Late afternoon sun over El Capitan, Guadalupe Mountains National Park / Rebecca Latson
Contributing photographer and writer for the National Parks Traveler since 2012, Rebecca Latson has ventured out to units of the U.S. National Park System, as well as national parks within Canada, on behalf of the Traveler. With her writing and photography, Rebecca authors the Traveler's monthly Photography In The National Parks column as well as various other national park-related articles (hiking, itineraries, photography guides, quizzes) for the Traveler.
As you approach Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas from the south, one of the first things catching your eye after an hour of driving up from El Paso, Texas, is the southernmost point of the Guadalupe Mountains known as El Capitan (“The Captain,” or “The Chief”). This hunk of ancient Permian fossil reef juts high above the atmospheric haze, heralding your approach to this national park, home to the four highest points in Texas, extremes in habitats ranging from gypsum dunes to forests of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, one of the finest examples of an ancient reef complex on earth, and a history of settlers and ranchers, bloodshed and politics.
This park offers 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) of hiking trails ranging from an easy paved walk near the Pine Springs Visitor Center to a challenging ascent to the summit of the highest natural point in Texas. You can explore the gypsum sand dunes at Salt Basin Dunes, wonder over the rich diversity of McKittrick Canyon’s riparian oasis, and wander the museum at historic Frijole Ranch. If you really want to get away from it all, you can hike into the backcountry for a few days of solitude and stunning landscape. Bring your binoculars and camera to capture one or more of the 275 confirmed bird species known within the park. You might also spy a coyote, jackrabbit, mule deer, lizard, or rattlesnake (be careful out there).
This national park is one of the most unique in the United States, allowing visitors to explore different environments within the underrated desert of West Texas. The pages below will help you with your preparations and explorations.
Traveler's Choice For: Rugged backcountry, geology, 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 kilometers) east of El Paso, Texas, 56 miles (90 kilometers) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico, or 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Van Horn, Texas, on Hwy 54.
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.
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.
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Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.
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