Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I never expected to visit Texas again, after living there for three years and then fleeing as soon as I was able. But, here we were, back in Texas. Granted, far, far, West Texas, on the border of New Mexico. I'd make an exception though, for the (passport) stamp.

The campsites here were first come first serve, so we tried to show up as early as we could -- we arrived around 2pm, and was able to pick between a handful of empty sites. Our site was particularly nice -- it was tucked away maybe 50' from the parking area, surrounding by brush and cacti. Our closest neighbors you could barely see. As was becoming the pattern though -- no shade. We got really lucky -- the next four days we were there, the campsites were completely full.

Or were we lucky? It was pretty windy when we arrived, maybe 25-30mph sustained wind speed. We took extra care to anchor our tent under large piles of stones, and to a tree, in the same direction as the prevailing wind, after watching the wind force the poles out of square.

That night, we endured 68+mph wind gusts (I checked after), with a steady 40-50mph gale caressing the fabric of our tent. That's nearly tropical storm force! Needless to say, neither of us slept much that night. The force of the wind created negative pressure on the leeward side of the tent and as the wind increased/decreased the walls would flap violently. It was extremely loud, and we were both certain at any minute the fabric would rip open or a pole would snap.

The morning dawned, and the wind slowed (slightly). We inspected the tent. Somehow -- our basic, $180 Coleman instant cabin had sustained no damage. Coleman states it's rated for 35mph and I immediately wrote a five star review for it.

The wind continued over the next few days, but continued to decrease in severity with every day that passed.

We went up to hike in the canyon that supposedly inspired the creation of the park, McKittrick Canyon, where I was hoping we'd be sheltered from the wind. We were, and as we continued up the canyon, the inhospitable desert gradually gave way to (kinda) lush, riparian and wooded areas.

We stopped at Pratt Cabin (designed by Vance Phenix, an Architect), and made our way all the way to the Grotto. There was no cell reception so we had no idea what the Grotto was, but turns out it was a small alcove with stalagmites and stalactites. I originally wanted to continue up to the Notch (what this was we'll never know), but decided against considering our plan to summit Guadalupe the next day.

I had to convince Vitali to summit Guadalupe Peak with me.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it's there." And it's the highest point in Texas! We had already summited the most prominent peak in Texas (Emory Peak) and if I was going to come back to this state I wanted to say I had conquered it.

We didn't bother with an early start since we knew there was 0% chance of storms that day, and the weather wasn't hot. We were one of the first people on the trail though, even starting at 9:45AM.

This was a pretty enjoyable hike! The first push up to the ridgeline seemed the steepest, and after that, steep portions were mixed with level portions, and it was fairly fast to the summit. The view from the Top of Texas, was, as expected -- a beautiful viewpoint to the miles of nothingness surrounding it.

We met someone on the summit who told us about High Pointers -- a club where people try to hike the highest point in every state, which is a neat idea. And a very friendly expat Brit, who was on a similar sort of journey (although shorter term), who then went on to tell us (without prompting) he didn't believe in vaccines...

Find Numa!

As we placed the sticker for this park on Numa, we noticed something strange....

I've visited both National Parks in Texas now and a few of the National Monuments. I won't say I'll never be back... but probably not for awhile.