Guadalupe Mountains National Park Almost Killed Me

and I felt used. Of all the trails I've done at Guada Queen Mountains, and I've done a bunch at this point, in fact, I think this is the park that I've done more hiking and more trails than any other park over the course of my two visits here. I will say that the El Capitan trail was the

least assuming I thought it was going to be easy. Honestly, it's marked as moderate in every guide book and every visitor guide, and even the trailhead categorizes it as moderate since it's allegedly and mostly flat trail that goes out on the base of this giant mountain looking rock face known as Al Kabitan, just like the one in Usebity.

Kind of um, but I'm going to need to have a serious discussion with someone about this, because five thousand feet of elevation game several unending miles, seemingly and hurricane force winds are not my idea of moderate by any means. That was a really windy day though, I mean, the RV was getting pretty high gust of winds throughout it, like the whole evening, I mean, and into the morning. They continue to wake us up multiple times. I'm just

glad I didn't do this trail. But I'm Brad and I'm Matt, and we sold our loft in Chicago and gave up our study dwelling existence to live in an RV in travel the country full time, just dozen our dog Finn. And today we're talking about Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Thanks for listening. Trails. Yeah, So this

trail starts by the main visitors center. They're a bunch of trailheads there, and it goes out pretty far into the desert, seemingly like it's going to be flat and pretty level, But then it starts to steadily rise and dip in elevation as that passes in and out of these little canyon pockets, and it's inching like increasingly closer to Al Capitan, which initially when you're starting it it's kind of way off in the distance, and then the miles progress and it gets closer and closer and larger

and larger, which is great and beautiful and would all be well and good if it wasn't such a miserably windy day today, I remember was particularly intense, and earlier that morning though I had done the Premian Reef trail, which is marked as strenuous, and that seemed like it was pretty fine to me, so I didn't really think anything of doing this. I thought it would be easy

in comparison, but I guess I was dead wrong. But being I think the fact that it's kind of such open desert terrain with no tree cover mountain sides to shield me or deflect the wind, I was getting pelted really hard, like head on and see like it seemed like no matter what direction I was going, the wind was hitting me dead on and going against me, which was so frustrating and just sucked the energy out of me.

And it reached a point where I was starting to like scream into the wind as loud as like it because no one else was around. The wind was so loud that it was stifling. As I've told everyone before, I married a psycho, but at least your my cyco. Yeah, I would definitely have a like having a psychotic moment out there in the desert, um swearing into the wind

as if that would help um. But don't don't get me wrong with the views were spectacular, especially as the trail winds along the base of this gigantic rock face. This thing looms so large, jutting directly up out of the desert floor like a massive sheer cliff. The train is mostly dry sand and rocks, but it's all dotted with small greenery like little cacti and shrubs and these spiky looking mescal plans. I love me some scale same that that made things worse because while I was out,

they're suffering. It just made me thirsty for Mescow cocktails, which were hard to find when like the mes coloring people were there, like yeah, the Native Americans, Like, I don't get it. Yeah, the visitor center should serve Mescow cocktails. That would really help me out. I needed a drink after this trail, let me tell you. But the like

all beautiful, all stunning. Unfortunately, the beauty was mostly lost in me since the wind was hitting me so hard that it was basically punching the glasses right off my face and pulling tears out of my eyes. Like I wasn't pulling tears crying, but tears were like flying out of my eyes. What is this metal in your magneto?

I don't get it. Yeah, it was an experience, and so that's happening as the trail is getting rockier and rockier and more jagged and sharp, and I literally just kept getting knocked to the ground and against the side like a rag doll being thrashed in a storm. It was crazy. I was waiting out of my almon a little rack down. This is not even the worst of it. The worst was when the trail reaches a pinnacle at this overlook um like cliff edge. There were like sand

dunes of the distance. So it's on a nice day when the wind is docile, I'm sure it's beautiful and peaceful, but it was so horrifyingly windy here at this point that I had to pretty much get into a sprint in order to even inch myself forward. It was so strong,

and I was beyond exhausted at this point. As I'm like looping around this trail curves back towards El Capitan, and it's getting narrower to make things worse, and I had to like crawl or duck down and like inched my way along the trail because I was too scared if I was standing up, I was afraid I was going to get knocked into the canyon below, like off the cliff. I just really wish I was there, because if I was there, I feel like it would be

a different story. I feel like matizing this, like, yeah, it was. It got so bad. I was just screaming and crying against my will, and I was It got to the point where, like I was, El Capitan personified my problems and I would blame it for what was happening to me in the wind and feeling like I was being destroyed, and I really felt betrayed by El Capitan. I thought it was trying to It didn't want me hiking this trail. You're just mad that El Capitan made you.

