The Art of the Trail - 4.2 Miles to Guadalupe Peak

View From the Top - Texas and Mexico

The highest point in Texas is Guadalupe Peak.  Located on the far end of an ancient coral reef that became a mountain range.  Rising 3000 ft above the permian basin, Guadelupe Peak tops out at 8752 ft.

The hike to the peak is 8.4 miles round trip.  Climbers ascend the 3000 ft in 4 miles, making it a strenous hike that hundreds of people walk each year.  To some it's an easy day hike, to others it's the opportunity to hike the highest peak in their state, to some it's a religious pilgrimage. To S. D. and I, it was just one of the many trails we had to hike while volunteering at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  What it unexpectedly turned out to be also was a day of trail building appreciation.  I have never hiked a more artfully constructed trail. It is beautiful!

First off there is the design/route of the actual trail. This trail isn't used only by avid hikers. 

There's even a bridge - 3 miles up

Many of the folks we saw didn't look like they had ever walked 8.4 miles, let alone up a mountain. We assumed some were climbing for the bragging rights.  Then there was a very frail woman and her family that we met near the summit.  They, like others, climbed (or rather inched their way up ) Guadalupe as a religous pilgramage. The mountain is named after our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image can be seen in the mountain's profile. Climbing the mountain, it is believed, bestows blessings on the pilgrims. The shear numbes of hikers provides a challenge for the trail designers; how to construct a trail up and around the sides of a very steep mountain that is walkable, sustainable and able to stand up to the impacts of all those hikers. The answer - a two person-wide width trail with well constructed steps (when necessary), and lots of gentle switchbacks.

Trail Through the Forest

The second amazing thing about the trail are the views. This is one of those trails where every foot up (or down) is breathtaking, and every 1/2 mile or so, completely different. The trail seems designed to highlight each and every one of those views and ecosystems. On the way up you first rise up through Pine Canyon with ever expanding views to the East and over the Chihusha desert. By the beginning of the second mile the trail switchbacks through a wonderfully cool Pine Forest then through a small pass and meadow. Then it's up over a short rise and the views for the last mile are now to the West, out over El Capitan.  The Peak view is 360 degrees out over New Mexico, Mexico and Texas.

As S.D. likes to say "hiking up the mountain is hard on your lung, hiking down is hard on your knees." Not so much on this trail. Going down is just as gentle as a 3000 ft descent can possible be, and since we're weren't sucking wind, we had even more time to appreciate the views and the trail.