Day 35: Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains

 Saturday, Oct 8, 2022

I started today an intense sprint of visiting 7 national parks in 6 days. This cluster of parks is spread over New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Arizona.  Went to 2 national parks today - Carlsbad Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountains. 

From my AirBnb in Carlsbad it was a short drive to Carlsbad Caverns. I reached just in time before my timed entry ticket lapsed, at 9:30am,  and started on my self-guided tour of the Natural Entrance Trail and Big Room Trail in the caves. This is an amazing place, a fantasy land underground, simply breathtaking. The caves are massive, but the highlight is the never ending display of stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, and other formations.

This is the fourth "Caves" national park I have visited in this road trip and Carlsbad Caverns one was the best. 

Normally I associate national parks with big mountains, but exploring the underground marvels was a fascinating experience. They still provide plenty of hiking trails, but in a dark and mysterious space.

 Next up was Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, a short drive away. The weather was completely overcast when I reached there.  

I planned to do the Guadalupe Peak Texas Highpoint Trail, a tough 9 mile, 3000 feet climb to the to top of the highest peak in Texas.  The ranger at the visitor center asked me to be prepared for rain that was likely during the afternoon.  The trail started out with beautiful yellow flowers, as if welcoming me on the hike.

 

 

It was a long, grueling, uphill climb for over 3 hours.  The visibility got gradually worse due to the clouds and fog.  It also started raining as I got closer to the peak, making climbing over the slick rocks quite difficult. 

I met a woman hiker from Texas who had dreamed of reaching this peak ever since she learned about it in school.  On the way back down the trail, she tripped and fell on her knee which got bruised. I helped with the first aid and encouraged her to get her confidence back to keep going.  I accompanied her back to the trailhead to make sure she did ok. It was slow going and it took an extra hour but it felt good to help a fellow hiker.

 By the time we reached the parking lot, it was already dark. She was happy to have made it back to her car safely. I headed out of the park to continue my drive to El Paso, Texas. 

I reached my AirBnb quite late, tired and exhausted. I checked my phone for the steps for the day and realized that it had been the highest for the trip.

The raw numbers for the day:

• 190 miles driving, 33800 steps walking
• 1 Tesla supercharger stop
  
• 2 states - New Mexico, Texas