Guadalupe - Permian Reef

 

In my research before this camping trip I read several blogs and articles. One of them said if you only have time to climb one peak, hike to Hunter Peak instead of Guadalupe Peak. It's less crowded on the trail and has better views. We had more than one day, so we did hike Guadalupe Peak, but I also wanted to hike Hunter Peak as well. Another article talked about choosing between the McKittrick Canyon and Permian Reef trails and said the Permian Reef was a better hike. It's also a longer, more strenuous hike, so we chose to do the canyon one first. We were a bit concerned about doing back-to-back long, difficult hikes so needed to choose between Hunter Peak and Permian Reef in case we hurt too much to do the second one. Because Permian Reef was actually listed in our "Day Hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park" book and Hunter Peak was not, we decided to do that one first. How do you like that long explanation? 

It turns out this may actually have been our favorite hike of the week. It was difficult! However, there were gorgeous views every step of the way. The weather was delightful and the solitude was awesome. (We saw a total of three other people on the trail. The McKittrick Canyon Trail we did earlier had dozens if not hundreds of fellow hikers.) We highly recommend this hike if you're ever in the area.