Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Unlike last year's national park, this year's did have a campground, so we planned a road trip to Texas (and then Utah and Virginia!), loaded our equipment into the van, and set off on a great adventure. After a quick visit to see family in the Dallas area, and an overnight stay in Carlsbad, we arrived at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and set up camp at the Pine Springs Campground.
I did my research and learned that none of the sites at this tents-only campground had pull-in parking. However, while most of them were true walk-in sites, there were a few that had their own "curb-side" parking, and, fortunately, the one with a tent pad large enough for our tent was still available for the week we would be there. Site #14 turned out to be perfect for our needs. It even had a lone tree to provide a bit of shade, which was nice because there wasn't room to erect our screen tent.
Once we were all settled, it was time check out the visitor's center (which didn't take long since we had visited there previously) and then to start hiking and exploring! Over the course of our week there, we hiked just over 50 miles. Some days were sunny and others cloudy and a couple brought rain. (Fortunately, though, we managed to complete our hikes on those days before any rain arrived.) Every day was windy!
- Wednesday - Devil's Hall - 4.34 miles
- Thursday - Guadalupe Peak - 9.87 miles
- Friday - Frijole/Foothills/Springs Loops - 8.61 miles
- Saturday - McKittrick Canyon - 7.65 miles
- Sunday - Salt Basin Dunes - 3.09 miles
- Monday - Permian Reef Trail - 9.62 miles
- Tuesday - Hunter Peak - 8.97 miles
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