It's yeah, it definitely put me in my place, which apparently is pretty low. But eventually, I, after what seemed like forever, I rounded the kind of narrow, nightmare portion of the trail and things started to calm down and like a little bit now that I have several cuts and wounds from being thrown against the rocks. You really did? I actually, I'm like prove it, and he did, Like there was legit scrape scraps, and yeah, some of my clothes were cut, Like I got hit. I hit the

rocks enough for my clothes to get torn. It's crazy. Yeah, So the wind kind of persisted for the rest of my hig back to the trailhood, because of course it did, but it wasn't nearly as bad as like this horrible, terrifying moment. And when I finally finished this safely shut away in our rental car, my legs were jiggling like jello and my heart was pumping, and I kind of felt like my whole body had been like just thoroughly electricated or something. Yeah. But let's just yeah, that was

not moderate by any means. I can't. I'm like appalled that any guide booker trail head rates that as moderate even without the wind. That's an insane amount of like elevation gain and distance. It's it's crazy. Yeah, Normally they're pretty like overrating things, and this one was definitely underrated. This was way off, of course, I'll copa on a side. Guadala Mountains National Park isn't all nightmarish winds and near

death experiences. Fortunately, this West Texas park is is mostly a paradise for hikers and rock levers as in geology, not like genre music. Rockers can love it too. Yeah, just bringing like your headphones, I guess, um, but because you're trying to mute up my Yeah yeah sure, um but yeah, but the thing that makes this so appealing for hikers is Guada Mountains has the tallest peaks in the state of Texas, it has gypsum sand dunes, it has tons of human history, and also most fascinatingly, the

largest exposed premian reef in the world. Yeah, so that's something to chew on. Um. There's a lot to do and see and learn in Guadape Mountains. And as long as you don't foolishly ventured into the into the park and when the forecast looks like a scene from the movie Twister, like I stupidly did, we'll have a great time. Yeah, I know. For us, like Guadala Bay Mountains was actually like a two part of trip since we had the RV park at the campsite nearest Carlsbad Cavern, which is

about forty minutes away. But after a couple of days of exploring the caves, we got to spend a lot of time in Guadalupe National Park. There's just a whole new set of activities to do, especially the hiking, the part that has a lot of great hiking trails, ranging from difficult and lengthy, too easy half mile strolls by a Spring to the hardcore eleven mile trails of that vengevil Cap. I'll cuple ten. I can't even talk about that. I don't I don't want to see a captan for

the rest of my life. I can't wait to go back now. But like, yeah, like you said, like Guadaly Mountains is so close to Carlled Pod Caverns. It's a great one to punch and to do both parts. And they're about so different for as close as they are, dear graphically, their their world's apart. And that's phenomenal, phenomenal and so cool. When I first visited Galpe Mountains, it

was by myself. I was doing a little solo like three day road trip down from Albuquerque, which so we were in Albuquerque, you were selling um Britain's naple Wood Farm Maple Syrup at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Yes, this is the time when you decided to um freak out on me because we had to curb those plans to go to another event. Um. You know, it was stressful to plan this, but it worked out and we became a great team because of that. Yeah, it worked

out great. I was clearly hankering for some hiking, so as long as I had access to it, I was very very happy. And so what we decided to do was just me kind of go off my own for a few days, rent a car, drive down to Gutally Mountains, which is just a few hours south of Albuquerque. We got this key little airbnb in in Carl's Bad and so drivable and close, and then I was able to do some trails here, including the park's crown jewel and

one of my favorites, Guadalupe Peak its namesake. This is the highest peak in the park and all of Texas. That's a pretty big feat Texas, and yeah Texas is big, um, And this is the biggest mountain in Texas. I guess

it's eight thousand, seven hundred forty nine feet tall. So it's not huge compared to like a lot of Western mountains, especially in states like Colorado and California, but still very impressive and quite strenuous to do, especially since the trail is really steep and it's about nine miles round trip. But even that being said, this was a piece of cake compared to a Capitan, which all never let go

um Guada peak. The trail starts from like the same trail hud areas al Capitan, and it starts out pretty steep. In the first couple of miles especially, there are some serious switch back x that account for a majority of the elevation gain on this trail. Switch back just like ruin me because they're kind of defeating, yeah, because it's like I could just go straight up like like a mountain goat. Yeah, like a mountain goat. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

