West Texas Tour

I've been wanting to visit the Guadalupe Mountains since they're tallest in Texas (at close to 9k, it's pretty weak, but the best we got dammit). In some ways similar to the landscape of big bend, but not quite as much hype. Coming from Austin it’s easy to loop in Carlsbad Caverns and MacDonald Observatory.

First night we stayed at La Loma Del Chivo, a oddly interesting collection of papercrete homes built by a guy named Gil over the course of many years. Located in Marathon, it had amazing views of the stars, but was a short drive to the White Buffalo Bar at the Gage Hotel. While exploring the town we found an amazing looking place called Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a magical looking place we definitely want to check out next time.

Next up was Davis Mountain State park. We planned on attending a star party at MacDonald Observatory, and this was a close location to camp at. We did one pretty easy day hike which had some great views. I definitely recommend staying there if you’re going to the observatory, but I would rather spend more time at the Guadalupe Mountains if given a choice.

The Star Party was amazing, despite the freezing temperatures and wind. Definitely plan on it being colder than expected. Prior to the Star Party we went to the Twilight Program, which was a one hour indoor presentation about the moon, its terrain, and phases. It’s kinda directed towards kids, but it was a good refresher on astronomy, and they pointed out some craters on the moon that would come in handy later.

The Star Party has close to 400 people outside. Before looking through telescopes, an astronomer uses a laser pointer to highlight all sorts of celestial beings, from constellations, galaxies, nebulas, and even the international space station shooting across the sky. This was absolutely fascinating, I could have listened to this all night. Afterwards everyone is free to look through about 18 or so telescopes scattered around the site. Quite a few of the are focused on certain parts of the moon. As the closest object outside our orbit, it’s the easiest to see detail of. Near star clusters like the pleiades and our closest galaxy Andromeda look awesome when seen through a telescope like Hubble, but from earth it can be hard to discern much. It’s still cool, but you gotta keep your expectations in check. We ended up being one of the last people to leave the Star Party, partially because I wanted to do some long exposure shots while there were less people around. Definitely a great place to be if you love night photography, but you need to turn your LCD screen off.

After leaving Davis Mountains we headed to the Guadalupe Mountains. Approaching the range, it really does look like a proper series of mountains. Much larger and longer than the Chisos Mountains at Big Bend. The camp sites are all first come, first serve, no reservations. We didn’t have any trouble finding a spot, each is about a 50 ft walk in from where you park. There are a lot of small trees, brushes, and varied elevation, which means each spot is fairly secluded as well. You don’t feel like your neighbors are creeping on you making breakfast.

On our first day hike we wanted to get close to the El Capitan peak, via the Salt Basin trail. Per the ranger’s recommendation, we bypassed El Capitan trail via a small entrance off the highway (apparently it’s easy to get lost on this trail, and hikers end up stranded). We parked off the highway and went between an old rusted fence to pick up the trail. When I go hiking I prefer trails that are faintly defined, and not often travelled. Something that is marked enough so you don’t get lost, but at the same time you have to keep paying attention to where you’re going. This trail was exactly that. There were a few times we got lost, but we quickly found our way back for the most part. In some sections the trail was about 18 inches wide, in others the trail disappeared into rock terrain, but the natural flow would lead you back to the trail. There were times we were walking on the edge of the cliff, or crossing over dried up stream beds. We never saw a single person, which was a recurring theme in Guadalupe Park. Silence, and solitude.

The next day we decided to hike Hunter’s Peak instead of Guadalupe Peak, the latter being the tallest and Hunter being a little bit under it. Reason being is could pull of a large loop instead of going the same path up and down, as Guadalupe requires unless you’re doing a multi-day backpacking hike. Starting at the Frijole Ranch, it’s a solid 11 or so mile loop back around. The trail is well marked, but pretty steep. Super rocky on the way up, but once you get to the top there’s a coniferous forest and sweeping Mexican grass. As you hike along the top ridge, aka The Bowl, you’re slightly on the inside part of the mountain. The Bowl is formed by a series of mountains snuggled up together. From this point you can hike to a bunch of different peaks, or even venture into New Mexico. We decided to keep it fairly simple and focus on reaching Hunter’s Peak. The peak itself is a short rock scramble after diverting up a path, and provides clear views going deep into Texas. Hundreds of dunes and hills dot the landscape. Visiting during winter will provide the most unobstructed views, because the temperature difference keeps pollution from nearby cities in check. Descending back down took a lot longer than expected. The road was steep and filled with gravel, easy to slip on. We caught the sunset on the way down, and eventually we were hiking in total darkness. Luckily the trail is clearly marked, so it was not hard to get back.

We packed up at the guadalupe mountains in the morning and headed to our last stop at Carlsbad Caverns. We had scheduled one guided tour, and planned on exploring the main cave on our own. Depending on the season there are quite a few different guided tours available, that explore sections of the cave you can’t do on your own. For a one day stop, doing the self guided tour and one guided tour seemed like plenty. It’s hard to describe how big the cave really is, it’s simply massive. Big enough to form an underground city of sorts. There’s no crawling through holes or cramped spaces, it’s all huge caverns. Most of the stalactite/stalagmite growth is finished, but there were a few still active. The cave system used to be part of the ocean millions of years ago, which led to some interesting sediment deposits and rock deposits throughout.

Overall, this was an awesome trip, and a great alternative to Big Bend if you’re looking for something different. Big Bend is definitely more massive with different terrain, but for hiking and solitude I give Guadalupe Mountains the win. I would plan on staying at least three days at Guadalupe Mountains, two days simply isn’t enough. I’ll definitely be back.