Guadalupe Mountains

8–9th Feb

We drove 60 miles south of Carlsbad to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park which took us back into Texas.  The Guadalupe Peak is 8749ft and was a tempting challenge but the Rangers advised against such a climb as high winds were expected over the weekend (55mph with gusts up to 80mph). 

So we set up camp at the base of the Mountains and then spent Friday afternoon walking up the Devil’s Hall Trail with The Natural Steps at the far end of the canyon. 

We saw some Mule Deer on the walk back. (Mule Deer are like ordinary deer but with large ears, like a mule).

 

At night the place was really dark and the sky was full of stars.  One fellow camper was sleeping in the back of his pick-up truck – we didn’t envy him as the temperature dropped.

 
Saturday we saw several different groups of people setting off for The Peak and as it was such a lovely sunny day we were a little tempted to try; but we’ve experienced horizontal rain at the top of a Welsh Mountain so don’t feel the need to prove anything to ourselves any more. 

We drove up the road to McKittrick Canyon and walked up to Pratt Cabin, a trail of about 2.5 miles.  It was a delightful area with water running in the creek; sometimes going below the ground.  There was a considerable variety of vegetation including trees and cacti.  We are still in the Chihuahua Desert and although this may not be the best time of year to see the canyon you could imagine what an oasis this must seem in the summer time, in the middle of the desert.

 

We had lunch on the cabin porch listening to the wind in the mountain tops.  As we walked back down the trail the mountains gradually started to disappear from view. Upon arriving back at the car park we realised it was dust in the air as the winds whistled around, once we were out of the shelter of the canyon.  We were really glad we had taken the Rangers advice on which Trails to do this weekend!

As we drove back to the camp site the mountain range was all but obliterated from view by the dust and the car was buffeted about.  Back in the RV the winds had forced in debris such as leaves and dust.  Doors and draws had been flung open and the (3lb) fruit bowl knocked on the floor.  It wasn’t until the morning that we discovered we had also lost one of the Air Conditioning roof covers and two of the vent covers were loose as well.

We noted other hikers coming back from the trips, including the guy on his own who had driven off in his truck.  However there were two vehicles still in the car park when it got dark.

We brought the slides back in to reduce the profile of the RV and then sat out the night listening to the wind howling and shaking the motorhome.

 

Next morning things had quietened down but it was only just above freezing.  The two cars were still parked with no-one around.  We then spotted a Ranger setting off to hike up the mountain.  We presumed this was not a task he would do for the sake of it and assumed he was going in search of the car owners …….. who were still up the mountain?