G.A.S.P.

The next day (1-9) was just a little ride down the road (called the National Parks Highway) to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.  As I planned my journey, this looked like a very easy day – about 45 miles including an eight-mile side trip to McKittrick Canyon (within the Park), considered by some to be “the most beautiful spot in Texas”.  Execution, however, was another matter.  I had spent some of the previous night listening to the wind rattle my tent, and wondering how it would feel to ride against it.  I found out right after I left the campground and headed southwest.  I spent the next seven hours going right into the teeth of a 20 – 40 mph wind, and arrived (nearly exhausted) at the Visitor Center and campground just before 4:30 (without having taken the side trip to McKittrick Canyon).  So much for “the most beautiful spot in Texas.”   I checked the wind gauge at the Visitor Center and noted a wind direction of west to southwest and a wind speed of 24 to 35 mph.

I headed off to the campground, not even sure that I would be able to set up my tent, but found that they have great dirt at the campsites.  It’s soft enough to push in a tent peg, but firm enough that the wind couldn’t cause the tent to pull it back out.  I went to bed early (nothing else to do) and spent a portion of the night listening to the wind rattle my tent and wondering how it would feel to ride against it tomorrow when I had 65 miles to go to Van Horn.

I took a number of photos of the Guadalupe Mountains as I approached from White’s City (needed those rest breaks anyway).  I could easily see El Capitan, the last peak in the chain, and its neighbor Guadalupe Peak (8749’), the highest point in Texas, from my campground of the previous night.  Other than missing McKittrick Canyon (which I really do regret), I saw just about all of the Park that one can see without backpacking or taking a four-wheel drive vehicle.  The mountains that are visible from the highway are nice, but not spectacular.  I saw some photos of the backcountry, however, that were beautiful – much forested (Ponderosa Pine, Southwestern White Pine, Douglas Fir and Aspen) land up there on top of the mountains.  Also, McKittrick Canyon has maple, ash, oak and walnut trees that offer brilliant autumn color against the rock faces of the mountains.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies at one end of the same 400 mile long reef that is responsible for the formation of Carlsbad Caverns.  This reef is considered one of the finest examples of an ancient marine fossil reef on Earth, and geologists from around the world have long explored its remains.  Over millions of years, calcareous sponges, algae and other lime-secreting marine organisms built up the 400-mile long horseshoe-shaped reef now known as the Capitan Reef.  Millions of years ago, the sea retreated and the reef was gradually buried under a thick layer of sediment where it remained until mountain building began to uplift the area about 10 million years ago.  Today, the ancient reef is partially exposed as the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas and New Mexico, the Apache Mountains near Van Horn, Texas, and the Glass Mountains near Alpine, Texas.

In the 1930s, a geologist named Wallace Pratt purchased land in McKittrick Canyon, which he then donated to the National Park Service in 1959 “to be protected and enjoyed by others.”  Over the next few years, the NPS purchased additional land, and in 1972 Guadalupe Mountains National Park was created by an act of Congress.