Guadalupe - Foothill/Frijole Loop

with a side trip to Manzanita and Smith Springs turning it into a figure eight hike.

After our strenuous hike on Thursday to the top of Guadalupe Peak, we wanted a more restful hike on Friday. However, we did all the easy hikes last year on our "sneak peek" so all the remaining hikes on the list were long ones! (See here and here and here.) Our feet were sore, but not super bad, and there were a couple of hikes without huge changes in elevation, so we selected on of them - the Foothill/Frijole Loop - and started walking. 

This hike started from the Pine Springs trailhead and followed the Tejas Trail along the riverbed. At the junction with the Frijole Trail, we climbed out of the riverbed and headed on our route in the foothills of the magnificent Guadalupe Range. We reached the junction with Bear Canyon and were grateful we weren't climbing that trail! (Although we did several days later.)

We were still feeling pretty good at the intersection with the Springs Loop, so we decided to add that to this day's hike and not have to worry about coming back to do it. It was amazing to find beautiful pockets of water in the middle of the desert. We were even able to take some time and explore the yard of the Frijole Ranch. (The house itself was closed and locked.) I don't think I would have enjoyed living there 100 years ago; I'm glad to live in the 21st century. Then we returned back to our campsite by taking the Foothill Trail.

This hike was finished by early afternoon. So that we could get an early start on Saturday, we drove into Carlsbad to replace the two back tires on the van. (About 100 miles before reaching Carlsbad earlier in the week we realized the inside of tires was separating - same symptom when that happened on a drive to Tennessee a few years ago. We took them in for inspection, but they didn't have our tire size in stock. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to order them, and we were assured that we could drive another 100 miles on the old ones. The mechanic was correct, but it still caused some anxiety to me.) Being back in civilization allowed us to take care of email and recharge our phones, so that was a plus!