B & D's USA Hideout: Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

Directly north and about four hours away from Big Bend stand the Guadalupe Mountains. Amazingly enough, they were once under water and not mountains but a coral reef. Way back when all the continents were smushed together as Pangea, the supercontinent, there was a massive inland sea, the Delaware Sea, that covered most of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The sea eventually dried up as the plates shifted and the connection from the sea to the ocean surrounding Pangea was closed off. Then as the supercontinent continued to change and tectonic compression occurred, the reef was slowly uplifted. Now the Guadalupe Mountains are home to the highest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak.

Brian and I drove out of the backcountry of the Chihuahuan Desert in Big Bend and up to these mountains on the Texas/New Mexico border. We geared up for a 8.4 mile roundtrip hike to the top of Texas, Guadalupe Peak, the next morning. We were early to bed and early to rise. We ate a hearty breakfast and by 07:15 we were on the trail and gaining elevation. Guadalupe peak is 8,751 feet and we climbed each one up and back before noon. It was extremely windy at the top so we each woofed down half a sandwich and headed back to the base.

Brian and I were saying how we thought that camping would be more of a social aspect for us than it actually has. Mostly because we move around so much and whatnot. But on the contrary to this, we always meet some interesting people on the trail. Today we talked to a gentleman who was climbing the highest peak in each state, today being his 20th summit of this category. Very cool.

After a cold beer and a quick clean-up, we said adios to the mountains and made a quick trek over state lines to visit the Carlsbad Caverns.