March 18th and 19th, 2008: Simon Brewer and Anna Morrell took a little trip to southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I had planned this trip since January for this week. My ultimate goal was to climb Guadalupe Peak in the Guadalupe Mountains Nat. Park, which is the highest point in Texas. I knew at least one day this week would give me fair weather conditions for climbing, so I pretty much took the whole week off in advance hoping to squeeze a storm chase in with the trip. The whole week turned out well; I chased near Abilene on the 17th, and stayed the night in Big Spring, TX. The 18th, 19th, and 20th looked like great weather, so I decided to hit Carlsbad Caverns National Park on the 18th and then camp in the Guadalupe Mountains Nat. Park that night and wake up early to climb Guatalupe Peak the following morning on the 19th.

The 2 pics on the right show the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and some of the dessert flora in the park. The park is amazing with the main road winding through a canyon and beautiful dessert scenery. The main road winds up the canyon walls and ends up over 4,000 ft in elevation at the visitor center, which was under heavy construction at the time. We arrived too late to walk through the 'Natural Cave Entrance', where bats fly in and out, so we took an elevator down into the cave. The elevator is amazing, because it decends over 700 ft into into the mountain to reach the cave.

The we walked a mile-plus section of the cave, which was amazing! It was a very large cave like 'Mammoth Cave' in Kentucky, but it many more stalactites and stalagmites. I took these pics by resting my camera on a small rag on top of a small stone wall, which lined the path through the cave. I left the shutter open for 25 to 30 seconds to get enough light to see the cave. The trail can be seen in the pics by looking for the metal hand rails.

The pics on the right show more formations in the cave.

After we left the Caverns we drove southwest to the Guadalupe Nat. Park. We intended on camping in the park, but all the camp sites were full, so we paid for an RV spot and slept in the car.

We woke up early and were on the Guadalupe Peak trail by 10:15 am. The skies were crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and there was little if no wind. The trail is pretty strenuous, 8.4 miles roundtrip with 3,000 ft of elevation gain, and ends at the top of Texas at 8,749 ft! Everything I read stated the average roundtrip hiking time of 6-8 hours, but we took a few breaks and spent 45 minutes on top of the peak and still made it back down in less than 6 hours. Here is a link to an webpage from the National Parks Service describing the trail in detail: http://www.nps.gov/gumo/planyourvisit/trails.htm

The pic on the left shows one of the entrance signs to the park with Hunter Peak (8,368 ft) being the big mountain on the left in the background. The pic on the right is from the southeastern corner of the park looking northwest at El Capitan (8,085 ft) and Guadalupe Peak (8,749 ft). El Capitan in the mountain on the left (it looks bigger, because it is closer to my camera location) Guadalupe Peak is actually barely seen behind and to the right of El Capitan.

The pic on the left is from the east looking west at the Guadalupe Mountains. Guadalupe Peak is easier to see as the tall ridge just to the right of El Capitan, which is the big cliff covered mountain on the far right. The pic on the right is a 'cactus tree' (not actual name of the plant, but it was a cactus-type plant with a bark-covered trunk) with Hunter Peak in the back ground.

The pic on the left shows a sign for the park near the visitor center. The pic on the right is on SR 62 on the northwestern boundary of the park looking west at Frijole Ridge, which runs northeast of Hunter Peak. I can't explain the beauty of this region; I try to show it in my pictures, but I'm an amateur photographer at best, so my pics don't do this place justice.

It was a full moon with clear skies and I was antsy the night before the climb, so I crept out of the car, set up my tripod in the parking lot, and snapped a few night shots of the mountains. The pic on the left shows part of Hunter Peak illuminated by moonlight (moon was over my shoulder) with lots of stars above the mountain. The next day I took hundreds of pics on the way up Guadalupe Peak, so I'll add those to the site over the summer when I have lots of free time. The pic on the right shows a view to the south looking at El Capitan; I was almost on top of Guadalupe Peak at the time of this picture.

The pic on the right is the top of Texas; steel pyramid marker from American Airlines built in 1958, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Butterfield Stage (source: summitpost.org). El Capitan looks small in the background.

Some people feel the steel marker is an eyesore, which is a blemish to the natural beauty of the mountain. I disagree, I think every state highpoint should have some sort of marker, because a U.S. State is merely a geographic region designated by humans, so why not have a man-made (or woman-made) marker to leave our small imprint on geology kind of like a fossil.

Anna and I climbed to the top of Texas, but with clear skies all day we neglected sunscreen, so we had severe sunburns on our faces and ears. We wanted to go visit White Sands National Monument on the 20th, but thought better of it due to our sunburns and decided to just go back to Norman, OK.

I will add more pics over the summer of 2008 when I have more free time.