So these switchbacks kind of zig and zag off the mountainside and it's definitely rough, but the views of the valley below are amazing, and there are a bunch of points where you can see this sweeping panorama up the desert, the whole like Chwoman desert out there, and a lot of it's kind of flat once you're out of the national park, so you can see for quite a ways and it makes for a great view and it's also kind of a motivating factor to like, oh, I can

do this. It's it's great, it's beautiful. I love it. And then the tail kind of rounds them into the park around the mountain into a tranquil forests setting, which was surprising and also very welcome reprieve and a break to get into the shape aid and cool off for

a bit, also get off those awful switch backs. And then you reach the section that feels like you're almost at the top or like you're about to get to the end, and then just kidding, no, you still have a long way to go, and it's very yeah, it's

very deceiving. Yeah, it turns out. I think that area is just like there's a backcountry campground up there, and as you're getting towards the campground, it feels like you're getting to the top, and then it sucks you out and you have to go around the mountain face again and there's a whole another section which isn't too bad because it's it's not as steep as the initial parts, So as long as you can get over the first

I would say two miles. Then you're mostly in the clear as long as you have like the stamina in time and water. Of course, it's the last stretch of Gladoue Peak that gets pretty hands on. There's some scrambling, there's some rocks. Mountain, Yeah, like a mountain goat exactly and well worth the effort because you get to the top and there's this triangle shaped marker signaling the highest point in Texas. And it's a very it's a very rewarding experience if you feel like, oh, I really made it,

I actually did this, and it's it's great. I feel like I can relax now and sit down and rest my legs and have my little tuna salve bunch kit at this point of eating tuna salve in the weirdest places, to be honest, yeah, I think you have. I love those things. We're going to hear more about other trails after the short break. Hi, I'm Brad and I'm Matt,

and you're listening to park Landia today. We're talking about Guadalupe Mountains National Park and we're gonna go on our next trail, which is a little less insane than Matt's over dramatic story of al Capatan and then some others that was completely accurate my description. No it was not. Okay, maybe it was. I wasn't there. But we're gonna talk

about McKittrick Canyon Trail. We did this one together, and it's a much more level trail, you know, something that you can actually like probably run up if you wanted to. But I loved how it just went along the mountain side and there's this beautiful stream in the park. We even had to tiptoe across some rocks a few times to cross the stream. The trail was really lovely and peaceful, especially when you get out of the direct sunlight into

the shade of the canyons. Maple trees, these ones you're not able to tap, you know, that's only grown and like pretty much the northeast, But if I could, I would because that's how beautiful these trees were. I mean, there was just so full of foliage and altogether I guess this was only about five miles round trip, and it takes you to this historic Pratt Lodge Um named after Walter Pratt when who was a geologist with the

heart of gold. Yes, when an angel. Yes, we all lost for Mr Pratt Um he and his family owned about six thousand acres of land here in the canyon, and because they loved it so much as a suburb destination, they even built a cabin there which you are able to go and see to this day. Um, you can't go inside of it, but it is a beautiful place for a nitiaded picnic. Yeah, great spot for tuna stala my family. Yeah, come on every spot. You're just obsessed again,

You're obsessive and I love that about you. Yeah. Well, anyway, this guy, Walter Pratt, he eventually donated this private land to the government, allowing it to form Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and today mckitcher Canyon is one of the most popular destinations here. Thanks Walter. I know, seriously, but this guy, he wasn't the first person to discover the mountains by any means. No, no, no, definitely not. I mean, there's

evidence of humans that lived here for over ten thousand years. Um, there were definitely ancient hunter gatherers who left behind things like rock art and pottery creations. The area's main occupation was by the Mescalero Apache people. They eventually end up retreating into the mountains because of the settlers who were expanding. UM. Sadly, we've all learned that this kind of invasion before has

happened over and over and over again and UM. After a series of conflicts between the APACHE and the soldiers, most Native Americans were forced on the reservations. Yeah, really awful. UM. Settlers attempted to ranch here too at some point, but the rain is just too rugged and difficult and unforgiving. UM. One thing that they did managed to accomplish was build uh structure called free Hole a ranch. They did this

in eighteen seventy six. It's served as a residence and eventually as a community center and even a post office today. That's just as all museum with ranching history, and it serves as the entry point to a couple of the park's easiest trails, which go to Smith Spring and Mansonita Spring. Both are lovely. Yeah. I'd actually love to talk some more about the diverse terrain and trails opportunities here. There

