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Guadalupe Mountains National Park is home to the world’s most extensive Permian fossil reef, the four highest points in Texas, various ecosystems, and historic stories of bloodshed and survival all waiting to be explored. From forested mountains and desert dunes, Guadalupe Mountains offer various ways to explore the area through hours of hiking and backpacking trails not for the faint of heart, or via beautiful settings of flora and wildlife within reach of families.
This national park is one of the most unique in the United States as it allows visitors to explore different environments within the underrated desert of West Texas.
Traveler's Choice For: Rugged backcountry exploration, photography, birding, history
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located on the north side of US Hwy 62/180. If you are driving, it’s 110 miles (177 km) east of El Paso, Texas, 56 miles (90 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico, or 62 miles (100 km) north of Van Horn, Texas, on Hwy 54.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is much more than hiking trails in the Chihuahuan desert; it is a park with more than 10,000 years of human history.
Along with its rugged beauty, the Guadalupe Mountains long provided valuable natural resources to native cultures and to 19th and early 20th century settlers. The Salt Flats, a mineral flat left behind by a shallow lake that existed nearly 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch, was a ready source of salt.
Between 251 – 299 million years ago, during the Permian period of geologic time, all the continents on Earth were joined together to form the supercontinent of Pangea.
From the hot Chihuahuan desert to the mountaintop forests of pine and fir and streamside woodlands filled with oaks and maples, the Guadalupe Mountains host a variety of diverse ecosystems.
Even though the entrance to Guadalupe Mountains National Park is just off a busy highway, the park is still fairly isolated and there is no available in-park lodging. There are, however, three developed campgrounds open year-round for tent/RV camping.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park covers 135 miles (217 km) and is part of the ancient horseshoe-shaped Captain Reef that formed beneath a tropical ocean about 250 million years ago. Within this rugged and varied landscape, you have more than 80 miles (129 km) of marked trails from easy to strenuous, providing countless miles of landscape to explore on foot.
To help you get the most out of this national park that’s close to a busy highway but still feels like it’s out in the middle of nowhere, here is the Traveler’s Checklist for touring Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
This is where you can find things such as websites, helpful phone numbers, friends groups and cooperating associations, and, sometimes, books relating to the park.
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Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.
Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.
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