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Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located south of Carlsbad New Mexico and north of Pecos Texas. The Guadalupe Mountains are a little known and infrequently visited natural history treasure. Guadalupe Mountains NP contains the highest point in Texas - Guadalupe Peak, elevation 8,749 ft. above sea level. Looming above the west Texas desert, the Guadalupe Mountains are comprised of fossiliferous Permian limestone. This rugged national park is not an RV tourist park. The limited and rugged park roads essentially provide access to the various trailheads.. Backpackers will find over 80 miles of hiking trails within the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The nearest commercial air service to Guadalupe Mountains National Park is El Paso, Texas about 110 miles away. Many less adventurous travelers will probably plan to take advantage of the more civilized camping and motels located near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an ecological transition zone between the high Chihuahuan Dessert, like that found in the high Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park, and the southern Rocky Mountains. In fall McKittrick Canyon is ablaze with color.
Guadalupe Mountains History
Archaeologists estimate this area has been inhabited for 10,000 years or longer. Evidence of prehistorical occupancy is found widely throughout Guadalupe Mountains National Park as well as the areas of the Guadalupe Mountains ranging to the northeast into New Mexico and in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Native projectile points and other artifacts cannot be collected within the area of the national parks but can be examined where found and at the visitor centers. There are also petroglyphs and pictographs scatter throughout these areas. Very little information is available regarding these prehistorical peoples. Early Spanish explorers and colonists to New Mexico record inhabitation of the Guadalupe Mountains area by the Mescalero Apaches around the early 1500s. Apaches dominated this lush area with plentiful water and game until the advent of Anglo settlers. The Butterfield Overland Mail Stage ran through Guadalupe Pass for eleven months before the route was changed southwards to the line of forts between Fort Stockton and El Paso. Highway 60/180 follows the old Butterland Stage route. Following the Civil War the area was assigned to elements of the Tenth Calvary Regiment or the famous Buffalo Soldiers. Skirmishes and counter skirmishes between the Apaches and US calvary culminated in the removal of the last of the Mescalero people by the late 1800s. The area was then occupied by a number of ranchers and other settlers. Lands outside the park were quickly depleted of native grasses and game. McKittrick Canyon was named for Captain Felix McKittrick who ranched at the foot of the canyon from 1869. The national park was established September 30, 1972.Guadalupe Mountains Natural History
The Guadalupe Mountains were formed from uplift of limestone rock that were formerly a massive marine reef on the Permian Sea existing approximately 250 million years ago. Guadalupe Mountains National Park encompasses one of the best preserved examples of a Permian marine fossil reef found anywhere. It is thought that this marine reef paralled the Permian Sea shore for about 400 miles. These reefs were later covered by sediment for millions of years following the disappearance of the Permian sea and only resurfaced around 26 million years ago following massive uplift of the limestone rock.
Due to the rugged
terrain differing in elevation from 3,300 to over
8,000 feet above sea level and the presence of water in the form of
numerous springs and McKittrick Creek, Guadalupe Mountains National
Park provides a variety of habitat supporting diverse wildlife.
Ecosystems include the desert lowlands, mountain forests, and riparian
woodlands along the creek and various transitions zones. Park
headquarters at Pine Canyon is 5,700 feet above sea level. The park
bird list contains 303 species and 90 or more year round residents.
Maple, oak and Texas madrone trees are found at the middle elevations
with white and ponderosa pines found within the Bowl. Mule deer are
common at the lower elevations and are most frequently seen along the
highway through Guadalupe Pass. Mountain lions and black bear are
almost never seen except via scat and other signs but still exist with
the higher elevations. A small American elk herd also exists, the
decendents of ones introduced by a rancher in the 1920s.