was the Salt Basin Dunes. Yeah, I know this. It's definitely a part of the park that is very unvisited undiscovered, probably because it's really out on its own and it takes a while to get there, but it's what It's totally worth the drive. This place looks like a whole other planet entirely looks more like Death Valley honestly than Broadway Mountains. Yeah, you have to really drive a long way to get there though. I mean you have to drive outside the park and then around the southern edge

and then back into the park from the west side. Um, and then there's this like super long dirt road with you know, occasual homes and trailers and little farms with goats that look like demons from that movie you know, the which. Yeah, I know, I remember seeing like scary looking goats that I assume we're possessed by Satan. And it's good to keep driving, just keep on driving. The section is so far out of the way, and we were the only ones there were the only car in

the little parking lot, which was good. It was great, and it was fun to do that and have it all to ourselves. Really. It was a scorching hot day. The sun was blazing. We had to spray a whole bunch of sunscreen, bring water, and then take the trail into the dunes. Yeah, I mean it really wasn't much of a trail really, it was like three course of a mile through the desert until reach the sand, which is bright white color, you know, super smooth and fine.

It kind of felt like sugar. But these dunes aren't really as nassive as um the one's and like the great sand dunes you know, but they're shimmering and especially beautiful at the mountain backdrop there. It's just a little different than what I expected. Um. Yeah, very It's still diverse and you can definitely see there's a lot of wildlife and creatures. Yeah, the views were extraordinary and very unique compared to especially compared to anything else in the park.

So that was that was fun. And we got to see jack rabbits, runners, road runners, very exciting. Yeah, some serious cartoon like wildlife out there in the sand dunes. History. We should talk about the highest peak in Texas some more, because there's a lot of human history here. Um, it's fascinating to mention the fact that most of the park is actually a gigantic fossilized reef. Yeah, it's actually the largest permian what's called a permian reef in the world.

It's like the biggest and on Earth. Actually, it's kind of hard to imagine that what's now a does for environment being a tropical reef millions and millions of years ago. But this part of Texas used to be part of a shallow sea and the heart of it was this enormous reef filled with shells and spun is and all

that coral goodness. But now that the world has changed and continents have moved around and things have dried up, all of this reef, all this ancient reef is now exposed in this desert climate, and a lot of trails you can see the how the rock walls look dried up with the coral reef, and how some of the rocks you're stepping on are actually crushed remnants of the same reef. Yeah, I know, it's it's crazy, and it's especially noticeable on trails like the Premian Reef which I

mentioned earlier. You can also pick up an audio guide from the visitor center for free, and as you're walking along the trail, it will point out specific things on the route, telling you more about what the environment was like way back when when it was underwater, and highlighting the different reef portions with to the untrained I or if you're just kind of glancing over it, you would never you would not necessarily know it. You would think it's just a rock face. Or it's definitely good to

like look at all those before going on your hikes. Yeah, I totally agree. And you can also another opportunity, you can get a real good reef you vibe at the grotto section at the end of the McKittrick Canyon trail. It's an additional couple of miles past the prow Lodge where we were, But I would say you should definitely do it, especially if you want to immerse yourself more in this like reef environment. This reef setting extra. Yeah, it definitely is. It's not that hard either. It's flat

and a lot of it's shaded. And the grotto, this section, it gets its name not only from just how many of these lash shady trees there are, but also the this cave like reef wall that covers a lot of it. It's really tranquil, really unique, and it has these hillar like reef structures that dangle from the roof like stalactites. They're huge, they're kind of spiky and a little sharp, so don't like slam yourself against it, I guess, but

why would you do that? And yeah, the grotto is a really lovely place to sit down, relax and have a have a nice little picnic with my favorite food, tuna salad. You really like tuna salad. But before we go to my favorite segment of the day, we are going to take a quick break. Hi, I'm Bred and I'm Matt. You're listening to park Landia. It's that time again where we get to do one of our favorite

segments of the podcast. My favorite, Matt, what was your favorite thing to do at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas. Well, you could probably guess what my least favorite part was, and that's the damn Yeah, that's for sure not my favorite. Um, I would say that my favorite was the time that I summited Guadalupe Peak and my first time here. It was super strenuous. Well it was strenuous, hiresome, but I also just felt such a

sense of accomplishment doing that. This was at the time, one of the hardest and longest trails I had done. This was when I was really getting into more hardcore hiking and pushing myself and challenging myself, and I just felt really accomplished and really strong when I was able to finish that. And also the views were just fantastic and it was neat to be able to say that I've done to the top of Texas. So thoroughly loved that.

