Out of the dry, dusty Chihuahuan desert, rise these huge rock mountains. They sort of look like a red Yosemite! If you hike up into the canyons, you find springs that just “spring” out of the hillside. So there are cacti everywhere, dry and dusty(and rocky) trails, and then a copse of trees. Mostly cottonwood and desert Juniper. It is a very different kind of place. We saw them on our way to Carlsbad from El Paso, ,so we came back to them to see what we could find. Besides, Cherie and Eric had visited and told us they were pretty special!
Guadalupe NP is celebrating its 50th birthday this year, so of course we had to buy a commemorative t-shirt so we can remember that! The park itself is fairly big but there is very limited access without going into backcountry camping. Which I am no longer interested in doing. I like me a potty even if it is a pit toilet! It was nice however, in that it was not overly busy on our ”moderate” trails. We saw someone occasionally but not frequently.
This park’s visitor’s centers also were not open for seeing the displays, only the store aspect was open; however there were rangers available inside the store to answer questions. But the store at GNP was so small, we had to wait for about 7-8 minutes to get in. They are still using the COVID-19 protocols we found last fall. Most of the visitor’s centers we have been to have not been that shut down. And FYI- we went to check out the campgrounds and they were muy no bueno! Actually the tent sites were sort of OK (very close together and not very many) but the RV sites were simply parking spaces in a parking lot. No amenities at all but you could walk to the tent side pit toilet. Boo…