Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Guadalupe Mountains Natl Park, TX - Oct 18-19
This is a place we have always wanted to visit, and now it's a place we will always enjoy returning to. It has wonderful & interesting hiking trails and some long scenic drives. The RV camping is a paved asphalt area (tent camping is more attractive), but the views are spectacular. The area has been described as "the most beautiful in Texas" and we have no argument with that statement. 
The Guadalupe Mtns are remnants of an ancient 400-mile-long, horseshoe-shaped marine fossil reef, the largest in the world, which also forms Carlsbad Caverns, as well as the Apache and Glass Mtns in Texas.An afternoon hike the day we arrived took us past the Visitor Center, along an informative Nature Trail to "The Pinery", ruins of a Butterfield Stage station.
The next day we took an all-day hike to Devil's Hall, a tall, narrow cut in the rock with straight vertical sides. The scenery and vegetation along the way were spectacular, and as an added bonus we saw a number of rufous-crowned sparrows -- a lifer for both of us. 
The canyon in which we hiked most of the way had many oaks and maples that were just starting to turn lovely fall colors.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 8:17 PM 