That is actually a really cool feat to have. I mean, yeah, mine though, was probably definitely probably definitely okay with that, probably definitely Pratt Lodge, I just loved it. I mean, you could just sit under those trees as that are like swishing back and forth, and if I had my hammock, I would literally have been in heaven. And I guess that would be my first thing is hammock and a full picnic lunch for Pratt Lodge. Um, you know, I think that this was great. And here we go with

the reacquirming thing of water because it's just Texas. It's dry and there's a lot of sun. There's not a lot of shade, so you definitely need water. And then I would definitely bring sunglasses because there's there's a reflection from the water as you're walking through. And then the sun of course, yeah, right, that's important for me. I think that three things I would bring would be a windbreaker probably, I mean concerning what I endured, I think

that what makes sense. Preferably a windbreaker that could also shield me when I'm being heaved against jagged rock would be ideal and really helpful. I would also bring I'm a queen. Yeah, no spot on um. I would also bring prescription sunglasses. It gets super bright and I needed to use I have transitional lenses, so I have there are these gigantic, obnoxious sized glasses that will dark and intent when it's in the sun, so it's just so

much fun. They're really detective and good, and I wore them a lot when I was in Glope Mountains because you're in the desert and everything is so exposed and it's not very often that you have a sufficient tree cover. And then the third thing I would bring, which you could probably guess, is my favorite lunch item, and for some reason, I I ate this everywhere in Glope Mountains is my favorite little tuna salad lunch packets. I've eaten

them all over at this point in this park. I've eating them in the Grotto Peak and I'm never allow It's just too much. Yeah. And also, speaking of snacky things that I love, I wanted to give a special shout out to Taos Mountain Bars, which we discovered at the Pine Springs visitors Center. Here a glope Mountains so good,

such a great surprise. They are literally the best. Yeah, because the park doesn't have any restaurants or cafe or anything, and we were in there do I pick up um probably a visitor guide look for like items to buy souvenirs, and the visitor center had this little cool They're stocked with these amazing locally made energy bars made just over the New Mexico border, and it's a small company. They

use high quality ingredients to make these delicious bars. And the one I had was Amanda gave I think and it was a game changer for me as someone who thought of energy bars and granola bars and stuff. I feel pretty much ruined on other energy bars I think can live up to it. And ever since then, I've been like stalking up on them at ari I stories because they're so between. Yeah, definitely, I mean, I think we need to wrap this up with our dream vacation

and what it would be. Yeah. Well, honestly, I'd be happy just come here and emerge without being bruised and bloody. That sounds like a dream to me. I'll take that. Jerome a queen. But really though, I mean, I think it'd be amazing to come here in the fall to see all the foliage. I know, I know, seriously, so bright,

so vivid. I think when most people think of foliage they think of like New England settings, which is great, but they were actually really studying maple trees in colors here, especially along all along like ke Hitch your canyon area, and especially in October when things really really really brighten. Yeah, and the temperature is definitely more comfortable at that time of the year as well. Yeah, totally. And I think it would also be really fun to stay inside the

park with o URV. There are a bunch of r V sites at the Pine Springs area by the visitor center, and surprisingly this area had good WiFi service. I remember like sitting in the parking lot and being like, oh, I can actually access internet, so we could do this. Yeah, that's actually right. That's because that's a big struggle that

we have, is the internet service. I know, big struggle and probably one of the reasons that we didn't even consider camping here because we assumed it would be not possible, but good to know for the future, and also conveniently close to a variety of trailheads and Taos Mountain bars us of course, of course, So in addition to those things those aspects, I think it would also be fun to camp here because we could star gaze at night.

It's perfect for that. We're far, far removed from any city lights, so we could just gawka the leaves by day and then by night to stare at the stars. And how lovely does that sound? It sounds really lovely. Yeah, you've been listening to the Parklandia Podcast, a show about national parks by Heart Radio, created by Matt Caro Wac, Brad Caro Wac and Christopher Hasiotas, produced and edited by

Mike John's executive produced by Christopher Hasiotas. Special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters and the rest of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on Apple podcast. It helps other people like you find our show. You can keep up with us on social media. Check out photos from our travels on Instagram at Parklandia Pod, and join in the car conversation in our Facebook group partly Indear Rangers. Thank you so much for listening.