retreat in the early 1930s. He eventually became a vice president of the Humble Oil and Refining Company, now Exxon-Mobil. When Pratt retired, he and his wife lived in the cabin for several years before moving to a less flood-prone area of their property in 1945. The stone cabin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is staffed by volunteers who are happy to tell you the history while you rock gently in a porch chair and admire the view.

Guadalupe Mountains is among the national parks that owe their existence in part to the generosity of wealthy people. Pratt started donating parts of his holdings to the National Park Service in 1958, and his land eventually became the beginning of today’s 86,000-acre national park. I appreciate the oil man’s generosity, though I wonder whether he would have been so magnanimous had the mountains contained oil. It’s fortunate, perhaps, that the oil deposits are in the Permian basin, not the reef that comprises the park. Pratt really got the best of both worlds.

The Grotto and beyond

The docent stationed at Pratt Cabin encouraged us to go at least as far as The Grotto, another easy mile up the trail. It’s a limestone outcropping that has eroded underneath as water seeps through, creating a cool, cave-like space with stalagmites and stalactites sprouting from the floor and ceiling.

From The Grotto, hikers can continue up the steep trail to Guadalupe Ridge or take a short walk to the Hunter Line Cabin, a relic of the area’s ranching days. Mindful of the sun passing overhead, we opted for the cabin, which proved to be a somewhat worse-for-wear stone building that was used as a bunkhouse for ranch employees and hunting retreat.

Frijole Ranch

We still had plenty of daylight, so after leaving McKittrick Canyon we stopped at the Frijole Ranch. The ranch sits within a three-mile radius of six natural springs, making it a logical spot to build. Although at least one house was built here in the late 1800s, the first land claim was filed in 1906 by Wisconsin emigrant John Smith. He and his wife, Nella, built the ranch and raised ten kids here.

In addition to the main house, visitors can see the barn, milk house, spring house, orchard and large garden, and other outbuildings. The lush green lawn is watered by the spring that runs through the property and is directed into a stone-lined irrigation channel. Like golf courses in the desert, all the green seems weirdly disconnected from the arid surroundings. The Smiths finally sold Frijole Ranch in 1942 to J.C. Hunter, who consolidated land holdings in the area to form the 72,000-acre Guadalupe Mountains Ranch. He in turn sold his property to the National Park Service in 1966, and Congress created the park in 1972.

We walked down the trail toward Manzanita Spring, watching several deer browsing the brush around the water source, then headed back to camp for dinner and an astronomy show later that evening. We sat on benches with other campers and listened to stories about the night sky, from Greek mythology to Native American beliefs. I love ranger programs, and this one was well done, with a slides, music, and audio excerpts (a little Carl Sagan, anyone?) mixed in. Moonbeams lit the path back to our tent, and we called it a night.

Sunrise show

The next morning, we quickly packed up, stopping to admire the sunrise filling the sky, then reluctantly drove out of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We wanted to stop at nearby Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and we had to be at the Albuquerque airport later that day, a five-hour drive. We always wish we had more time on these trips, but this park especially affected us. Mr. Adventure is determined to bag Guadalupe Peak someday. I’d be happy to hike further into the mountains and explore some of the backcountry. We’ll be back.