Guadalupe Day 1

We arrived late last night and didn’t get going so quickly in the morning, and we made a stop for lunch groceries before going out to Guadalupe National Park. We arrived around 11am and the visitor center parking lot was full and they had rangers out directing folks to other places in the park.

We got directed to Frijole Ranch History Museum area. That parking lot was also full, had to park at the corral lot a mile up the road. I dropped Donna off with the lunch cooler and drove up to the corral and hiked the mile up the road. We ate lunch first, and while eating lunch some hikers finished and left the parking lot, so I hurried back and got the car.

After lunch we saw the ranch.

We then hiked the Smith Spring trail, a loop trail up to the spring and back.

Guadalupe National Park is in the Chihauhaun desert. Lots of scrub for miles around.

Agave grows for up to 20 years, then flowers once and dies.

The southern end of the Guadalupe mountain range is a cliff face named El Capitan. On the east side the rocks look like a waterfall in rock.

The Madrone tree is native to this part of Texas.

We tried to go to the visitor center, but the parking lot was still full and they were turning cars away. We parked 1/3 of a mile away at the parking lot for the Pinery Butterfield Stage Ruins and walked the trail over to the visitor center after visiting the ruins. There was a long line (30 minutes or more) to get into the visitor center. We looked around at some of the outdoor exhibits and walked back to the car.

With several hours left in the afternoon, we went to McKittrick Canyon and hiked the McKittrick Nature Trail.

We saw